fresh killed, the contrast of the vivid "blue with the rich
colours of the plumage is remarkably striking and beautiful.
The lovely Eastern trogons, with their rich brown
backs, beautifully pencilled wings, and crimson breasts,
were also soon obtained, as well as the large green barbeta
(Megalaema versicolor)—fruit-eating birds, something like
small toucans, with a short, straight bristly bill, and whose
head and neck are variegated with patches of the most vivid
blue and crimson. A day or two after, my hunter brought
me a specimen of the green gaper (Calyptomena viridis),
which is like a small cock-of-the-roek, but entirely of the
most vivid green, delicately marked on the wings with
black bars. Handsome woodpeckers and gay kingfishers,
green and brown cuckoos with velvety red faces and green
beaks, red-breasted doves and metallic honeysuckers, were
brought in day after day, and kept me in a continual state
of pleasurable excitement. After a fortnight one of my
servants was seized with fever, and on returning to
Malacca, the same disease attacked the other as well as
myself. By a liberal use of quinine, I soon recovered, and
obtaining other men, went to stay at the Government bungalow
of Ayer-panas, accompanied by a young gentleman,
a native of the place, who had a taste for natural history.
At Ayer-panas we had a comfortable house to stay in,
and plenty of room to dry and preserve our specimens;
but, owing to there being no industrious Chinese to cut
down timber, insects were comparatively scarce, with the
exception of butterflies, of which I formed a very fine
collection. The manner in which I obtained one fine
insect was curious, and indicates how fragmentary and
imperfect a traveller’s collection must necessarily be. I
was one afternoon walking along a favourite road through
the forest, with my gun, when I saw a butterfly on the
ground. It was large, handsome, and quite new to me,
and I got close to it before it flew away. I then observed
that it had been settling on the dung of some
carnivorous animal. Thinking it might return to the
same spot, I next day after breakfast took my net,
and as I approached the place was delighted to see the
same butterfly sitting on the same piece of dung, and
succeeded in capturing it. It was an entirely new species
of great beauty, and has been named by Mr. Hewitson
Kymphalis calydona. I never saw another specimen of
it, and it was only after twelve years had elapsed that
a second individual reached this country from the northwestern
part of Borneo.
Having determined to visit Mount Ophir, which is
situated in the middle of the peninsula about fifty miles
east of Malacca, we engaged six Malays to accompany us
and carry our baggage. As We meant to stay at least a
week at the mountain, we took with us a good supply of
rice, a little biscuit butter and coffee, some dried fish and