340 CELEBES. [chai\ xv. 



is almost confined to the Philippine Islands, and is 

 quite unknown in Borneo, Java, or Malacca. The road 

 was shady and apparently much trodden by horses and 

 cattle, and I quickly obtained some butterflies I had not 

 before met with. Soon a couple of reports were heard, and 

 coming up to my boys I found they had shot two speci- 

 mens of one of the finest of known cuckoos, Phcenicophaus 

 callirhynchus. This bird derives its name from its large 

 bill being coloured of a brilliant yellow, red, and black, 

 in about equal proportions. The tail is exceedingly long, 

 and of a fine metallic purple, while the plumage of the 

 body is light coffee brown. It is one of the characteristic 

 birds of the island of Celebes, to which it is confined. 



After sauntering along for a couple of hours we reached 

 a small river, so deep that horses could only cross it by 

 swimming, so we had to turn back ; but as we were getting 

 hungry, and the water of the almost stagnant river was 

 too muddy to drink, we went towards a house a few 

 hundred yards off. In the plantation we saw a small 

 raised hut, which we thought would do well for us to 

 breakfast in, so I entered, and found inside a young woman 

 with an infant. She handed me a jug of water, but looked 

 very much frightened. However, I sat down on the door- 

 step, and asked for the provisions. In handing them up, 

 Baderoon saw the infant, and started back as if he had 

 seen a serpent. It then immediately struck me that this 



