460 A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS 



the heat of the day in numbers, on well-exposed branches; 

 but it was with the most extreme difficulty that I, or my 

 sharp-eyed native servant, could ever detect them, even in 

 trees where we knew they were sitting. The peculiar colora- 

 tion of the plumage of these birds in the hand or in the 

 cabinet is so conspicuous and striking that it would scarcely 

 be believed that they can occupy leafless branches (if there be 

 foliage behind and above them) with the most perfect safety 

 from detection. Neither the kakuak {Philemon), the oriole, nor 

 the cuckoo (Centropus), which were so conspicuous among the 

 trees and shrubs around Fatunaba, were observed at Bibipupu. 



My herbarium, however, made more rapid increase than any 

 of my other collections, and every day I gathered plants rare 

 or unknown in any European cabinet, to which perhaps the 

 handsomest addition was a large climbing species of Artocarpem, 

 with the chastest possible foliage, which coiled itself in regular 

 spirals about the bole of a tall tree. Its stem was studded 

 with figs in all stages of growth and of almost every hue, from 

 richest purple-lake dotted and blotclied with pure chinese- 

 white, to light red or brilliant scarlet speckled with the 

 deepest orange; others again, when gathered and laid in a 

 heap on the ground, might have passed for the eggs of some 

 of the Pheasant or Grouse families. 



On the 20th of April the horses returned from Fatunaba, 

 bringing me the botanical drying-paper of which I was so 

 much in need ; and in corners of the baggage, where A. had 

 mindfully thrust them, I found welcome additions to my table, 

 which could not have been spared, however, I knew, without 

 pinching the meagre Fatunaba larder; and among which I 

 found a note with the evil and disquieting tidings that our 

 house had been attacked in the night and plundered of nearly 

 all the stock of trade goods and other valuables that it con- 

 tained by the treacherous hill-men, who had taken advantage 

 of her defenceless condition. She bravely said nothing of 

 being afraid, so I could only hope that the anxious fear — more 

 trying than the danger of the moment — of further visits from 

 them might not in the oppressive stillness of the night in her 

 unprotected hut, prey on her nerves not then fully recovered 

 from the severe strain of that short but trying scare of a 

 Kaleobar attack in Timor-laut. 



