IN THE MOLUCCAS. 291 



creek of the Amboina Ba)^ which at high water is only a few 

 yards distant ; and as the constant unpacking and repacking is 

 accompanied by shouting and singing to the beating of a tom- 

 tom, without which no work can be done here as it times them 

 to concerted action, Paso is anything but dull. 



May 21. Lopes and Peter as usual out hunting for birds, 

 while I went to the forest to botanise ; Anna labelling the 

 insects and birds at home. The fine Ornithoptera, the Kupu- 

 Kupu rajah or royal butterflies, for which this island is 

 famous, are very difficult to catch, as they fly at so great a 

 height ; nevertheless the largo green 0. priamus, and 0. remus, 

 have been obtained feedina: on the Cerhera lactaria and C 

 odallam. I have on several occasions found the bodiless wings 

 of the priamiis in the forest paths, as if it had been attacked by 

 birds, the body devoured and the wings dropped. Nowhere 

 have I seen insect life — especially beetles — so abundant, or of 

 greater variety and beauty, as here ; one of the less rare 

 species is the grand Sagueir (palm-wine) feeding-beetle, 

 Euchinis longimamis, figured by Mr. Wallace in his Malay 

 Archipelago, "ohich perish in thousands every year by 

 dropping, generally during the night, into the palm-wine 

 collecting buckets whence they cannot escape. 



Coming as I have done from the Indo-Malayan part of the 

 Archipelago the new character of the fauna has greatly pleased 

 me. Gay parrots I had counted on seeing ; but the unex- 

 pected richness of the plumage of the pigeons has been a special 

 delight to us at every return of our hunters. The Marsupial 

 species of Cuscus also, of which we have obtained three species, 

 have interested us. They are very plentiful, and at this season 

 the females all seem to have a little one in their pouch. One 

 of these was a tiny creature about two inches long, quite hidden 

 in its pouch, fixed by its lipr. formed into a simple round orifice 

 to its mother's teat. They are much eaten by the natives, by 

 wham they are caught in nooses set in the trees, or by artifice 

 In moonlight nights creeping stealthily to the foot of a tree 

 where they have observed one sleeping, taking care not to lift 

 their heads so that the light flash in their eyes, they imitate at 

 short intervals its cry by placing the fingers in the nose ; the 

 Cuscus descends and is fallen on by the watchers below. The 

 python ii their greatest enemy, and devours large numbers of 



