164 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



attains its utmost luxuriance of growth, and but rarely deceives 

 the hopes of the husbandmen. 



The aspect of the lowland rice-fields of India and its isles is 

 very different at various seasons of the year. Where, in Java, 

 for instance, you see to-daylong-legged herons gravely stalking 

 over thie inundated plain partitioned by small dykes, or a yoke 

 of indolent buffaloes slowly wading through the mud, you will 

 three or four months later be charmed by the view of a grace- 

 fully undulating corn-field, bearing a great resemblance to our 

 indigenous barley. Cords, to which scare-crows are attached 

 traverse the field in every direction, and converge, to a small 

 watch-house, erected on high poles. Here the attentive 

 villaf>-er sits, like a spider in the centre of its web, and by pull- 

 ing the cords, puts them from time to time into motion, when- 

 ever the wind is unwilling to undertake 

 the office. Then the grotesque and noisy 

 figures begin to rustle and to caper, and 

 whole flocks of the neat little rice-bird 

 or Java sparrow (Loxia oryzivora), rise 

 on the w^ing, and hurry off with all the 

 JAVA SPARROW. l^^ste of guilty fright. After another 



month has elapsed, and the waters have 

 long since evaporated or been withdrawn, the harvest takes 

 place, and the rice-fields are enlivened by a motley crowd, 

 for all the villagers, old and young, are busy reaping the golden 

 ears. 



The rice-fields offer a peculiarly charming picture when, as 

 in the mountain valleys of Ceylon, they rise in terraces along 

 the slopes. ' Selecting an angular recess where two hills con- 

 verge, the Kandyans construct a series of terraces, raised stage 

 above stage, and retiring as they ascend along the slope of the 

 acclivity, up which they are carried as high as the soil extends. 

 Each terrace is furnished with a low ledge in front, behind 

 which the requisite depth of water is retained during the 

 germination of the seed, and what is superfluous is permitted 

 to trickle down to the one below it. In order to carry on this 

 peculiar cultivation the streams are led along the level of the 

 hills, often from a distance of many miles, with a skill and per- 

 severance for which the natives of these mountains have attained 

 a great renown.' 



