CH. V FAUNA OP TALIS SE 89 



use, for it would require much patience and practice for a 

 European to use the weapon with such accuracy as this, 

 and the natives, when opportunities arise, infinitely prefer 

 the pomp and vanity of fire-arms. 



Another falcon, rather larger than this {Spilornis rufi- 

 peetus), is also fairly common in the mangrove swamps. I 

 saw one of these birds nearly every day not far from my 

 house, but could never get a shot at it until at last one day 

 I managed to break its wing as it rose from a mangrove tree. 



I had started out that afternoon with the intention 

 of collecting insects only, and had left my guns behind, 

 taking with me only some nets and collecting bottles. 

 As I passed this tree, however, I saw the falcon within 

 easy range of my gun, and instead of flying away, as he 

 usually did when I approached, he calmly sat and looked at 

 me first with one eve and then with the other, as if he were 

 making quite certain that I had no dangerous weapon about 

 me. This was too much for me, so I hurried back to my 

 hut and returned with my gun just in time to indicate to 

 him that he had been for once a little too bold and that 

 I wished to add him to my collection. I saw several other 

 specimens afterwards, but never one that was anxious to 

 repeat the experiment. 



The PoUornis indicus is not so often met with in TaHsse 

 as the other rapacious birds, and is, I fancy, purely a forest 

 dweller. I never saw one in the swamps on any occasion, 

 and the few specimens I found were usually some two or 

 three hundred feet above the sea in the depths of the forest. 



The general native name for aU the large birds of prey 

 is Koheba : thus, the sea-eagle is usually called the Koheba 

 besar, or big eagle ; the osprey, Koheba gunong, or osprey of 

 the mountains, and so on ; the Erythrospiza, however, is 

 usually called the ' Sikip abuabu.' 



Some of the most beautiful of the many beautiful birds 



