420 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Eeptiles, as usual, were conspicuous by their absence, not 

 because Borneo is particularly deficient in thern — some 125 

 different species of Snakes have been recorded — but because 

 they make full use of the dense jungle to hide themselves from 

 the eyes of prospective enemies or prey. B. secured a gorgeous 

 Snake (Gonyophis margaritatus), which he saw wound round a 

 tree-trunk, a fine sight in its marvellous colouring of light blue 

 banded with yellow. On our way up the hill we found a small 

 brown Snake coiled up on a leaf ; it turned out to be Doliophis 

 bivirgatus, quite a common Sarawak Snake, especially in this 

 particular region. The only other Snake obtained on the 

 mountain was Ablabes baliodirus, also not uncommon in Sarawak. 



Descending the hill one day, I was startled by a sudden 

 rustling of leaves in a tree quite close to the path as I passed. 

 Wondering what sort of beast was going to attack me, I looked 

 up and saw a huge Monitor Lizard (Varanus sp.) about five feet 

 long, scuttling out of some dead leaves and then slowly climb 

 the bare tree-trunk ; it no doubt wondered what sort of animal 

 was after it on the path below ! Beating for insects, we 

 occasionally disturbed one of those pretty little parachuting 

 Lizards {Draco) which are able to "fly" quite a distance from 

 one tree to another, of course only on a downward slant, though 

 they alight head upwards on a tree-trunk. 



A few land-shells were annexed, one or two small species 

 being found on leaves. One of the commonest objects of the 

 " country-side " was a big orange-coloured Myriapod (Glomerida) , 

 which was seen crawling about the path pretty well all the way 

 up from our camp to the higher plateau. Ants, of course, 

 innumerable and ubiquitous. A detailed account of all the 

 insects we saw or obtained on the mountain is beyond the scope 

 of this article (and, incidentally, beyond the power of the 

 writer!), so a brief report on the more obvious Orders must 

 suffice- B.'s peculiar weakness was the family of Pselaphida, 

 and those who have had anything to do with Coleoptera will 

 know that the majority are hardly big enough to excite great 

 interest on the part of the layman. An account of them and 

 other " Micro-Coleoptera " I hope will emerge some time from 

 the more experienced hands of B. himself. 



The Blattidce obtained were : two examples of the rare 



