IN THE MOLUCCAS. 



creek of the Amboina Bay, wliich at high water is only a few 

 yards tlistimt; 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 t>e done here as it times them 

 to concerted action, Paso is anything but dull. 



M(tj/ 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- ^ 

 Knpu rnjah or royal buttorfliea, for which this island is ! 

 famuli^, are very dilHcult to catch, as they fly at so great a 

 height J nevertheless the large green O.priammf and O.remm^ 

 have been obtained feeding on the Cerhra lactaria and €, 

 odaUam. I have on several occasions found the bodiless wings 

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

 birfls, 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 lesa rare 

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

 JEnchirm IoH(/imanus, figured by Mr. Wallace m his lilalay 

 Archipelago, which perish in thousands every year by 

 dropping, generally daring 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 Ctiseus also, of which we have obtained three species, 

 have interested us. They are very plentiful, and at tliis 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 lips formed into a simple round orifice 

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

 whom they are c*xught in nooses set in the trees, or by artifice 

 In moonlight nights creeping stealthUy 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 

 C%tmits descends and is fallen on by the watchers below. The 

 python is their greatest enemy, and devours large numbers of 



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