BOOK NOTICE. 213 



From Sulu the " Marchesa" sailed to the territories of the British North 

 "Borneo Company, Brunei, and Sarawak. They were not able to visit the caves 

 ■where the edible swallows- nests are procured in such quantities as to form "by 

 far the most important" export of the country. Dr. Guillemard notes, however, 

 that the caves are not the only habitat of this swallow. He " observed a couple 

 of nests built close together on the face of a small cliff, barely 10 feet from the 

 sea-beach." He does not name the species, and no bird of the genus (Collocalia) 

 appears in his appendices. The party collected many birds, and a live ourang- 

 outang, but met with no particular adventure in Borneo, except that our author 

 found a bird as big as a goldfinch (Mixornis Bomensis) caught in the web of a 

 forest spider (Nepkila) who, "though evidently somewhat deterred by his un- 

 usually large capture and the violent shakings of the web, showed no intentions 

 of flight, and quietly watched the issue of events close by." The masculine 

 gender is perhaps here misplaced. It is probable that no male spider, even of the 

 monstrous genus Mygale, which Dr. Guillemard found reaching 3" by 1" in size, 

 could kill a bird. The female is the bigger, as well as better, half, among the 

 Arachnidse ; and in some species carries woman's rights so far as to kill and eat her 

 undesirable admirers. 



Aftersome cruising in known waters the " Marchesa," on the 9th August, anchored 

 off Sumbawa ; and entered on the study of the A ustralo- Papuan region, to which 

 that island belongs by climate and zoology, though the population is of the Malay 

 breed. The difference in landscape struck the travellers at once, everything was 

 dry, the jungle scrubby and thorny, and Euphorbias of two or three species 

 were abundant. In Bombay we don't require to go to the Papuan region for 

 these luxuries ; but Dr. Guillemard had been for months in Malay proper, 

 and had come to feel that nothing but a rattan had any business to stop his way 

 with prickly branches. " The forest trees were unfamiliar, and owing to the 

 leaflessness of many of them, there was a remarkable absence of colour in the 

 landscape. Here and there ouly a Bombax caught the eye; its crimson flowers 

 conspicuous at the end of the bare branches. The prickly-pear was growing every- 

 where, and to judge from its abundance, must have been introduced into the 

 island many years ago. No rain had fallen for five months, and the heat and 

 dust were intolerable." From the above quotation it will be gathered that the 

 glories of Sumbawa are pretty much such as may be enjoyed by the aid of the 

 G. I. P. R., and without getting out of range of ice and pomplets. 



The birds, however, were a little more interesting from the mixture of Indian 

 and Malayan forms; and one new bird, Zosterops Sumbavensis, was obtained. 

 At Bima, in this island, the best shooting was about the town graveyard. 



From Sumbawa the " Marchesa " sailed to Gunongapi (or fire-mountains), a 

 volcanic isle, where her collectors secured a new button-quail [proper) which they 

 called Turniz Powelli, after one of their party. They also noticed a species of 

 Borassus ; not so common, says Dr. Guillemard, in the islands further west, which 

 flowers but once, and dies immediately afterwards, like the bamboo and some 

 other big endogenous plants. 



From Gunongapi they sailed for Macassar in Celebes, where they found " dress- 

 coats de'jrigueur, but a frock-coat or even a cut-away may be worn without 



