CHAF. Tin.] MOUPITAIN BIRDS. 



121 



Ilk niy more special pursuits, I had very little snccesa 

 upon tbe mountain ; owing, pprhaps, to the excessively 

 unpropitious weather and the sliortness of my stay. At 

 from 7,00Q to 8,000 feet elevation, I obtained one of tbe 

 most lovely of the small fruit pigeons (Ptilonopus rosei- 

 collis), whose entire head and neck are of an exquisite 

 rosy pink ooloux, contmting finely with its otherwise 

 green plumage ; and on the very summit, feeding on the 

 gromd among the strawberries that have been planted 

 there, I obtained a dull-coloured thrash, with the form 

 and habits of a starling (Turdus fumidus). Insects were 

 almost entirely absent, owing no doubt to the extreme 

 dampness, and I did not get a single butterfly the whole 

 trip ; yet I feel sure that, during the dry season, a week's 

 residence on this monntain would well repay the collector 

 in every department of natural history. 



After my return to Toego, I endeavoured to find another 

 locality to collect in, and removed to a coffee-plantation 

 some miles to the north, and tried in succession higher 

 and lower stations on the mountain; but I never suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining insects in any abundance, and bii'ds 

 were far less plentiful than on the Megamendong Moun- 

 tain. The weather now became more rainy than ever, 

 and as the wet season seemed to have set in in earnest, 

 I returned to Batavia, packed up and sent off my col- 

 lections, and left by steamer on November 1st for Banca 

 and Sumatra. 



CHAPTER VITI. 



SUMATRA. 



(KOVESlBEa 1801 TO JASUAIIY 1862.) 



rpHE mail steamer from Batavia to Singapore took me to 

 J- I^Iuntok (or as on English maps, "Minto"), the chief 

 town and port of Banca, Here I stayed a day or two, till I 

 could obtain a boat to take me across the straits, and up 

 the river to Palembang. A few walks into the country 



