Ornithology of Borneo. 247 



goose. If well fed^ however, tliey soon gain strength and 

 assume their plumage; and then they flap about the house 

 and steal or beg for food. At one place where I stayed 

 collecting for some time, a native, in whose house I had 

 established myself, had reared a very fine specimen of this 

 bird. It was the most voracious brute I ever saw. It 

 was omnivorous, and nothing came amiss to it or seemed 

 to disagree with it. ' Pepsine ' or ' taraxcne ' it would 

 have been sheer Avaste to have bestowed on that bird ! 

 Sherry and bitters could not have improved his appetite 

 much ! It was a fine full-grown male, and such a jolly fellow 

 into the bargain ! I christened him ' Clap-trap,^ for want 

 of a better name ; but on second thoughts ' Snap-trap ' would 

 have been better, since a more persevering ' snapper up of 

 unconsidered trifles ' I never saw in bird-society before. I 

 fed him a great deal ; and so we became fast friends, and di- 

 rectly he caught sight of me he would come to beg for 

 more food ; very often he would descend from a tall cam- 

 phor-wood tree, which stood a hundred yards or so from the 

 house, in the jungle, to the top of which he was fond of going 

 to sun his wings and clean himself after a meal. When he 

 was very hungry it was only by tying a string to one of his 

 legs and ' mooring ' him to the side of the house that he could 

 be prevented from eating ofi" the same plate as myself, or 

 putting his great horned head into the rice-dish or curry- 

 bowl. Bones of a foAvl, curried or not, were gobbled up in- 

 stantly ; and the wonder to me was how he managed to ' bolt ' 

 big bones and tough biscuits vidthout choking himself. He 

 succeeded, however ; his Fors was a lucky one. Whatever was 

 thrown anyAvhere near his head was sure to fall into his open 

 bill j indeed I never saw a dog that could catch food in his 

 mouth better. Every thing was caught on the point of his 

 great bill, and then tossed into the air, being again caught 

 and swallowed; this tossing was always performed. Bones, 

 the entire bodies of small birds from which the skins had 

 been removed for preserving, lumps of bread, biscuits, fruit, 

 fish, or wet rice, shavings, and even nodules of moist earth, 

 all seemed equally welcome ; and after taking in a cargo of 



