During the two days that we remained here, I walked
out into the surrounding country to catch insects, shoot
birds, and spy out the nakedness or fertility of the land.
I was both astonished and delighted; for as my visit to
Java was some years later, I had never beheld so beautiful
and well cultivated a district out of Europe. A slightly
undulating plain extends from the sea-coast about ten
or twelve miles inland, where it is bounded by a fine
range of wooded and cultivated hills. Houses and villages,
marked out by dense clumps of cocoa-nut palms, tamarind
and other fruit trees, are dotted about in every direction ;
while between them extend luxuriant rice-grounds, watered
by an elaborate system of irrigation that would be the
pride of the best cultivated parts of Europe. The whole
surface of the country is divided into irregular patches,
following the undulations of the ground, from many acres
f to a few perches in extent, each of which is itself perfectly
level, but stands a few inches or several feet above or below
those adjacent to it. Every one of these patches can be
flooded or drained at will, by means of a system of ditches
and small channels, into which are diverted the whole of
the streams that descend from the mountains. Every patch
now bore crops in various stages of growth, some almost
ready for cutting, and all in the most flourishing condition
and of the most exquisite green tints.
The sides of the lanes and bridle roads were often edged
with prickly Cacti and a leafless Euphorbia, but the
country being so highly cultivated there was not much
room for indigenous vegetation, except upon the sea-beach.
We saw plenty of the fine race of domestic cattle descended
from the Bos banteng of Java, driven by half-naked boys,
or tethered in pasture-grounds. They are large and. handsome
animals, of a light brown colour, with white legs,
and a conspicuous oval patch behind of the same colour.
Wild cattle of the same race are said to be still found
in the mountains. In so well-cultivated a country it was
not to be expected that I could do much in natural history,
and my ignorance of how important a locality this was
for the elucidation of the geographical distribution of
animals, caused me to neglect obtaining some specimens
which I never met with again. One of these was a weaver
bird with a bright yellow head, which built its bottleshaped
nests by dozens on some trees near the beach.
It was the Ploceus hypoxantha, a native of Java; and
here, at the extreme limits of its range westerly. I shot
and preserved specimens of a wagtail-thrush, an oriole,
and some starlings, all species found in Java, and some
of them peculiar to that island. I also obtained some
beautiful butterflies, richly marked with black and orange
on a white ground, and which were the most abundant
insects in the country lanes. Among these was a new
species, which I have named Pieris tamar.