IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap, ix 



as I lay, even if my house escaped destruction by the fall of one 

 of the big trees surrounding it. At last the storm died down and 

 I was able to get some sleep. The next morning I found that the 

 house had been badly damaged and required repairs. It was the 

 twelfth day that I had been left by myself, and now, if I wished to 

 stay on, men would be required for repairing the house, as well as 

 for other necessary work. I therefore made up my mind to return 

 to Kuching, and did so on the following day. 



At Kuching I found that my Chinese boy had not only never 

 attempted to get fresh men for me, but had actually left the country. 

 It is certainly wonderful how easily servants desert you in Sarawak, 

 but as a compensation it is quite as easy to get new ones ; and this 

 I at once did. 



Having collected my new servants, I went, as a first excursion, 

 for a shooting trip to Buntal, at the mouth of one of the smaller 

 branches of the Sarawak river, where I had been told that shore 

 birds abounded, and some good shooting was to be had at that 

 season. We started early on the tenth of October, and when I 

 arrived at the place I found that my information was correct, 

 and the sea-shore was literally alive with birds. I cannot 

 remember how many I shot, but I exhausted all my ammuni- 

 tion, and preserved specimens of eight species as yet unrepresented 

 in my ornithological collection. 1 



During the latter half of October and the beginning of Novem- 

 ber I was engaged in packing up the collection I had already 

 made. I also collected from the natives every kind of vegetable 

 product I was able to hear of. Towards the middle of November 

 I started on an excursion to the upper waters and sources of the 

 Sarawak river, but I must leave the account of this to the next 

 chapter. 



1 The species got at Buntal were the following : Mgialitis peronii, JE. 

 mongolicus, IE. geoffroyi, Strepsilas interpres, Pelidna subarqiiata, Actidromas 

 albescens, Terekia cinerea, Numenius phceopus (cf. Salvador!, Uccelli di 

 Borneo). 



120 



