214 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



a breach of decorum." This compendium of Macassarian costume is, as Mr. 

 Mathew Arnold would say, slightly wanting in lucidity ; and our author saw 

 nothing of the " incomparable oil, Macassar," which is reported to be made of 

 the fruit of a tree very common about Bombay, the "horse-radish tree" 

 {Moringa pterygosperma, Marathice Shewga). 



If there is no oil, however, there is lots of grog ; " Port, Madeira, Hollands, 

 and Bitters," and Manilla cheroots abound. "The ladies are far in advance of 

 their Anglo-Indian sisters "; for why, because they wear "sarongs" and 

 " Kibayas, " things which the present writer fears to discuss. But from the 

 context it would seem that if the Holland-Indian sisters advance much further 

 on this line, their progress will be something like that of the Irish sergeant's squad 

 " advance three steps backward, and dress by the gutter" ; a dressing-room 

 appropriate enough to any further change of costume in the direction indicated. 



Amongst the Batavian disciples of Pantagruel and Lady Harberton Dr. Guillemard 

 picked up a new trick in his own trade, a prophylactic against cholera ; which at 

 any rate, sounds pleasanter than our old friend Mr. Hornaday's " fever-cure" 

 based upon strychnine at the rate of two ounces a week). " Float your liver, sir, 

 keep your liver constantly floating in champagne, " was the prescription of those 

 whom our author naturally calls " the wise Dutch." 



He might also well call them the liberal and hospitable Dutch ; and they lent 

 the " Marchesa " good charts, the height of friendship amongst seamen. She 

 naturally, cruised a good deal about Celebes, and Dr. Guillemard admired 

 the Dutch colonial system, and compared it with English ways, which he considers 

 inferior. Leaving his generalisations on subjects clearly beyond his competence, it 

 is a pleasure to accompany him on his proper ground— amongst the birds. In Cele- 

 bes these are numerous and interesting, few more so than a dwarf dove [Ptilopus 

 melanocephalus), one of many such in the Papuan region, but distinguished by 

 shining green body and French grey head ; velvet black nuchal patch, bright 

 yellow throat and vent; and under tail coverts of crimson. He also procured 

 Prioniturus plalurus, a racket-tailed parrot, of a genus peculiar to Celebes and the 

 Philippines, and on the small island' of Talisse two fine species of fruit pigeons 

 (Carpophaga) in which he noted the enormous power of gape (due to the peculiar 

 arrangement of the mandibles and quadrate bones) which enables these birds to 

 swallow entire fruits much bigger than their own heads. Returning to the main 

 island of Celebes, the " Marchesas " shot some Babi-rusas, strange pigs whose 

 extraordinary hornlike development of the upper canine teeth has earned their 

 Malay name. " Babi" means a pig in Malay; and "Rusa" a deer. The latter 

 word we have adopted into scientific Latin as the name of a genus of which 

 the first specimens came from Malayana ; though its finest species, the Sambar, 

 is Indian. 



They also got some pigs of a species unnoted, and had a great hunt for " Maleos," 

 i.e., Megapodes, or "Brush-turkeys" {Megacephalon maleo). These birds, which 

 sometimes weigh over oh lbs. lay their large eggs in the sand of the sea-shore, like 

 turtles, at which operation our sportsmen surprised them, and found that if they 



* The natives asserted that the Babirusa could ascend trees (easy trees of course) 

 and the " Marchesa's " hunters actually saw one try to do so. 



