40- 
One old Malay woman came aboard with four large bird cages, end 
Dr. Coenraad promptly went to investigate. Ps they were yellow- 
headed bulbuls (of which we already have ten) she was allowed to 
keep her pets* 
Landed early in the morning, and went to the Hotel des Indes. 
The city proper is about seven miles from Ta.njong Priok, the port, 
and the* road followed a. canal all the way. In the old days river 
steamers used the canal, coming up to Batavia, but now an occasional 
canal boat, covered over, on which a native family lives, is all 
the traffic there is by water. Brahminy kites, bright brown with 
white, aquiline heads, flew over the water in great flocks. 
We spent an hour and a half with Walter Foote, the American 
Consul General, discussing possibilities of having our permit 
extended a little. He promised to do everything he could for us. 
Then we went out to see the Zoo, which is a combination zoologi- 
cal garden and childrens 1 playground. In Java there has been a 
great deal of intermarrying between the Dutch and the natives, and 
we saw many dark mothers with blond children, or Nordic fathers 
with dusky youngsters. Merry-go-rounds, pushed by a Malay boy, 
were popular, as were sand piles, swings, and i^ ^t e r - tott c» - o . b a.^ 
As for the animals, there were some beautiful silver gibbons, a 
nice male orang-utan, tree kangaroos, a fossa cat from Madagascar, 
four anoas, two uncomfortable polar bears, a baby Sumatran ele- 
phant with long hair, hornbills, fairy bluebirds, and others. 
We were astonished to find Batavia had almost as many animal 
collectors in town as animals. On the boat in the morning we had 
met Danesch, collecting for Amazonica in New York. In the Zoo we 
learned that Meems, of Wrrd and Meems, and Kreth, of Ruhe, were 
here, too. We got in touch with Meems and Kreth, and they spent 
the rest of the day with us. 
At the Hotel des Indes we had our fir t reistafel, that famous 
dish of the Dutch East Indies. Twenty boys served us, passing 
various victuals in what appeared for some moments to be an 
endless chain. A big soup bowl was placed in front of us, with 
an extra side plate for the overflow. The first offering was 
boiled rice, served from a big silver bowl # Onto the rice went 
curried chicken, steak, baked fish, spaghetti, fried coconut, 
cucumbers (boiled, pickled, and fresh), peanuts, red peppers, 
fried bananas, chutney, onions, fried nut cakes, shrimps, fried 
egg, salted hard-boiled duck egg, and various complicated gravies 
and sauces. I had heard so much about the reistafel that I 
probably expected too much in the way of gastronomic delight: the 
general effect was slightly messy, and by the time one was served 
with all the dishes, the original rice, and most of tie things 
that went on it, were cold. 
In the afternoon we went to the bird market, an interesting 
crowded street market, where many of the East Indian birds were 
to be had. Fairy bluebirds, lovely little finches, parrots of 
all colors, mynahs, and quantities of doves, as well as a baby 
musang and a baby Felis rainuta, ^ere on sale. We looked the 
supply over, but did not buy anything. We shall stop here again 
