NORTH BORNEO. 
51 
4 
When my servant brought back the two birds, the mother was quite weak and totally 
unable to fly, so we gave her plenty of rice and fruit, and in about a week she took her 
departure; her infant from the first was quite friendly, the only thing it wanted was food, 
and then more food. It used to sit in a small hamper, where it kept up a continual noise 
which resembled the rubbing of a wet cork on a bottle, and shortly became such a source 
of annoyance that we used to put the baby too far off to trouble us with its music. This 
eventually caused its death, one of the boys putting it in the sun, which soon killed it. 
Hornbills soon become quite tame, and are sometimes to be found kept as pets in native 
villages. 
Butterflies and insects were fairly plentiful, especially a small forest-frequenting bee. 
This little insect was at times quite a nuisance, swarming over one’s hands and face, where 
they sought to obtain the saline exudations from our skin; in fact, for the time you are 
as attractive to these insects as the flowers. The nests of these bees are placed in a hole in 
a tree, the entrance being a long semitransparent pipe of resin, which doubtless protects 
the colony from rain running down the trunk of the tree. 
Another species of bee builds a huge bag-like nest, which hangs from the boughs of 
the highest forest trees. As this nest is composed of valuable wax, the aborigines collect 
it by means of a frail ladder, which is formed by tapping bamboo spikes into the trunk and 
binding the other end of the round to a rattan cane, forming a ladder of often considerably 
over one hundred feet in height, of which the tree forms one of the side-pieces. This they 
ascend until the boughs are reached, Avhen by means of a smoky torch they are able to 
secure the nests—a small profit for so much risk. Some of the forest spiders have most 
wonderfully shaped thoraces ; one, the “ Manga tandok,” or Horned Spider, being most 
remarkable. The “ Manga sisir,” or Comb Spider, is also very curious (see illustration, 
page 50). These are native names for these insects, every Bornean being more or less a 
naturalist; most of the common insects even receive names. 
The most beautiful of common butterflies, Symphcedra dirtea, frequented the jungle- 
paths, where they fed on rotting fruits. Another fine species, Protlioe uniformis , has the 
habit of always resting head downwards on the trunks. I was fortunate in capturing a 
perfect specimen of Papilio brama , a very handsome spoon-tailed species with wings of 
black spangled with bright metallic green, and with a broad band of the latter colour 
running right across both wings. 
Though tropical forests teem with life, it must not be supposed for a moment that it is 
only necessary to take a stroll in order to collect as many birds or insects as you may think 
fit. After a few days in any one locality specimens come in very slowly indeed—that is, 
after you have collected the commoner species. The more gorgeous butterflies are seldom 
seen unless by good luck you find a flowering tree or some sandy stream which they 
frequent. The Papilio brama mentioned was the only example of this species I saw in 
Borneo; and many species are so rare that, though they were first discovered many years 
ago, only a few specimens as yet have found their way into collectors’ cabinets. The same 
applies in perhaps a less degree to birds; many days during my travels neither my hunters 
nor myself have fired a shot. Numbers of well-known Bornean birds I never saw, and of 
many I only obtained one specimen; and yet though the island of Borneo is by no means 
fully explored, every expedition of note adding a few new species to the list of its ornis, 
ii 2 
