IN THE MOLUCCAS. 201 



creek of the Amboina Bay, \vliicli at liij^^i water is only a A'W 

 yards distant ; and as the constant unpacking and repacking is 

 accompanied by shouting and singing to the beating of a tom- 

 tom, without which no work can bo done here as it times tlieni 

 . to concerted action, Paso is anything but dull. 



Mi 



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while I went to the forest to botaniso; Anna hibelling the 

 insects and birds at home. The fine Ornithoptera, the Knpu- 

 Kupu rajah or royal butterflies, for which this isLmd is 

 famous, are very dillicult to catch, as they fly at so great a 

 height; nevertheless the large green O.prhmia^, and O.revms, 

 have been obtained feeding on the Cerhera ladaria and (7- 

 odallam, I have on several occasions found the bodiless wings 

 of the 2)riai}iiis in the forest paths, as if it had been attacked by 

 birds, the body devoured and the wings dropped. Nowhere 

 have I seen insect life — especially beetles — so abundant, or of 

 greater variety and beauty, as here ; one of the less rare 

 species is the grand Sagneir (palm- wine) feeding-beetle, 

 EucMrus longimamis, figured by Mr. ^Vallaee in his Malay 

 Archipelago, which perish in thousands every y^^nr by 

 dropping, generally during the night, info tlxe palm-wine 

 collecting buckets whence they cannot escape. 



Coming as I have done from the Tndo-3Iahiyan part of tlie 

 Archipelago the new character of the fauna has greatly plonsod 

 me. Gay parrots I had counted on seeing; but the uii'-x- 

 pected richness of the plumage of the pigeons hoo been a special 

 delight to us at every return of our hunters. The Jfarsupial 

 spr^cies of Cusciis also, of which we have obtained three species, 

 have interested us. They arc very plentiful, and at this season 

 the females all soom to have a little one in their jxm^'h, Ojh» 

 of these was a tiny creature about two iuchcs long, rpiitc hidden 

 in its pouch, fixed by its lips formed into a simph* ronnd orififO 

 to its mother's teat. They are much eaten by the nafiv**^, l>y 

 whom they arc caught in nooses set in the troo^, or by artifice 

 In moonlight nights creeping stealtliily to the foot of a tree 

 where they have observed one sleeping, taking cure not to lift 

 their heads so that the light flash in their eyes, thoy imitate at 



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