chap, viii.] TAME SQUIRRELS. 193 



English village, even if close to the church ? They would 

 soon he pelted and driven away, or snared and confined in 

 a whirling cage. I have never heard of these pretty 

 animals being tamed in this way in England, but I should 

 think it might be easily done in any gentleman's park, 

 and they would certainly be as pleasing and attractive as 

 they would be uncommon. 



After many inquiries, I found that a day's journey by 

 water above Palembang there commenced a military road, 

 which extended up to the mountains and even across to 

 Bencoolen, and I determined to take this route and travel 

 on till I found some tolerable collecting ground. By this 

 means I should secure dry land and a good road, and avoid 

 the rivers, which at this season are very tedious to ascend 

 owing to the powerful currents, and very unproductive to 

 the collector owing to most of the lands in their vicinity 

 being under water. Leaving early in the morning we did 

 not reach Lorok, the village where the road begins, till 

 late at night. I stayed there a few days, but found that 

 almost all the ground in the vicinity not under water was 

 cultivated, and that the only forest was in swamps which 

 were now inaccessible. The only bird new to me which I 

 obtained at Lorok was the fine long-tailed parrocpaet 

 (Pakeornis longicauda). The people here assured me that 

 the country was just the same as this for a very long way 

 — more than a week's journey, and they seemed hardly to 



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