Collecting under Difficulties. 169 



them. The trees in fruit are the resort of the great green- 

 fruit pigeons, which have been ah-eady mentioned. Troops 

 of monkeys (Macacus cynomolgus) may often be seen occupy- 

 ing a tree, showering down the fruit in great profusion, chat- 

 tering when disturbed, and making an enormous rustUng as 

 they scamper off among the dead palm-leaves ; while the pig- 

 eons have a loud booming voice, more like the roar of a wild 

 beast than the note of a bird. 



My collecting operations here were carried on under more 

 than usual difficulties. One small room had to serve for eat- 

 ing, sleeping, and working, for storehouse and dissecting- 

 room ; in it were no shelves, cupboard, chairs, or tables ; ants 

 swarmed in every part of it, and dogs, cats, and fowls entered 

 it at pleasure. Besides this, it was the parlor and recejDtion- 

 room of my host, and I was obliged to consult his convenience 

 and that of the numerous guests who visited us. My princi- 

 pal piece of furniture was a box, which served' me as a dining- 

 table, a seat while skinning birds, and as the receptacle of the 

 birds, when skinned and dried. To keep them free from ants, 

 we borrowed, with some difficulty, an old bench, the four legs 

 of which, being placed in cocoa-nut shells filled with water, 

 kept us tolerably free from these pests. The box and the 

 bench were however literally the only places where any thing 

 could be put away, and they were generally well occuj)ied by 

 two insect-boxes and about a hundred birds' skins in process 

 of drying. It may therefore be easily conceived that when 

 any thing bulky or out of the common way was collected, the 

 question " Where is it to be put ?" was rather a difficult one 

 to answer. All animal substances moreover require some 

 time to dry thoroughly, emit a very disagreeable odor while 

 doing so, and are particularly attractive to ants, flies, dogs, 

 rats, cats, and other vermin, calling for especial cautions and 

 constant supervision, which, under the circumstances above 

 described, were impossible. 



My readers may now partially understand why a travelling 

 naturalist of limited means like myself does so much less than 

 is expected, or than he would himself wish to do. It would 

 be interesting to preserve skeletons of many birds and animals, 

 reptiles and fishes in spirits, skins of the larger animals, re- 

 markable fruits and woods, and the most curious articles of 



