MYDAUS MELICEPS. 
tains. It is, however, more abundant on those which, after reaching a certain 
elevation, consist of numerous connected horizontal ridges, than on those winch 
terminate in a defined conical peak. Of the former description are the Mountain 
Prahu and the Tengger Hills, which are both distinctly indicated in Sir Stamford 
Raines's Map of Java; here I observed it in great abundance. It was less common 
on the Mountain Cede, South of Batavia; on the Mountain Ungarang, South of 
Si marang; and on the Mountain Ijen, at the farthest eastern extremity; but I traced 
its range through the whole Island. 
Most of these mountains and ridges furnish tracts of considerable extent, fitted 
for the cultivation of wheat and other European grams. Certain extra-tropical 
fruits are likewise raised with success: peaches and strawberries grow in considerable 
abundance, and the common culinary vegetables of Europe are cultivated to 
great extent. To most Europeans and Chinese, a residence in these elevated 
regions is extremely desirable; and even the natives, who in general dislike its cold 
atmosphere, are attracted by the fertility of the soil, and find it an advantage to 
establish villages, and to clear grounds for culture. Potatoes, cabbages, and many 
other culinary vegetables are extensively raised, as the entire supply of the plains 
in these articles depends on these elevated districts. Extensive plantations of wheat 
and of other European grains, as well as of tobacco, are here found, where rice, the 
universal product of the plains, refuses to grow. These grounds and plantations are 
laid out in the deep vegetable mould, where the Teledu holds its range as the most 
ancient inhabitant of the soil. In its rambles in search of food, this animal fre- 
quently enters the plantations, and destroys the roots of young plants; in this manner 
it causes extensive injury, and on the Tengger Hills particularly, where these plant- 
ations are more extensive than in other elevated tracts, its visits are much dreaded 
by the inhabitants : it burrows in the earth with its nose in the same manner as hogs, 
and in traversing the hills, its nocturnal toils are observed in the morning in small 
ridges of mould recently turned up. 
The Mydaus forms its dwelling at a slight depth beneath the surface, in the 
black mould, with considerable ingenuity. Having selected a spot, defended above 
by the roots of a large tree, it constructs a cell or chamber, of a globular form, 
having a diameter of several feet, the sides of which it makes perfectly smooth and 
regular ; this it provides with a subterraneous conduit or avenue, about six feet in 
length, the external entrance to which it conceals with twigs and dry leaves. During 
the day it remains concealed, like a badger in its hole ; at night it proceeds in search 
of its food, which consists of insects and their larva?, and of worms of every kind : 
it is particularly fond of the common lumbrici, or earth-worms, which abound in the 
fertile mould. These animals, agreeably to the information of the natives, live in 
pairs, and the female produces two or three young at a birth. 
The motions of the Mydaus are slow, and it is easily taken by the natives, who 
by no means fear it During my abode on the Mountain Prahu, I engaged them 
