198 Timor. 



course of two clays my baggage was brought up, and I was 

 able to look about me and see if I could do any collecting. 



For the first few weeks I was very unwell, and could not 

 go far from the house. The country was covered with low 

 spiny shrubs and acacias, except in a little valley where a 

 stream came down from the hills, where some fine trees and 

 bushes shaded the water, and formed a very j^leasant place to 

 ramble up. There were plenty of birds about, and of a toler- 

 able variety of species, but very few of them were gayly col- 

 ored. Indeed, with one or two exceptions, the birds of this 

 ' tropical island were hardly so ornamental as those of Great 

 Britain. Beetles were so scarce that a collector might fairly 

 say there were none, as the few obscure or uninteresting 

 species would not repay him for the search. The only insects 

 at all remarkable or interesting were the butterflies, which, 

 though comparatively few in species, were sufficiently abun- 

 dant, and comprised a large j^roportion of new or rare sorts. 

 The banks of the stream formed my best collecting-ground, 

 and I daily wandered up and down its shady bed, which about 

 a mile up became rocky and precipitous. Here I obtained 

 the rare and beautiful swallow-tail butterflies (PaiDilio lenomaus 

 and P. liris) ; the males of which are quite unlike each other, 

 and belong in fact to distinct sections of the genus, while the 

 females are so much alike that they are undistinguishable on 

 the wing, and, to an uneducated eye, equally so in the cabinet. 

 Several other beautiful butterflies rewarded my search in this 

 place ; among which I may especially mention the CethoSia 

 leschenaultii, Avhose wings of the deepest purple are bordered 

 with buff in such a manner as to resemble at first sight our own 

 Camberwell beauty, although it belongs to a different genus. 

 The most abundant butterflies were the whites and yellows 

 (Pieridoe), several of which I had already found at Lombock 

 and at Coupang, while others were new to me. 



Early in February we made arrangements to stay for a 

 week at a village called Baliba, situated about four miles off 

 on the mountain, at an elevation of 2000 feet. We took our 

 baggage and a supply of all necessaries on pack-horses ; and 

 though the distance by the route we took was not more than 

 six or seven miles, we were half a day getting there. The 

 roads were mere ti'acks, sometimes up steep rocky stairs. 



