Thhowing down Branches. 67 



unripe fruit ; and as soon as she saw us she began breaking 

 off branches and the great spiny fruits with every appear- 

 ance of rage, causing such a shower of missiles as effectually 

 kept us from apj^roachiug too near the tree. This habit of 

 throwing down branches when irritated has been doubted, 

 but I have, as here narrated, observed it myself on at least 

 three separate occasions. It was however always the female 

 mias who behaved in this way, and it may be that the male, 

 trusting more to his great strength and his powerful canine 

 teeth, is not afraid of any other animal, and does not want 

 to drive them away, while the parental instinct of the female 

 leads her to adopt this mode of defending herself and her 

 young ones. 



In preparing the skins and skeletons of these animals, I 

 was much troubled by the Dyak dogs, which, being always 

 kept in a state of semi-starvation, are ravenous for animal 

 food. I had a great iron pan, in which I boiled the bones 

 to make skeletons, and at night I covered this over with 

 boards, and put heavy stones upon it ; but the dogs managed 

 to remove these, and carried away the greater part of one of 

 my specimens. On another occasion they gnawed away a 

 good deal of the upper leather of my strong boots, and even 

 ate a piece of my mosquito-curtain, where some lamp-oil had 

 been spilt over it some weeks before. 



On our return down the stream, we had the fortune to 

 fall in with a very old male mias, feeding on some low trees 

 growing in the water. The country was flooded for a long 

 distance, but so full of trees and stumps that the laden boat 

 could not be got in among them, and if it could have been 

 we should only have frightened the mias away. I therefore 

 got into the water, which was nearly up to my waist, and 

 waded on till I Avas near enough for a shot. The difficulty 

 then was to load my gun again, for I was so deep in the wa- 

 ter that I could not hold the gun sloping enough to pour the 

 powder in. I therefore had to search for a shallow place, 

 and after several shots under these tiying circumstances, I 

 was delighted to see the monstrous animal roll over in the 

 water. I now towed him after me to the stream, but the 

 Malays objected to have tlie animal put into the boat, and 

 he was so heavy that I could not do it without their help. 



