168 JAVA. [chap. vh. 



and Ocellated pheasants of those islands are equally un- 

 known in Java. Exactly parallel is the fact that in Ceylon 

 and Southern India, where the peacock abounds, there are 

 none of the splended Lophophori and other gorgeous 

 pheasants which inhabit Northern India. It would seem 

 as if the peacock can admit of no rivals in its domain. 

 Were these birds rare in their native country, and unknown 

 alive in Europe, they would assuredly be considered as 

 the true princes of the feathered tribes, and altogether 

 unrivalled for stateliness and beauty. As it is, I suppose 

 scarcely any one if asked to fix upon the most beautiful 

 bird in the world would name the peacock, any more 

 than the Papuan savage or the Bugis trader would fix 

 upon the bud of paradise for the same honour. 



Three days after my arrival at Wonosalem, my friend 

 Mr. Ball came to pay me a visit. He told me that two 

 evenings before, a boy had been killed and eaten by a tiger 

 close to Modjo-agong. He was riding on a cart drawn by 

 bullocks, and was coming home about dusk on the main 

 road ; and when not half a mile from the village a tiger 

 sprang upon him, carried him off into the jungle close by, 

 and devoured him. Next morning his remains were dis- 

 covered, consisting only of a few mangled bones. The 

 Waidono had got together about seven hundred men, and 

 was in chase of the animal, which, I afterwards heard, 

 they found and killed. They only use spears when in 



