CHAP, til] Wrin PEACOCKS, 107 



Wonosalera is situated about a thousaud feet above the 

 sea, but unfortunately it is at a distance from tbe forest, 

 and is surrounded by coffee-plantations, tbicketa of bamboo, 

 and coarse grasses. It was too far to walk back daily to the 

 forest, and in other directions I could find no collectiiit* 

 *;roun(l for insects. The place was, however, fiiraous for 

 peacocks, and my boy soon shot several of these magni- 

 ficent birds, whose Ueah we found to be tender, white, and 

 delicate, and similar to that of a turkey. The Java 

 peacock is a different species from that of India, the neck 

 beinfT covered witii scale-like green feathers, and the crest 

 of a different fortn ; but the eyed train is equally large and 

 equally beautiful. It is a singular fact in gtiographical 

 distribution that the peacock should not be found in 

 Sumatra or 'Borneo, while the superb Argua, Fire-backed, 

 and OceDated pljensants of those islands are equally uu- 

 kuown in Java. Exactly parallel is the fact that in Ceylon 

 and Southern India, %vhere the peacock abounds, there are 

 none of the splendid D>phophori and other gorgeous 

 pheasants which inhabit Northern India. It would seeiu 

 as if the peacock can admit of no rivals in its domain. 

 Were these birds mre in their native country, anti unknown 

 alive in Europe^ they would assuredly be coiLsidered 

 the true princes of the feathered tribea, and altogether 

 unrivalled for stateliuess and beauty. As it is, I suppose 

 scarcely any one if asked to fix: upon the rnof^t beautiful 

 bird in the world would name the peacock, any more 

 than the Papuan savage or the Bugis trader would ll\ 

 upon the bird of paradise for the same honour. 



Three days after my arrival at Wouosaleru, my friend 

 Mr. Ball came to pay me a ^risit. He told me that two 

 evenings before, a boy had been killed and eaten by a tiger 

 close to Modjo-agong. He was riding on a cart drawn by 

 bullocks, and was coming home about dusk on tbe main 

 road; and when not half a mile from tbe village a tiger 

 sin-ang upon him, carried him off into the jungle close by, 

 and devoured him. Next morning his remains were dis- 

 covered, consisting only of a few mangled bones. The 

 Waidono had got together about seven hundred men, and 

 was in chase of the animal, which, I afterwards he^wl, 

 they found and killed. They only use spears when in 



