XIV.] THE MARKET. 331 



are deliberate enough in movement, at least in captivity, but, 

 compared with Microglossus, they are rapid. The huge head and 

 beak are rendered more conspicuous by the meagre size of the 

 body, and the pectoral muscles are so little proportionate to the 

 size of the bird as to render it probable that it resorts to flight as 

 little as it can. It exists solely Ijy virtue of its gigantic beak, for, 

 as ]\Ir, Wallace has pointed out, no other bird is able to open the 

 Kanari nut, which forms its chief food. We should much have 

 liked one of these birds to add to our collection, but we could not 

 prevail upon the owner to part with them. 



Amboina market is an excellent one, and the quantity and 

 variety of fishes to be seen m a morning's stroll through it are 

 astonishing, so much so that one no lono;er wonders at the seven 

 hundred and eighty species recorded by Dr. Bleeker as inhabiting 

 tlie waters of the island. Fruits, too, are abundant, and among 

 tlieni was a wonderful banana, which none of us had tasted before, 

 pure white, not creamy, in the colour of the flesh, and in flavour 

 something between a pine-apple and a "pear-drop." Out of the 

 many dozen varieties of this plant to be met with, from the large 

 15-inch long "horse plantain" to the tiny "silver banana," I have 

 never eaten anything at all like it. It was delicious, but no 

 trace whatever of the banana flavour was to l^e detected in it. 



We left Amboina late one night and dropped slowly down the 

 inlet. Around us, in every direction, were the lights of innumer- 

 able praus engaged in fishing, causing us no little anxiety from 

 their numbers, which was not lessened by the fact that in many 

 eases the fishermen deferred the lighting of their torches until we 

 were close upon them. Fortunately w^e passed through without 

 accident, and on the afternoon of the following day the Marchcsa 

 anchored in Banda harbour. 



Banda, the most eastern settlement of the Dutch, lies due south 

 of Ceram, and about sixty miles distant from its coasts. For all 

 practical purposes the group may be said to consist of the three islands 

 which form the harbour — Gunong Api, Banda Xeira, and Banda 



