beetles (Calandra) are regularly brought to market in bamboos,
and sold for food; and many of the great horned
Lamellieorn beetles are slightly roasted on the embers and
eaten whenever met with. The superabundance of insect
life is therefore turned to some account by these islanders.
Finding that birds were not very numerous, and
hearing much of Labuan Tring at the southern extremity
of the bay, where there was said to be much uncultivated
country and plenty of birds as well as deer and wild
pigs, I determined to go there with my two servants, Ali,
the Malay lad from Borneo, and Manuel, a Portuguese of
Malacca accustomed to bird-skinning. I hired a native
boat with outriggers, to take us with our small quantity
of luggage, and a dtfy’s rowing and tracking along the
shore brought us to the place.
I had a note of introduction to an Amboynese Malay,
and obtained the use of part of his house to live and work
in. His name was “ Inchi Daud ” (Mr. David), and he was
very civil; but his accommodations were limited, and he
could only give me part of his reception-room. This was
the front part of a bamboo house (reached by a ladder of
about six rounds very wide apart), and having a beautiful
view over the.bay. However, I soon made what arrangements
were possible, and then set to work. The country
around was pretty and novel to me, consisting of abrupt
volcanic hills enclosing flat valleys or; open plains. The
hills were covered with a dense scrubby bush of bamboos
and prickly trees and shrubs, the plains were adorned with
hundreds of noble palm-trees, and in many places- with
a luxuriant shrubby vegetation. Birds were plentiful and
very interesting, and I now saw for the first time many
Australian forms that are quite absent from the islands
westward. Small white cockatoos were abundant, and
their loud screams, conspicuous white colour, and pretty
yellow crests, rendered them a very important feature in
the landscape. This is the most westerly point on the
globe where any of the family are to be found. Some
small honeysuckers of the genus Ptilotis, and the strange
mound-maker (Megapodius gouldii), are also here first
met with on the traveller’s journey eastward. The last-
mentioned bird requires a fuller notice.
The Megapodidee are a small family of birds found only
in Australia and the surrounding islands, but extending as
far as the Philippines and North-west Borneo. They are
allied to the gallinaceous birds, but differ from these and
from all others in never sitting upon their eggs, which they
bury in sand, earth, or rubbish, and leave to be hatched by
the heat of the sun or of fermentation. They are all
characterised by very large feet and long curved claws,
and most of the species qf Megapodius rake and scratch
together all kinds of rubbish, dead leaves, sticks, stones,
earth, rotten wood', &c., till they form a large mound, often
R 2