296 TIMOR. [chap. xiii. 



at his plantation, on a slight elevation about two miles 

 from the town ; where Mr. Geach also had a small house, 

 which he kindly invited me to share. We rode there in 

 the evening ; and in the course of two days my baggage 

 was brought up, and I was able to look about me and see 

 if I could do any collecting. 



For the first few weeks I was very unwell and could not 

 go far from the house. The country was covered with low 

 spiny shrubs and acacias, except in a little valley where 

 a stream came down from the hills, where some fine trees 

 and bushes shaded the water and formed a very pleasant 

 place to ramble up. There were plenty of birds about, and 

 of a tolerable variety of species ; but very few of them 

 were gaily coloured. Indeed, with one or two exceptions, 

 the birds of this tropical island were hardly so ornamental 

 as those of Great Britain. Beetles were so scarce that a 

 collector might fairly say there were none, as the few 

 obscure or uninteresting species would not repay him for 

 the search. The only insects at all remarkable or inter- 

 esting were the butterflies, which, though comparatively 

 few in species, were sufficiently abundant, and comprised 

 a large proportion of new or rare sorts. The banks of the 

 stream formed my best collecting-ground, and I daily wan- 

 dered up and down its shady bed, which about a mile up 

 became rocky and precipitous. Here I obtained the rare 

 and beautiful swallow-tail butterflies, Papilio aenomaus 



