I2 3 ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



take wing : it was the hour when their Asiatic relatives 

 get ready for business. 



Near Cape Angol, on the southern coast of Java, there 

 is a small mountain-village, Rydenberg or Rydenland- 

 Koop, which has become a favorite pleasure-resort of 

 the Dutch colonists, especially in midwinter, which here 

 corresponds to the dog-day season of the Northern 

 hemisphere. In spite of his phlegm, Mynheer is a keen 

 sportsman and a remarkable shot, as certain neighbors 

 of his had lately an opportunity to ascertain, and in the 

 vicinity of Rydenberg large game is pretty well cleaned 

 out ; wild hogs are getting scarce, and tigers are now 

 only found on Wynkoop's Bay, some forty miles farther 

 west. Monkeys, however, are still plentiful, and all new- 

 comers are treated to the favorite evening sport of the 

 Javanese Boer, a " fox-chase in the air." 



Rydenberg overlooks the sea, and, some seven miles 

 southeast, an archipelago of low islands, mostly well 

 wooded, but uninhabited on account of their pestilential 

 swamps. From these islands there comes in the evening 

 a stridulous noise, resembling the distant cries of a sea- 

 gull swarm, but shriller and wilder, and a few minutes 

 before sunset large winged creatures rise from the jun- 

 gle, mounting higher and higher in ever-increasing 

 numbers, till the example of their leaders gives the 

 signal to start for the coast. As they approach, their 

 bird-like forms assume stranger proportions : zigzag- 

 winged, and with heavy flops, they pass overhead, or 



