CHAP, X.] COLLECTING UNDER DIFFICUlfrES. 



150 



plains, wliGTe it grows by tliousands and appears in thrre 

 difTerent stales— iu l«iaf, in flower and fruit, or dead. It 

 has a lofty cylindrical stem about a hundred feet liigb and 

 two to three feet in diameter ; the leaves ai'e large and fan- 

 shaped, and fall off Mdien the tree flowers, which it does 

 only once in its life in a huge terminal spike, ou winch are 

 ])roduced masses of a smooth round fruit of a green colour 

 ^ and about an inch in diameter. Wben these ripen and fall 

 * the tree dies, and remains standing a year or two before it 

 falls. Trees in leaf only are by far the most numerous, 

 then those in flower and fruit, while dead trees are scat- 

 tered here and there among them. The trees in fruit are 

 the resort of the great green fruit pigeons, which have been 

 already mentioned. Troops of monkeys (Mucacus eyno- 

 inolgus) may often be seen occupying a tree, showering 

 dow[i the fruit in great profusion, chattering wlien dis- 

 turbed and making an enormous rustling as they scamper 

 off among the dead palm leaves ; while the pigeons have a 

 loud booming voice more like the roar of a wOd beast than 

 the note of a bird. 



My collecting operations here were caiTied on under 

 more than usual difllculties. One small room hrid to serve 

 for eating sleeping and working, for Btoreliouse and dis- 

 secting-room ; in it were no shelves, cupboards, cliairs or 

 tables; ants swarmed in every part of it, and dogs, cats and 

 fowls entered it at pleasure. liesides this it was the parlour 

 and reception-room of my host, and I was ol)liged to con- 

 sult his convenience and that of the numerous guests %vho 

 visited us. My principal piece of furniture was a box» 

 which served me as a dining-table, a seat while skinning 

 birds, and as the receptacle of the birds when sldnned and 

 dried. To keep them free from ants we boi'rowcd, with some 

 dilliculty, an old bench, the four legs of which Ijeing placed 

 in cocoa-nut shells filled witli water kept us tolerably frcL* 

 from these pests. The box and tlie bench were however 

 literally the only places where anything could be put 

 away, and they were generally well occupied by two 

 insect boxes and about a hundred l*irils' skins in process of 

 drying. It may therefore be easily conceived that when 

 anything bulky or out of the common way was collected, 

 the question " Where is it to be put ? " was rather a dilli- 



