56 



A NATUBALIST'S WANDERINGS 



day they retired ; and as soon as the cattle arrived they 

 would alight ou their backs in crowds, to the evident satis- 

 faction of the oxen, which they relieved of troublesome parasites. 

 Although the herd- boys commonly lay dozing at full length 

 on the buffaloes' backs, the birtls seemed to know that they 

 were quite safe, and would even alight on the bare backs 

 of the sleepers, and from that hop on to the hamiehes of the 

 quadruped ; and when the herds were driven away at nightfall 

 the Sturnopastors flew off to tlie forest. 



One of the rarer birds obtained here was the fine red- 

 crested Woodpecker (Mifflyptcs tristis), which much resembles 

 the HL gmmminithorax of 31alhei'bej which is not found in 

 Java, while the former, distinguished by its uniform black 

 breast and abdomen, is confined to this island,* lu the 

 gloaming, frequenting leafless branches, I often saw the 

 minute Butterfly Hawk (MtcroMerax frwfi^a7-ius)j not so 

 large as a shrike, darting after grasshoppers, moths and late- 

 flying butterflies. Among the songsters that made them- 

 selves more noticeable by frequenting the isolated trees near 

 my house, were the golden Oriole {Oriolus maculaitis) and 

 the yellow croiMied Bulbul (Trachycomus ochrocepJiahis), 

 which late in the evenings filled the whole neigh Iwurhoixl 

 with their melodious, clear, liell-llke notes j while two members 

 of the Cuckoo family, the " Doodoot ** (Mhinococcyx cunirosiHs) 

 and the "Boot" (E. javanefim) used to utt4T tiieir curious 

 bleating call in the low jungle behind, often brmkiug with their 

 weird modulations the stillness of the midnight. In a neigh- 

 bouring clump of canes a colony of Yellow Weaver-birds 

 (Ploeeus hifpomnihm) had thickly hung their nests. Each nest 

 was artfully suspended between the interlacing leaf-stems of one 

 or two reeds in a most skilful way, to secure as much as possible 

 the safety of their eggs during the waving of the reeds in the 

 wiud. These nests were not made fast to, but strung lightly 

 on the leaves, sometimes passed through the fork of another 

 leaf to form a pulley, so as to permit, by sliding along in the 

 swaying of the grass, of their retaining theit vertical position, 

 which they must do, weighted as they are by a layer of clay in 

 the btittom of the nests. I noticed that many <tf them were 



Uargilt, ♦ m&; 1861, jip. IW, 191 ; and Nicholson, o/>. tit, 1870, 16. 



