10 
MALACCA. 
butterflies are found in shady paths, or in the cool beds of half-dried-up streams, sipping 
moisture through the damp sand. 
Most mammals seek their food at night, monkeys and squirrels being the chief 
exceptions; and it is only after the sun’s declining rays reach high into the vault of the 
heavens, when the cicadas fill the air with their discordant music, and the Nightjar may be 
seen disporting himself high in the sun’s departing rays, that the timid deer and lordly tiger 
leave their lairs—the one to munch the tender grass, the other to destroy some unsuspecting 
victim. To be successful as a big-game hunter in the Malay Archipelago requires a good 
deal of perseverance and night work, also a skin that bids defiance to mosquitoes. Larger 
animals are seldom met with during the day, owing to the density of the underw T ood in the 
places they frequent; if by chance you should disturb a deer or pig, they are out of sight 
in a moment, the crashing of the underwood being often the only indication you have of 
their near presence. As I did not visit these lands for the purpose of collecting hides and 
horns for my trophies, but rather the more lasting beauties of the East, and especially, if 
possible, to add some little everlasting stone to that ever-increasing cairn of human know¬ 
ledge—so, if my readers expect to follow me to a field of carnage and “ acres of meat,” they 
will, I am afraid, be disappointed. 
Well! to return to our Eastern evenings. Most striking perhaps at this period of the 
day are the huge fruit-eating Bats ( Pteropus ), which issue forth in hundreds from some quiet 
spot in the forest, where they have been hanging head downwards all day in the topmost 
branches of some tree. Slowly they flap their noiseless way to some fruit-bearing forest 
tree, or perhaps make a descent on some Malay’s garden, where they will meet in a 
shrieking fighting mass, and before the sun’s light again appears not a leaf or a berry will 
be left. Besides these fruit-eaters, there is a multitude of insectivorous bats which flitter 
close by like spirits on silent wings. 
Of the bird world many species of Swifts and Swallows fly low, and dipping, drink the 
water of some tank or pond; Herons utter a few hoarse croaks before seeking some well- 
known pool where frogs and fish will later suffer. Most interesting to me were the 
Nightjars (. Lyncornis temmincki), which exactly at ten minutes past six might be seen 
flying high in the last rays of the setting sun, uttering a pretty whistling note, “ Teta bdiv, 
teta lowT So well timed was their flight, that I knew the time without looking at my 
watch. After ten minutes’ flight this Nightjar descends to the earth, and may be seen 
flitting over the rice-fields, now and then soaring up after its insect prey, or sitting on some 
dead bough or post, where its pretty note is changed to a frog-like croak. A few minutes 
before sunrise this bird takes another flight high into the sky, when Teta low is heard for a 
few minutes, then quietly he drops to mother earth, where, drow T sy and silent, he w r ill 
remain under some friendly shelter from the sun’s all-powerful rays until nature tells him 
it is time to be up and doing. 
A dull brown butterfly ( Amathusia phidippus) might be seen taking a short flight 
beneath the spreading trees. This insect has a very disagreeable odour, which is no doubt 
protective. Thousands of minute insect forms, from ugly ichneumons and blundering 
beetles to fairy gauze-winged flies, seek to dash their brains out against the first lamp seen, 
or struggling, stick with tiny kicking legs in any oil that has not been cleaned away; and 
