82 NOTES. 



insects placed on the turf. As soon as the objects are 

 faded they are moved to the back of the hut. 



" The good taste of the Amblyornis is not only 

 proved by the nice home it builds. It is a clever bird, 

 called by the inhabitants Buruk Gurea (master bird), 

 since it imitates the songs and screamings of numerous 

 birds so well that it brought my hunters to despair, 

 who were but too often misled by the bird. Another 

 name of the bird is Tukan Robon, which means a 

 gardener." 



NOTE II. 



ARS TOPIARIA. 



THE Romans used the word Topiarius for their 

 ornamental gardener, and one of his chief duties the 

 Ars topiaria in fact was to cut the shrubs, and espe- 

 cially box-trees, into figures of ships, animals, and 

 names. There is a well-known passage in one of the 

 letters of the younger Pliny, in which, while speaking 

 of his garden, he describes " a sort of terrace, embel- 

 lished with various figures, and bounded with a box- 

 hedge, from which you descend by an easy slope, 

 adorned with the representation of divers animals in 

 box answering alternately to each other, into a lawn 

 overspread with the soft, I had almost said the liquid, 

 acanthus : this is surrounded by a walk, enclosed with 



