euAi ivii.] JilRDS AlfD INSECTS, 2G1 



important for them to finish owing to the early raina, that 

 I could get no one to shoot for me. 



During the three weeks that I stayed at Panghu it 

 rained nearly every day^ either in the afternoon only, or 

 all day long ; but there were generally a few hours' sun- 

 shine in the looming, and I took advantage of these to 

 explore tlie roads and paths, the rocks and ravines, in 

 search of insects. These were not very abundant, yet I 

 saw enough to convince me that the locality was a good 

 one, had I been there at the beginning instead of at the 

 end of the dry season. The natives brought me daily a 

 few insects obtained at the Sagueir palms, inclnding some 

 fine Cetonias and stag-beetles. Two little boys were vGvy 

 expert with the blowpipe, and hrouglit me a good many 

 small birds, w^jich they shot with pellets of clay. Among 

 these was a pretty little flower-pecker of a new species 

 (Prionochilus aureolimbatus), and several of the loveliest 

 honeysuckers I had yet seen. Jly general collection of 

 birds was, however, almost at a standstill ; for though I at 

 length obtained a man to shoot tor me, he was not good 

 for mucli, and seldom brought nie moiij than one bird a 

 day. The best thing he shot was the large and rare fruit- 

 pigeon peeidiar to Nortlierii Celebes (Carpophaga forsteiii), 

 vs'hlch 1 had long been seeking after. 



I was myself very successful in one beautifid group 

 of insects, the tiger-beetles, which seem more abundant 

 and varied here than anywhere else in the Archipelago. 

 I first met with them on a catting in the road, where 

 a hard clayey bank was partially overgrown w^itli mosses 

 iind small ferjis. Here, I found running about, a small 

 olive-green species which never took iiight ; and more 

 rarely a fine pur|>lish hlack wingless insect, which was 

 always found motionless in crevices, and was therefore 

 probably nocturnal. It appeared to me to form a new 

 genus. About the roads in the forest, I found the lai^e 

 and handsome Cicindela heros, which I had before obtained 

 sparingly at Slacassar ; hut it was in the rmumtain torrent 

 of the ravine itself that 1 got my finest things. On dead 

 tranks overhanging the water and on the banks and foliage, 

 I obtained three very pretty species of Cicindela, quite 

 distinct in size, form, and colour, but having an almost 



