264 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



abundance, and so to save himself and his fellows the 

 labour of carrying up loads of the palm-leaves he had 

 obliged us to camp in a less suitable place. We 

 were very annoyed, but it was too late to change our 

 quarters as all the bearers had gone, but we gave the 

 guide nn mauvais quart d'heure. The afternoon was 

 fully occupied in skinning the birds, in pinning the 

 insects into collecting-boxes, folding up butterflies in 

 sheets of paper, pressing plants, and the other occupa- 

 tions of collecting naturalists. After dark we set our 

 moth-trap, but again without much result. As we 

 were waiting, nets in hand, for our victims, we heard 

 from many points around us a sharp bird-like chirp ; 

 it seemed impossible that a small bird should be 

 moving about at that time of night, and we were pre- 

 pared to give up the puzzle as hopeless, when sud- 

 denly a small frog leapt out of the darkness on to the 

 chimney of our lamp, clung there for a brief second, 

 then uttered a sharp chirp and dropped with singed 

 toes to the floor of the hut. We quickly captured it, 

 and found it to be a handsome reddish-brown species 

 of the genus Rhacophorus t showing by its fully 

 webbed feet that it was a near relation of the 

 celebrated Wallace's Flying Frog. On our return to 

 Kuching I found that this was a new species, after- 

 wards described and named Rh. shelfordi by Mr. 

 Boulenger. 



Since collecting on the lower levels of the mountain 

 had yielded poor results, Cox started next morning 

 with some of the hunters and Latip for the summit ; 

 in the afternoon he sent down word that he intended 

 to stay near the summit for three days, since the 

 locality seemed to promise well. As proof he sent 



