350 Batchian. 



variety than can be here met with in as many months. Yet 

 along with this poverty of individuals and of species there are, 

 in almost every class and order, some one or two species of 

 such extreme beauty or singularity as to vie with, or even sur- 

 jjass, any thing that even South America can produce. 



One afternoon when I was arranging my insects, and sur- 

 rounded by a crowd of wondering spectators, I showed one 

 of them how to look at a small insect with a hand-lens, which 

 caused such evident wonder that all the rest wanted to see it 

 too. I therefore fixed the glass firmly to a piece of soft wood 

 at the proper focus, and put under it a little spiny beetle of 

 the genus Hispa, and then passed it round for examination. 

 The excitement was immense. Some declared it was a yard 

 long ; others were frightened, and instantly dropped it, and 

 all were as much astonished, and made as much shouting and 

 gesticulation, as children at a pantomime, or at a Christmas 

 exhibition of the oxyhydrogen microscope. And all this ex- 

 citement was produced by a little pocket-lens an inch and a 

 half focus and therefore magnifying only four or five times, 

 but which to their unaccustomed eyes ajjpeared to enlarge a 

 hundredfold. 



On the last day of my stay here one of my hunters suc- 

 ceeded in finding and shooting the beautiful Nicobar pigeon, 

 of which I had been so long in search. None of the residents 

 had ever seen it, which shows that it is rare and shy. My 

 specimen was a female in beautiful condition, and the glossy 

 coppery and green of its plumage, the snow-white tail and 

 beautiful pendent feathers of the neck, were greatly admired. 

 I subsequently obtained a specimen in New Guinea, and once 

 saw it in the Kaioa Islands. It is found also in some small 

 islands near Macassar, in others near Borneo, and in the Nico- 

 bar Islands, whence it receives its name. It is a ground feed- 

 er, only going up trees to roost, and is a very heavy fleshy 

 bird. This may account for the fact of its being found chief- 

 ly on very small islands, while in the western half of the Ar- 

 chipelago, it seems entirely absent from the larger ones. Be- 

 ing a ground-feeder, it is subject to the attacks of carnivor- 

 ous quadrupeds, which are not found in the very small islands. 

 Its wide distribution over the whole length of the Archipela- 

 go from extreme west to east is however very extraordinary, 



