vi] QUOP 



on dead tree-trunks or under their bark, I found little to collect. 

 It could scarcely be otherwise. In the forests the last stage of the 

 life of most insects, and especially those with vivid colours, is 

 passed amidst that portion of the vegetation which receives the 

 direct rays of the sun, and this is, naturally, hardly within reach of 

 the collector. To make a good collection it would be necessary to 

 lower the crowns of the gigantic trees, or else to be able to skim 

 over them. 



Nearly every flying insect is attracted by light or else by flowers. 

 Now these in Borneo are comparatively few and rare near the 

 ground, though of almost infinite number and variety far above 

 our heads. Here, too, blossom not only the big trees, but the 

 epiphytes, parasitical plants, and lianas. These, whose weak stems 

 would seem to condemn them to a miserable existence in the shade 

 of their stronger rivals, manage to force their way up among the 

 trunks and branches of the largest trees and eventually to outgrow 

 them, and expand their flowers above their tops to the life-giving 

 rays of the sun. 



In this struggle of plants towards light, the final victory often 

 rests with those apparently weakest. For in Borneo many of the 

 plants with large, brightly coloured, and odorous flowers are lianas, 

 and these are the most attractive to insects. Again, it is high up 

 in the trees amongst the epiphytes and parasites that the most 

 conspicuous flowers are found, such as those of the Loranthus, 

 orchids, Fagrcea, etc. The higher they are the more conspicuous 

 these flowers become ; the brilliance of their colour is greater ; the 

 expansion of their corollas larger. These strange shapes and power- 

 ful odours are all means which the coquetry of flowers, if I may 

 render it thus, employs to attract insects, the unconscious pronubse 

 of their love-making. Singular, indeed, are the morals of flowers, 

 and far from affording examples to be imitated by us. For in this 

 respect to ensure success Nature uses every possible artifice, 

 every sort of deceit, every kind of cruelty ; and flowers offer in- 

 numerable instances of what might well be termed the most 

 vicious propensities. 



During this first excursion to the mountains I only collected 

 two species of birds, but both were new to Borneo ; the first was a 

 small thrush {Ixidia squamata), which I shot at the highest point 

 reached, the other a fine hornbill (Rhytidocerus obscurus), of which 

 I secured two specimens. 1 On November 19th our provision of rice 

 was exhausted, and we were obliged to return to the plain. 



Later in the month I went with Bishop MacDougall on a 

 visit to the mission of Quop, not far from Kuching, but my 

 collections there were poor. 



1 Cf. Salvadori, Uccelli di Borneo, pp. 210, 90. Genova, 1869. 



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