chap, x.] BIRDS AND DRAGON-FLIES. 241 



distasteful to them, while they drank the brandy in 

 tumblers with much relish. 



Eeturning to Ampanam, I devoted myself for some days 

 to shooting the birds of the neighbourhood. The fine fig- 

 trees of the avenues, where a market was held, were tenanted 

 by superb orioles (Oriolus broderpii) of a rich orange 

 colour, and peculiar to this island and the adjacent ones 

 of Sumbawa and Flores. All round the town were abun- 

 dance of the curious Tropidorhynchus timoriensis, allied 

 to the Friar bird of Australia. They are here called 

 " Quaich-quaich," from their strange loud voice, which 

 seems to repeat these words in various and not unmelo- 

 dious intonations. 



Every "day boys were to be seen walking along the 

 roads and by the hedges and ditches, catching dragon- flies 

 with birdlime. They carry a slender stick, with a few 

 twigs at the end well anointed, so that the least touch 

 captures the insect, whose wings are pulled off before it 

 is consigned to a small basket. The dragon-flies are so 

 abundant at the time of the rice flowering that thousands 

 are soon caught in this way. The bodies are fried in oil 

 with onions and preserved shrimps, or sometimes alone, 

 and are considered a great delicacy. In Borneo, Celebes, 

 and many other islands, the larvae of bees and wasps are 

 eaten, either alive as pulled out of the cells, or fried like 

 the dragon-flies. In the Moluccas the grubs of the pahu- 



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