460 



A XATaMALI8T*S WAND£IiINGS 



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

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

 sliarp-eyed native ser\'ant, could ever detect tliem, even in 

 trees where we knew tliey were sitting. 'J'he peculiar colora- 

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

 cabinet is so c^iiispicuons and striking that it wouhl scarcely 

 be believed that they can occupy leailess branches (if there bo 

 foliage behind and above them) with the most perfect safety 

 from detection. Neither the kakuak (Fhilemoiijy the oriole, nor 

 the cuckoo {€eniropm)i which were m conspicuous among the 

 trees and shrubs around Fatunaba, were observed at Bibif^n^u. 



My herbarinm, 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 adtlition was a large climbing species of ArioearpesR, 

 with the chiistest possible foliage, which coiled itself in regular 

 spirals aboot 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 blotched with pure chiuese- 

 white, to light red or brilliant scarlet speckled witb the 

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

 heap on the gromid, might have imssed for the eggs of some 

 of the Pheasant or Grouse families* 



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

 bringing me the butauical 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 sjmred, however, I knew, without 

 pinching the mejigre Fatunaba larder; and among which I 

 found a note ivith the evil and disquieting tidings that our 

 house had been attacked in the night and plundered of nearly 

 all the steels of trade gomh and other valuables that it con- 

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

 of her defenceless cMinditlon. She bravely Siiid nothing of 

 being afraid, so 1 could only hojte that the anxious fear — more 

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

 them might not in the op]>ressive stillness of the night in her 

 uu protected hut, prey on her nerves not then fully recovered 

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

 Kalenbar attack in Timor-Iaut. 



