270 FLYING-FOXES. 



particularly reminded me of our novel position, were 

 certain remarkable differences in the natural phenomena 

 at the close of day, between Sarawak in Borneo, and 

 Hampshire in England. In England, for example, the 

 bats are on the move, dashing wildly under the foliage of 

 the trees, but here we see enormous Pteropi or Flying- 

 Foxes, soaring high above our heads, with steady, flapping 

 fright; the Mosquitoes begin to sound their shrilly 

 trumpets ; the " Chichak " chirps as he darts across the 

 ceiling ; the Glow-worms shine ; the Fire-flies glitter on 

 the trees; the warty Toad unveils his form, and the 

 Polydesmus and Zephronia venture forth to feed.* I 

 remember, on one occasion, while out on an anti-piratical 

 expedition, about sixty miles up the river Linga, being 

 particularly struck with the appearance of a tropical 

 forest by night. On every side, the dim and shadowy 

 trees stood out like ghosts, perfectly still, and lighted 

 up occasionally by dense clouds of Fire-flies ; the ground 

 on every side, for many hundred yards, was a watery 

 swamp, giving birth to myriads of Mosquitoes, and slime- 

 bred animals of every description. Occasionally, we 

 were awoke from our deepest slumbers, by the shrieks 

 of wild animals, and the croaking din of innumerable 

 frogs, but more frequently than all, by certain "grey- 

 coated trumpeters ", as Milton calls the gnats. I had 



* A new species of Polydesmus from Borneo in the British Museum, 

 I have named P. Newporti after Mr. Newport, who has particularly 

 devoted himself to the study of the Myriapoda. A new and large 

 species of Zephronia in the same collection, and from the same island, 

 I have named Zephronia gigas. I may here inform the less scientific 

 reader, that the first named insect resembles a Centipede, and the latter 

 a Wood-louse more than an inch in length. 



