40 Malacca. 



above and orange below, while the iris is emerald green. As 

 the skins dry the bill turns dull black, but even then the 

 bird is handsome. When fresli killed, the contrast of the 

 vivid blue with the rich colors 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 barbets (Megalsema 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 (Calypto- 

 mena viridis), which is like a small cock-of-the-rock, but en- 

 tirely 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 honey- 

 suckers, 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 bun- 

 galow 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 collec- 

 tion must necessarily be. I was one afternoon walking 

 along a favorite 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 



