INSECTS. 429 



sailors ' squids/ and having sunk it to the bottom, they 

 fix a bladder to the end of the line, as a buoy." 



Crawling on the leaves in the jungle was a very beauti- 

 ful insect, the larva of a species of Tesseratoma, entirely of 

 a delicate, semi-transparent, blood-red colour, with a flat- 

 tened body, and head furnished with a stinging proboscis, 

 which inflicts a somewhat painful wound. At Gunung 

 Taboor, I procured one of the loveliest species of Cassida 

 I have seen in any collection. The dark-green, convex 

 body was studded with round, brilliant, golden spots, 

 while the margin was transparent horn color, and reticu- 

 lated like a leaf. Among other rare and beautiful insects, 

 the Lucanus Tarandus of Thunberg flew at dusk into the 

 boat in which I was sleeping. It is a large stag-beetle, 

 with elongated jaws and bronze elytra, shaded with gold 

 and red, and covered all over with a velvety down. A 

 singular coal-black Coreus was also met with, covered 

 with golden hairs. 



Returning with our liberated captives from Bulungan, 

 after having examined the reef on which the " Premier" 

 was wrecked, and where we obtained some interesting 

 crustaceous and molluscous animals, we touched at Lee- 

 geetan, on the coast of Borneo, for the purpose of watering 

 the ship, at which place I procured many rare insects, and 

 had a good opportunity of seeing some of the wildest 

 woodland scenery in Borneo. In the course of a little 

 trip at this port, I fell in with a scene so singular, that I 

 will endeavour to describe it. 



On our right was a vast, sandy flat left by the retiring 

 tide, where several stout-limbed oyster-catchers were 

 screaming and running rapidly along, like small ostriches, 



