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LEIGHTON DROS.
y
GRBES HONEY
( MYZOMELA ANNABELLE, Sed.)
- RATER.
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A NATURALISTS WANDERINGS
IN THE
EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO
A NARRATIVE OF TRAVEL AND EXPLORATION:
From 1878 to 1883
BY
HENRY O. FORBES, F.R.G.S.
MEMBER OF THE SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY ; FELLOW OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON
MEMBER OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND
MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGIST’S UNION
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE AUTHOR’S SKETCHES
AND DESCRIPTIONS BY MR. JOHN B. GIBBS
NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE
1885
TO
THE MEMORY
OF
MY FRIEND AND CLASS-FELLOW AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH,
Gilliam Alexander forbes,
B.A, F.L.S., F.GS., &c.,
FELLOW OF ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE;
PROSECTOR 'TO THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON;
WHO DIED IN AFRICA IN JANUARY, 1883,
WHILE LEADING A SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION ALONG THE RIVER NIGER;
AND WHO, ALREADY EMINENT FOR ENDURING WORK
ACCOMPLISHED IN ZOOLOGICAL SCIENCE,
WAS IN FUTURE PROMISE PRE-EMINENT OVER ALL OF HIS TIME,
This Volume is affectionately Dedicated,
PREFACE.
—1.
Mr. A. R. WaLLAce’s ‘ Malay Archipelago’ is so accurate and
exhaustive an account of the Eastern Isles, that there have
been left but few gleanings for those who have followed him
to gather. Most of the islands visited by me were also visited
by him; but my route has in each island been altogether
different from his. In as far as it refers to islands visited by
both of us, I should desire this volume, which is a mere
transcript of what I have thought the more interesting of
the field notes made during my wanderings, to be considered
in the light of an addendum to—unfortunately without any
of the literary elegance and finish of—that model book of
travel.
No detailed account of the Timor-laut Islands has appeared
before the present ; and very little has been published on the
inhabitants of the interior of Timor.* In the chapters devoted
to these lands I have contributed some ethnological notes which
I trust may be found new and of interest.
Before I allow this volume to leave my hands, I have the
pleasant task of acknowledging my indebtedness to many
friends. Besides those whose kindness I have referred to in
the body of this work, I have in the first instance to beg their
Excellencies Van Lansberge and ’Sjacob, the two Governors-
General of Netherlands India during my stay in the Archi-
pelago, to accept my grateful acknowledgments for their many
* «As Possessdes Portugezas na Oceania, por Affonso do Castro, membro da
Sociedade de Sciencias e Artes de Batavia; Deputado da nacio, &c., ex-
Governador de Timor: Lisboa, 1867,’ contains an interesting account of some
of the customs of the people of E. Timor.
vi PREFACE.
generous concessions and the aid granted to me as a scientific
traveller. My thanks are due also to all the civil officials—
too numerous to name here—whose districts I resided in or
passed through. They upheld the well-deserved fame that the
Dutch-Indian Ambtenars have earned for their hospitality.
The mention of each of their districts is indelibly associated
in my remembrance with their names and their numerous acts
of kindness. I may be permitted to record the names of those
to whom I am under special’ obligation: Governor Laging
Tobias, then Resident of Palembang; Assistant-Resident
Schuylinburch, of Muara-dua; Controllers De Heer and Bey-
rinck, of the Lampong Residency; and Controllers Van der
Volk, Hisgen, and Kamp, of the Palembang Residency.
To Dr. Treub and Dr. Burck, of the Botanical Gardens in
Buitenzorg, I am peculiarly indebted for more than ordinary
acts of courtesy and. friendship; as well as to Dr. Bernelot
Moens, Director of the Cinchona Plantations. To His Ex-
cellency Senhor Bento da Franga Pinto d’ Oliveira, the
Governor of Portuguese Timor, to his whole family, and to his
son Senhor Bento da Franga Salema, Government Secretary,
my wife and myself lie under the deepest indebtedness, not
alone for the aid and protection I was so generously provided
with to enable me to visit the interior of that interesting island,
but for the most affectionate kinduess manifested to us both
throughout our stay in Timor.
To Mr. H. D. Jamieson, Mr. J. Craig and Mr. C. Haliburton,
who did for us many acts of personal kindness and friendship
while in Java, I tender my sincerest thanks.
I have to express my very hearty obligations to the British
Association’s Committee for the exploration of Timor-laut,
especially to Dr. Pp, I. Selater ; to Mr. Carruthers and the
Botanists of the British Museum for their aid in arranging
Timor Herbarium, and for’ their describing it in time. to
appear as one of the appendices of this volume ; to’ Messrs.
8. O. Ridley and J. Quelch, of the Zoological. Departinents
PREFACE. vii
and to Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe for his kind revision of the proof
sheets of the ornithological lists, as well as for his willing aid
in the determination of the birds I obtained.
It was Mr. H. W. Bates, the Author of the‘ Naturalist on
the Amazons,’ who in my boyhood first inspired me with a desire
to visit the tropics; and he, in later years, has ever with ready
cheerfulness aided my inexperience by sound and friendly
advice.
Lastly but chiefly, I must acknowledge a heavy debt of
gratitude to my friend Alexander Comyns, LL.B., of the
Middle Temple, for more acts of kindness, as my constant
correspondent and counsellor during my absence, than can be
ever sufficiently acknowledged or repaid.
I cannot close without adding one word of recognition of
the companion of my travels, whose constant encouragement
and valued aid lighten all my labours.
Henry O. ForRBEs.
Rupistaw DEN, ABERDEEN,
January 30, 1885.
CONTENTS.
PART I.
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS.
CHAPTER I.
IN BATAVIA AND BUITENZORG.
é. : : * . : . zane
Arrival in Batavia—First impressions—Buitenzorg and its Botanical
Gardens .. ae ti “a . “ “ as 3
CHAPTER II.
SOJOURN IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS.
Start for the Cocos-Keeling Islands—In the Straits of Sunda—An unex-
pected pilot—Arrival—History of the colony there—Terrible cyclones
—Home life of the colonists now—The reef and its builders—Fishes
in the lagoon—Crabs and their operations—Plant life—Insect life—
Mammals—Birds re a ae . es ee feel!
CHAPTER III.
SOJOURN IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS (continued).
Coral reef formation—Observations on the elevation or subsidence of the
Keeling Atoll. .. ie i a “ a se « «385
APPENDIX To Parr I. as a bs bis % ue ~ 42
PART If.
IN JAVA.
CHAPTER I.
SOJOURN AT GENTENG IN BANTAM.
On the road—The Sundanese language—Every man a naturalist—Bird-
life at Genteng—Weaver-birds’ nests—A native rural bazaar—Forest
devastation—Geological structure of the district—A wonderful case
of mimicry in a spider. .. re . . or . » ~=51
x CONTENTS.
CHAPTER II.
SOJOURN AT KOSALA IN BANTAM,
Leave Genteng—Native blacksmiths at Sadjira—Hot springs of Tjipanas
Birds and plants at Tjipanas—Invitation to Kosala—The Kosala
estate—The curious disease Lata—Jhe Wau-wau—Birds—Bees—
White ants—Great trees—Long drought and its consequences—The
Hemileia vastatrix, a fungoid blight and the buffalo diseass—Flora
and fauna of Kosala Mountains—Singular living ants’ nests and their
development—Orchids at Kosala and some curious devices for secur-
ing self-fertilisation—Ancient remains in the forest-—The Karangs
and their curious rites—'T'he Badui—Religion and superstitions of the
people of Bantam—Leave Kosala “a aS
CHAPTER III.
SOJOURN AT PENGELENGAN, IN THE PREANGER REGENCIES.
Leave Buitenzorg for the Preanger Regencies—Journey to Bandong in a
post-cart—Bandong—Thence to Pengelengan—Visit to the famous
Cinchona Gardens of the Government—Plant-life in the surrounding
mountains—The Upas-tree—Crater flora-—Land slips and the
power of rain—Interesting birds—he Badger-headed Mydaus—The
Banteng, or wild cattle—Wild dogs—Leave Pengelengan for Batavia
ArpeNDIXxX TO PartII. .. 2 oe as de nA Pr
PART III.
IN SUMATRA.
CHAPTER I,
SOJOURN IN THE LAMPONGS.
Leave Batavia for Telok-betong—-Lampong Bay—Telok-betong—Leave
for Gedong-tetahan—Forest scenery by the way—KEscape from a
tiger—Flowers in the forest—Gedong-tetahan—Birds and insects
there—Move to Kotta-djawa—The village—Ruthless destruction of
the forest—Trees—Entomological treasures—Move to Gunung Trang
—The pepper trade—Birds there—Interesting butterflies .. 6
CHAPTER IT.
SOJOURN IN THE LAMPONGS (continued).
Move towards the Tengamus Movntain—Butterflies found on the journey
PAGE
66
105
118
125
thither—Tiohmomon—The Balai, a characteristic institution—De- .
scent of the Lampongeys—Their language—Divisions of the province. .
CONTENTS. xi
PAGE
—Tiules and dignities—Ornaments—Vestivities and amusements—?
Marriage customs—Move to Penanggungan—Petroleum and parafiin
matches — Penanggungan — Great trees—Interesting plants and
animals—The Siamang—Move to Terratas—Ascent of the Ten-
gamus Mountain—Its tlora and fauna—Return to Penanggungan and
to Batavia ray Y é a a o o » =139
CHAPTER III.
SOJOURN IN THE PALEMBANG RESIDENCY.
From Batavia to Anjer—Return to Telok-Betong —Procecd to Bencawang
—Leave this for the Blalau region—Camp at Sanghar—Camp in the
forest—Phosphorescent display—Camp again in furest—Reach Bumi-
padang—Pass on to Batu-brah—Description of the village—Move on
to Kenali—Description of the village—Proceed to Hoodjoong—De- .
scription of the village—Its tobacco industry—lIts rice-fields—Plant-
ing and reaping—Superstitions—Goitre—Fauna and flora of the
Besagi volcano— Birds and insects of the neighbourhood .. . 161
CHAPTER IV.
SOJOURN IN THE PALEMBANG RESIDENCY (continued).
‘
Leave Hoodjong—Denudation—Great arums—Sukan—Chiefs of the
Ranau region—Tandjon-djati on the Ranau Lake—The high tempera-
ture of the water—Birds, fishes, interesting insects—Banding Agong
—To Muara Dua—Through Kisam — Geological notes —Kisam
villages—Coat of arms—Writing, dress, religion of Kisam people .. 174
CHAPTER V.
SOJOURN IN THE PALEMBANG RESIDENCY (continued).
From Gunung Megang—Luntar—A surprise—River Ogan—Curious
hills—Ornamental carving—A village fair—A cock-fight—Into the
Inim Valley—Muara Inim—Lahat—-Passumah Lands—Ceremonial
formulas—T'he people—Marriage ceremonies—lIllegitimate births—
Religion—Death superstitions and rites—Sculptured stones—Inter-
esting visit from Bencoolen men i ak. WBS cae al” ag ee OBS
CHAPTER VI. :
SOJOURN IN THE PALEMBANG RESIDENCY (continued).
Passumah Lands (contd.)—The Volcano of the Dempo—Its flora and
fauna—The crater—Spectre of the Brocken—The view from the
summit—Leave for the Kaba Voleano—Gunung Meraksa—River
journey on a raft-—Lampar—Find again the spider Urnithoscatoides
decipiens—Batupantjei—A marriage scene—Games of the boys—
Houses—Tebbing-Tinggi—T'andjong-ning—Great trees—My party
attacked by a tiger—Its wiliness—Its capture—Graveyard .. . 206
xii ‘CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
SOJOURN IN THE PALEMBANG RESIDENCY (continued).
Leave ‘Tandjong-Ning—Padang Ulak-Tandjong—Kepala Tjurup—Hot
springs of- the “Kaba—Earthquake—Botanical features —Curious
plants—Fertilisation of Melastoma—A pilgrimage—The crater of
the Kaba—The nomadic Kubus—Rupit river scenery—Gold-
gatherers—Muara-rupit—The Durian—Surulanguo—thieves and
thieves’ calendars— Malay dignity—Leave for Muara Mengkulem ..
CHAPTER VIII.
SOJOURN IN THE PALEMBANG RESIDENCY (continued).
Muara Menckulem—Refused entrance into the Djambi Sultanate—Napal
Litjin—Peak of Karang-nata—Geological formation— Botanical
fedtures—Birds—Hemipteron milked by ants—Rakit lite—Bigin-
PAG
225
-telok—Water roads—An escape from drowning—Pau—River squall -
—Approach to Palembang—River life and its massive a ae
town of Palembang—Return to Batavia
APPENDIX TO ParTIII. .. ” ¥e a “i
PART IV.
IN THE MOLUCCAS AND IN TIMOR-LAUT.
CHAPTER I.
FROM JAVA TO AMBOINA.
Sojourn in. Buitenzorg, Java—Leaye for Amboina accompanied by my
wife—Friends on board—Call at Samarang and Sourabaya i in Java—
Macassar in Celebes—Bima in Sumbawa—Larantuka in Flores—
Cupang and Dilly in Timor—Banda, the island of nutmeg gardens..
CHAPTER II.
AMBOINA,
Amboina—Reception by Mr. Resident Riedel—Delay—Visit interior of
Amboina—Paso—Move to Wai—The eae there—The flora and
fauna—Return to Amboina.. es as Be
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PART T.
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS,
A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
IN THE
EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO.
CHAPTER I.
IN BATAVIA AND BUITENZORG.
Arrival in Batavia—First. impressions—Buitenzorg and its Botanical
Gardens.
On the 8th October, 1878, I embarked at Southampton on
board the Royal Dutch Mail steamer Celebes, for Batavia,
on a long-dreamt of visit to the tropical regions of tke globe.
There is little of interest or novelty to record nowadays of a
voyage to the East. The most stay-at-home is familiar with
this ocean highway.
The home-come traveiler, however, will be pleased to be
reminded of that pleasant picture nestling between the
Burlings and the Arabida hills—the stupendous and useless
convent of Mafra, the sharp turrets and bristling peaks of
Cintra, and the flashing towers and white buildings of Lisbon.
rising from the banks of the river. Notwithstanding all I
had read of Wallace and of Bates, I was going out full of
extravagant ideas of tropical blossoms; and had little idea,
as I rounded the cape of Gibraltar, leaving to the north of
me purple hills of heather, scarlet fields of poppies, and rich
parterres starred with cistus and orchids, with anemones
and geraniums, and sweet’ with aromatic shrubs and herbs,
that I would encounter nothing half so rich or bright amid
all the profusion of the “ summer of the world.”
It. will please him to have recalled the Straits of Messina,
4 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
bathed in sunlight, its little villages with their olive groves
and vineyards slumbering at the mouth of chasm-like gorges,
winding away up amongst the mountains which ruggedly
overshadow them.
In crossing the Mediterranean, we gave a lift to tired wag-
tails and swallows, to a goat-sucker ana a fly-catcher, and
carried them into Port Said. The squalor of that town, the
barrenness of the canal shores and the arid bareness of Aden
were a splendid offset to the verdure just ahead of us. In the
Indian Ocean our friendly yard-arms gave a rest to several
bee-eaters (Merops philippinus), to a chat and to little flocks of
swallows before we sighted the Maldive and Laccadive coral
Archipelagoes. Far ahead on the horizon their islets looked
like a group of bouquets set in marble-rimmed vases; but as
we approached, the vase rims changed into the surf of the sea
breaking on the reef to feed its builders, and the bouquets
into clumps of cocoa-palms, iron-wood, and other trees which
the currents of the sea have washed together, and the passing
winds and wandering birds have carried thither to deck these
lone homes of the ocean fowl, which came fighting in our
wake for the scraps that fell from our floating table.
Holding on east by southward for a few days more, a hazy
streak appeared on our horizon, and my eyes rested on the
first of the Malayan islands—on the distant peaks of Sumatra.
We anchored at Padang for a day, and, in sailing southward
along its coast, I could not admire sufficiently the magnificence
of that island—its great mountain chain running parallel
to the coast, and rising into smoking peaks, clad with forest to
the very crater rime,—which later I found to be all that I had
pictured it from the sea, and more.
On the morning of the second day, we entered the Sunda
Straits, that narrow water-pass by the opening of which between
Java and Sumatra, Nature has laid under grateful tribute all
Cape-coming and -going mariners through the Java Sea to and
from the Archipelago or Chinese ports. Dotted about in this
narrow channel, were low picturesque islands and solitary cones
of burnt-out craters, towering sheer up to a height of from two
to three thousand feet, all clothed in vegetation. Prominent
among the latter stood out the sharp cone of Krakatoa, whose
name will scarcely be forgotten by our generation at least, and
IN Tit COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 5
will live longer in the sorrowful remembrance of the inhabitants
of the shores of the strait. The appalling catastrophe of
August the 27th, 1883, would, however, sink into insignifi-
eance, if compared with that which, while this was still an
undiscovered sea, must have withdrawn the foundations of the
land over which the strait now flows.
On our right the Java coast lay in a series of beautiful
amphitheatre slopes, laid out in coffee-gardens and rice-
terraces ; on our left were the more distant Sumatra shores cut
into large and beautiful bays between long promontories, on the
easternmost of which stood out the high dome of Raja-basa.
Rounding St. Nicholas Point, we sailed eastward among the
tree-capped Thousand Islands. The coast of Java, on our
right, presented a singular appearance, for, for miles into the
interior it seemed elevated above the level of the sea searcely
more than the height of the trees that covered it. Nothing
could be seen save the sea fringe of vegetation in front of a
green plain, behind which rose the hills of Bantam and the
Blue Mountains, as the old mariners called the peaks of
Buitenzorg.
Late in the afternoon of the 17th of November, the Celebes
dropped her anchor in Batavia Roads, one of the greatest centres
of commerce in all these seas, amid a fleet flying the flags
of all nations. I had reached my destination; but, scan the
shore as I might, I failed to detect anything like a town or even
a village, only a low shore with a fringe of trees whose roots
the surf was lazily lapping. As we approached the land in
the steam tender, into which we were at length transferred,
the shore opened out, and disclosed the mouth of a canal,
leading to the town a long mile inland. A traveller, dropped
down here by chance, might, from these canals, make a very
good guess at the nationality of the dominant power in the
island, for these placid water-roads are as dear to the heart of
the Hollander as heather-hills to a Highlander.
On stepping off the mail, I said good-bye to western life
and ways, and entered on others new and strange to me,
exciting my curiosity, full of fascination, even bewildering,
recalling the confused sensations of my first boyish visit to
the capital. Even in the canal, the first aspects of life were
intensely interesting. Here and there a fishing-boat passed
6 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
us, novel in cut and rig, decked with flowers at the prow,
rowed out to sea by some ten or twelve dusky fishers, singing
an intermittent song, timed to the rattle of their heavy oars
in the rowlocks; a little further on, we glided past a fleet of
gaily painted craft, Malay, Chinese, and Arab, lying at anchor
under the canal wall, their occupants, in bright-coloured cali-
coes, lounging in unwonted attitudes about their decks.
Before we had moored by the side of the Custom-house, it
was quite dark, so that our landing was effected under some
difficulty, amid the usual and necessary din and confusion,
and amid a very Babel of foreign tongues, of which not a
syllable was intelligible to me, saye here and there a
Portuguese word still recognisable, even after the changes of
many centuries—veritable fossils bedded in the language of a
race, where now no recoliection or knowledge of the peoples
who left them exists.
By dint of the universal language of signs, I got myself and
baggage at last transferred to a carriage, drawn by two small
splendidly running ponies, of a famous breed from the island
of Sumbawa. After a drive of between two and three miles,
through what seemed an endless row of Chinese bazaars
and houses, remarkable mostly, as seen in the broken lamp-
light, for their squalor and stench, before which their occu-
pants at smoking and chatting, I at length emerged into
a more genial atmosphere, and into canal and tree-margined
streets, full of fine residences and hotels, very conspicuous by
the blaze of light that lit up their pillared and marbled fronts.
Taking up my quarters at the Hotel der Nederlanden, I had
to be content with an uncurtained shake-down on the floor of
the room of one of my fellow passengers, as every bed in the
hotel was occupied. Next morning, to every one’s surprise,
I arose without a single mosquito bite, evidently mosquito-
proof. To my unspeakable comfort and advantage, I re-
mained absolutely so during my whole sojourn in the East,
and was thus relieved of the necessity of burdening myself
with furniture against these, or any other insect pests whatever.
When the chaotic confusion of my first impressions of
Batavia had become reduced to order, I found that it consisted
of an old and a new town. The old town lies near the strand ;
is close, dusty, and stifling hot, standing scarcely anything
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. %
above the sea-level. It contains the Stadthouse, the offices of
the Government, with the various consulates and banks, all
convenient to the wharf and the Custom-house, situated along
the banks of canals, which intersect the town in every
direction. Round this European nucleus cluster the native
village, the Arab and the Chinese “camps.”
Of Chinamen, Batavia contains many thousands of inhabi-
tants, and, without this element, she might almost close her
warehouses, and send the fleet that studs her roads to ride in
other harbours; for every mercantile house is directly dependent
on their trade. They are almost the sole purchasers of all the
wares they have to dispose of. They rarely purchase except on
credit, and a very sharp eye indeed has to be kept on them
while their names are on the firm’s books, for they are invete-
rate, but clever scoundrels, ever on the outlook for an oppor-
tunity to defraud. In every branch of trade, the Chinaman is
absolutely indispensable, and, despite his entire lack of moral
attributes, his scoundrelism and dangerous revolutionary ten-
dencies, he must be commended for his sheer hard work, his
indomitable energy and perseverance in them all. There is
not a species of trade in the town, except, perhaps, that of
bookseller and chemist, in which he does not engage. Many
of them possess large and elegantly fitted up to/os or shops,
filled with the best European, Chinese, and Japanese stores;
their workmanship is generally quite equal to European, and
in every case they can far undersell their Western rivals.
The Arab, who like the Chinaman is prevented because of
his intriguing disposition from going into the interior of the
island, does, in a quiet and less obtrusive way, a little shop-
keeping and money-lending, but is oftener owner of some sort
of coasting craft, with which he trades from port to port, or
to the outlying islands.
The natives of the town—that is, coast Malays and Sun-
danese—perform only the most menial work; they are vehicle
drivers, the more intelligent are house servants, small traders,
and assistants to the Chinese, but the bulk are coolies. They
have no perseverance, and not much intelligence; and are
very lazy, moderately dishonest, and inveterate gamblers, but
otherwise innocuous.
This was the Batavia— fatal-climated Batavia —of past
8 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
days. In this low-lying, close and stinking neighbourhood,
devoid of wholesome water, scorched in the daytime, and
chilled by the cold sea fogs in the night, did the Hastern
merchant of half-a-century ago reside, as well as trade. Out
of this, however, if he survived the incessant waves of fever,
cholera, small-pox, and typhoid, he returned home in a few
years, the rich partner of some large house, or the owner of a
great fortune.
All this is changed now. Morning and evening, the train
whirls in a few minutes the whole European population—
which tries, in vain, to amass fortunes like those of past times
—to and from the open salubrious suburbs, the new town, of
fine be-gardened residences, each standing in a grove of trees
flanking large parks, the greatest of which, the King’s Plain,
has each of its sides nearly a mile in length. Here the
Governor-General has his official Palace—his unofficial resi-
dence being on the hills at Buitenzorg, about thirty miles to
the south of Batavia; and here are built the barracks, the clubs,
the hotels, and the best shops, dotted along roads shaded by
leafy Hibiscus shrubs, or by the Poinciana regia, an imported
Madagascar tree, which should be seen in the end of the year,
when its broad spreading top is one mass of orange-red
blossoms, whose falling petals redden the path, as if from
the lurid glare of a fiery canopy above. To these pleasant
avenues, in the cool of the evening, just after sunset, and
before the dinner-hour, all classes, either driving or on foot
resort for exercise and friendly intercourse.
In front of the barracks, another fine park, the Waterloo
Plain, is ornamented by a tall column, surmounted by a
rampant lion, with an inscription to commemorate the prowess
of the Netherlanders in winuing the battle of Waterloo. A
remark, perhaps not quite fair, of a Ceylon friend on view-
ing the pillar and its long inscription: “The lion at the top
is not more conspicuous than the lyin’ at the bottom!”
Having been furnished, through the kind influence of
Professor Suringar, of Leyden, with an autograph letter of
recommendation from His Excellency the then Minister for
the Colonies, to the Governor-General of the Netherlands’
Indies, I proceeded, very shortly after my arrival, to Buiten-
zorg, for the purpose of presenting it. From His Excellency
IN THE COCOS-KREELING ISLANDS. 9
I received most favourable letters of commendation to all in
authority under his jurisdiction, and parted with the expres-
sion of his warm interest and best wishes.
Buitenzorg is one of the chief holiday and health resorts of
sick Batavians, and possesses not only a magnificent climate,
but scenery of great beauty and picturesqueness. It is
overlooked by two large and at present harmless volcanic
mountains, the Salak with its disrupted cone, into whose very
heart one looks by the terrible cleft in its side, and the double-
peaked Pangerango and Gede, from whose crater is ever
lazily curling up white vapoury smoke from the simmering
water which at present fills the summit of its pipe. Besides
the fine views to be had in its neighbourhood, Buitenzorg is
chiefly remarkable for its botanic garden, perhaps the finest
in the world, which surrounds the Governor’s palace, and in
which many weeks might be profitably and delightfully spent
by the botanist.
To Mr. Teysmann, who died but recently, after some sixty
years of unbroken service in it, the garden is largely in-
debted for the actual ingathering of the bulk of its treasures.
For fifty years he was engaged in collecting through the
islands of the Archipelago; and some of the rarest and finest
specimens in it, brought as seeds by him, he had the satisfaction
of seeing develop into the grandest of its trees.
A long wide avenue of Kanarie (Canarium commune) trees
traverses the centre of the garden, which interlacing high
overhead in a superb leafy canopy, affords at all hours of the
day a delightful promenade. Near the principal entrance a
tall Amherstia nobilis forms in the rainy season, when it is
ablaze with immense scarlet flower-trosses and plumes of young
leaves of the richest brown, a remarkable object of beauty. On
the right the garden descends to its boundary stream through
arboreta of Buteas, Cassias, Calliandras, Tamarinds, and Poin-
cianas, to groves of Bromeleads and tall Cactacex, Pandans,
Nipas, Cycads and climbing Screw-pines; to plots of Ama-
ryllides, Iris and water-loving plants; and beneath the richest
palmetum in the world, its glory perhaps the Cyrtostachys
renda, whose long bright scarlet leaf sheaths and flower-
spathes, and its red fruit and deep yellow inflorescence hanging
side by side, at once arrest the eye.
10 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Bordering the stream is quite a litile forest of oaks, laurels
and figs, many of them yet unknown to science, merging in a
long, dark, tunnel-like corridor of banyan trees. In a dense
clump affixed to tall tree ferns and Cambodias, whose white,
heavy-odoured flowers entirely carpeted the ground, were
thousands of orchids from all countries, most of them blossom-
ing as profusely as in their native habitat, except a few of
the higher and cooler-living New World species, such as the
Cattleyas, which gradually dwindle away and die out in a few
years. More strangely, the native Phaleenopses (amabilis and
grandiflora) refuse to thrive in the gardens, 750 feet above
the sea, while in Batavia few plants flower so luxuriantly as
they do.
On the left of the central walk there are two remarkable
avenues; the one of stately Brazilian palms, the Oreodoxa
oleracea, whose globular base and smooth ringed stems, were as
straight and symmetrical as if turned in a lathe, and in their
whiteness contrasted markedly with the deep green of the leaf
sheaths and crown of foliage ; the other of bamboos, remarkable
for the number and luxuriance of its species. The curious root-
growing Raftlesias, the Amorphophallus titanum, a giant arum,
and the Teysmannia altifrons, a rare broad-leafed palm, from
Sumatra, and others as rare, which would require too long a list
to enumerate, were to be studied here. My daily morning
round of the garden invariably terminated in a seat under an
umbrageous india-rubber tree, in front of which a fountain
played into a circular pond dotted with blue and white flowers
of water-lilies and Victoria regias. In the sparkling light of
the early sun it was the most charming of spots for a rest.
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IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 1]
CHAPTER II.
SOJOURN IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS.
Start for the Cocos-Keeling Ivlands—In the Straits of Sunda—An unex-
pected pilot—Arrival—History of the colony there—Terrible cyclones—
Home life of the colonists now—The reef and its builders—Fishes in the
lagoon—Crabs and their operations—Plant life—Insect life—Mammals
—Birds.
Tue end of the year 1878 was noted for its very heavy rains,
which in the month of December were at their worst. rans-
port and travel were not only difficult, but in many districts
impossible. Just as I was getting rather puzzled as to how
to get away anywhere out of Batavia, I learned that a small
sailing craft, on which I was offered a passage, was on the point
of leaving for the Cocos-Keeling Islands. With this outlying
spot, made famous by Mr. Darwin’s visit in 1836, 1 was
familar from his ‘Coral Reefs.’ It did not, therefore, take me
long to decide to accept an offer which was as gratifying as it
was unexpected.
After a wearisome fight of fourteen days with the Monsoon
wind at the entrance of the Sunda Straits, we succeeded in
reaching the little village of Anjer, where we stopped a day to
replenish our failing stores of provisions, and to eat our New
Year’s feast in the picturesque inn there, whose verandah
commanded a delightful view of the island-studded strait and
of the rugged mountains of Sumatra on the other side. The
wind, which had opposed us so persistently, had on the day we
again set sail subsided altogether, and it was with the greatest
difficulty that we could haul clear off the land. Day after day
brought us a monotonous calm.
It was something, however, that at this season the forest
along the slowly passing shores and isles was in the full burst
of spring, when it wears in the morning light its most charming
aspect, of surpassing beauty to my novitiate eyes; the piping
12 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
mid-day alone was ungrateful, almost unbearable, exposed to
the sun, as we were, without awning or protection ; the evening
sunsets were scenes to be remembered for a lifetime. The tall
cones of Sibissie and Krakatoa rose dark purple out of an un-
ruffled golden sea, which stretched away to the south-west, where
the sun went down; over the horizon grey fleecy clouds lay in
banks and streaks, above them pale blue lanes of sky, alternating
with orange bands, which higher up gave place to an expanse
of red stretching round the whole heavens. Gradually as the
sun retreated deeper and deeper, the sky became a marvellous
.golden curtain, in front of which the grey clouds coiled them-
selves into weird forms before dissolving into space, taking
with them our last hope that they might contain a breeze, and
leaving us at rest on the placid water, over which shoals of
water-bugs (of the genus Halobates probably) glided, covering
its surface with circles like gentle rain-drop rings; there was
not a sound to break the silence save the plunge of a porpoise
or the fluck of the fishes in quest of their evening meal.
Perhaps these rich after-glows were due to the Kaba eruption
then going on in Mid-Sumatra.
One day, we passed a large log in the sea floating in the
current, to which numerous little crabs were clinging, on their
way, perhaps, to colonise some new and distant shore.
On the afternoon of the sixteenth day of weary beating from
Anjer, a pure white tern suddenly appeared, and, circling about
the vessel, produced quite a flutter of excitement. It was the
lovely Gygis candida, one of the Keeling Island birds, which
our native boatswain declared never went far from home, and
that we must, therefore, be near our destination.
Several of the sailors ran aloft, and in a few minutes
descried to the northward the crowns of the higher cocoa-
nut palms on the southern islands. We straightway changed
our course ; for our skipper had evidently miscaleulated our
noon position, and, but for this timely pilot, would have sailed
past in the night. At sundown the islands appeared from the
deck as a dark uneven line, rising little above the horizon ; at
ten o’clock we cautiously sailed in to the anchorage in the
lagoon, lighted through by the phosphorescence from shoals of
large fishes, which darted like rockets from below our keel.
The scene that met my eyes next morning was a curious
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 13
one: a calm lake-like sea enclosed by a palisade of palm trees
on a narrow riband of land. My first feelings were those. of
surprise at the size of the atoll; for it was very mueh smaller
than the mental picture I had formed of it from studying
the Admiralty chart, and then of wonder that such a speck
could hold its own against the relentless ocean, which seemed
as if it might wash it away in any angry moment. ;
To form by personal observation more clear ideas of coral
formation, and chiefly to note how the struggle between the
reef-makers and the waves had been going during the past
forty-three years, and perhaps the pride of saying I had
lived on a reef, being the objects of my coming, no amount.
of dissimilarity from conceived ideas could disappoint me, or
cause me to regret my visit; but I could not help thinking.
that it was a woe-begone spot to choose for a perpetual home,
and a limited field to expend one’s energies on.
Mr. G. C. Ross, the proprietor, shortly came on board, and
with the most hearty greeting welcomed me; he rowed me
ashore, and, without power of gainsay, installed me as guest in.
his comfortable home, for I was the first European who, not
by compulsion of weather or other disaster, but really of set
purpose, had during that period visited his island. We sat
far into the night talking together, and I scarcely. know which
of us seemed most eager to learn. The rapid question and
reply shot between us incessantly to the early hours, and as
we sat and talked, it was with an eerve feeling that I felt the
very foundations of the land thrill under my feet at every dull.
boom of the surf on the outward barrier—I conveying to my.
host’s household all that was strangest and most interesting
from the busy centres of civilisation, in politics (a far cry to
them), in discovery and in invention, all that was newest from:
the outer and, to them, far-off world; he relating to me the
thrilling domestic annals of his island domain.
Half a century had elapsed since his grandfather, descended
of an old Scottish family wrecked in the troublous times of
1745, having brought an adventurous seafaring life to a close
in command of one of the vessels stationed in the Java Sea,
for the protection of British interests during our occupation
of that island, had landed in December, 1825, and virtually
taken possession of the group. His intention was to make
14 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
the spot a call port for the repair and provisioning of
vessels voyaging between home and China, Australia, and
India. Without then taking up residence, he proceeded to
England, but returned in 1827 with his wife and family of six
children, accompanied by twelve Englishmen, one Javanese,
and one Portuguese. On landing he was surprised to find
another Englishman, Mr. Alexander Hare, in possession of a
third part of the group. This gentleman had held a govern-
ment post in South Borneo during the English supremacy in
the Sunda Islands; but having tried to assume the state of
an independent ruler, which on the reinstalment of Dutch
authority, he found himself unable to hold, he retired here
with a large harem of various nationalities and numerous
slaves, whom he treated with great harshness.
Mr. Ross, having brought out his English apprentices on an
understanding that, as the whole atoll was his own, there
would be, in the development of its resources, sufficient
outlet for their energies, was much discouraged by the turn
affairs had assumed. Hare exhibited a very unfriendly spirit
towards the new-comers, so that, on Mr. Ross offering his
people a release from their agreement, all, except three (a
woman and two men), took the first opportunity of leaving in
one of H.M. gunboats which touched at the islands. Ross
managed, however, to increase his party by seven or eight
persons from Java, and later on by additional Europeans, some
of them his own relatives. With a large number of Sundanese
coolies, hired in Batavia, he opened a trade in cocoanuts with
the Mauritius, with Madras, and with Bencoolen and various
other ports of the Archipelago.
Possessed of a considerable fortune, Hare lived for some time
a lethargic life in mock regal style, in the midst of the con-
stant discord and jealousies of his retinue, and in hostility to
his neighbour. For the protection of what he considered an im-
portantly situated island, and of his own rights, Ross solicited
the authorities in the Mauritius to take the group under their
protection—a responsibility they did not see it advisable to
assume. Hare, on the other hand, covertly instigated the
Dutch Government to claim possession, a suggestion which
the Batavian officials entertained only so far as to send a
gunboat to examine and report on the condition of the
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 15
islands. Direct application was then made by Ross to King
William to proclaim the atoll English territory, but without
success. Hare, after several years of a most worthless sort
of existence, took his departure for Singapore, where it is said
he shortly after died.
Mr. Darwin’s visit took place not very long after Hare’s
departure, and just after the change of the settlement from
South-Eastern to New Selima Island and his report as to the
comfortable and flourishing state of the young colony at that
time is not very favourable. It was always a subject of keen
regret to Mr. Ross, that on Mr. Darwin’s visit, in 1836, he
was not at home. Mr. Leisk, who was in charge, showed Mr.
Darwin over the place, and gave him a great deal of infor-
mation, but though given in good faith, much of it was not
quite accurate. After a few years of peaceful and undisturbed
possession of the atoll, the whole of which Mr. Ross then laid
claim to, it attained to a most prosperous condition; and
its ships became well known throughout the Archipelago,
Ross himself being styled the King of the Cocos Islands.
Two villages were erected, one for the hired coolies, and the
other, a little way distant, for the Europeans and those who
threw in their lot with the new colony and were to share its
fortunes—the true Cocos colonists. This state of prosperity
was due mainly to the efforts of his eldest son—the father
devoting the closing years of his life chiefly to study.* Their
trade prospered and afforded a handsome annual balance
for many years, and altogether life seems to have been very
pleasant save for one element, the hired population.
The only coolies who could be got to engage to leave Java for
a term of years, were criminals who had served their time in the
chain-gangs of Batavia, and as they far outnumbered the Kuro-
peans and colonists, and were capable of any atrocity, they were
a constant source of danger, and a heavy anxiety to these in
charge. Every night a strongly armed patrol of true Cocos
people had to mount guard from sunset to sunrise, and still
continues to do so, with military regularity and rigour, the
watches being struck, as on ship board, all through the night.
* By a curious mistake in the Royal Society’s Catalogue of Scientific
Papers, Mr. J. C. Ross’s criticism of Mr. Darwin’s ‘Coral Reels’ is attributed
to Sir J. C. Ross, the Arctic explorer.
16 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
From the amount of cocoa-nut husk, or coir, as well as from
the combustible nature of all the buildings and of the palm
trees themselves, incendiarism was the crime most feared at
the hands of the lawless. Consequently it was sternly enforced
that every individual should report himself at the guard-house
at a fixed hour; and that every fire should be quenched at
sunset. It was penal for anyone to spend the night on any
but the Home island, without express permission from the
captain of the guard. Every boat was numbered and had to
be in its place an hour before sunset ; if it were not, by tock of
drum a muster was called, the absentees noted, and a search
instantly instituted, to bring back the defaulters or to render
aid in ease of accident.
Unsullied as their history began, it was not long till a
Black Calendar had to be added to their island archives.
Criminals invariably betook themselves to the concealment of
the forest-clad islets, where they could often elude capture
for weeks; but, unless they could steal a provisioned boat,
which was almost impossible, they could get no further.
The tale of the restless dread and suspense which held the
whole community, when some mutineer, with the desperate
spirit of amok in him, was at large, and the exciting efforts to
effect and to elude capture, was a chapter, which demanded
little from the narrator’s art, to engage my sympathies and my
profound interest in this community, living its chequered life
so far from the sympathies of the world.
To prevent any temptation to robbery no coined money
is allowed on the atoll. The currency is in sheep-skin notes
signed by Mr. Ross, which are good as between member and
member of the community. Wages are paid in these or
in goods and food articles brought regularly from Batavia,
while the notes are exchangeable for Dutch money in Batavia
on presentation to Mr. Ross’s agent.
On the 31st March, 1857, as a large inscribed board near
the landing place on Home island proclaims, Captain Fre-
mantle in H.M.S. Juno visited the Cocos Islands, and, after
the usual royal salute, declared them part of the British
dominions, and Mr. Ross (the father of the present proprietor)
their Governor during Her Majesty’s pleasure. The whole
was, it appears, a ludicrous mistake on the part of Captain
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 17
Fremantle, for the island intended to be annexed was one of
the same name somewhere in the Andaman group! It is
gratifying, however, to know that the islands are after all
really British territory, for I myself carried down a copy of
the Proclamation in the Ceylon Gazette of November 1878, by
which the Cocos-Keeling Islands were annexed to the Govern-
ment of Ceylon, “to prevent any foreign power stepping in
and taking possession of them, for the purpose of settlement,
or fora coaling station,” as Russian agents, it was reported, had
been examining the locality with sinister views.
The islands being of extreme salubrity, the true Keeling
population, now mostly of mixed blood, had rapidly increased,
and they enjoyed unbroken prosperity till 1862, when a
cyclone in a few hours entirely wrecked their homes. The
present proprietor, the third in succession, then a student
of engineering in Glasgow, was hurriedly summoned to aid
his father in the restoration of the islands, a task he was
suddenly left alone to accomplish, when quite a young man,
by the death of his parent. Abandoning all the more
ambitious plans of his life, he gave himself up to the new
position which he had been so unexpectedly called to fill, and
with the warmest heartiness threw himself into all the interests
of the islanders. He devised and has carried out liberal plans
for their improvement, and for the advancement of those com-
mitted to his charge. Marrying a Cocos-born wife, who shared
his ideas and interests, they became the parents of the people
rather than their masters and rulers.
As rapidly as possible he rid himself of the chain-gang men,
and being able, by a change in the laws at Batavia, to obtain
coolies of the non-criminal class, he engaged only those of
the best character. He cleared off the remaining forest and
planted the ground with palms. Success attended his efforts.
At length he brought into the Indian Ocean the new sounds
of the puffing of steam mills, the whirring of lathes and saws,
and the clang of the anvil. The general education of the
children has been under a younger brother of Mr. Ross's,
educated in a Scottish university. Every Cocos man has had,
besides performing his ordinary duties of gathering nuts
and preparing oil—-which, exchanged in Batavia, returns as
gain, or the food which they cannot produce within their own
18 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
bounds—to learn to work—and their proficiency astonished me
—in brass, iron and wood. Every Cocos girl has had her term
of apprenticeship to spend in Mrs. Ross’s house in learning
under her direction sewing, cooking, and every house-wifely
duty as practised in European homes. JI shall not soon
forget the deft handmaiden—female servants were employed
to do all the household work—who attended to my room;
she was a tall Papuan, who had been rescued from slavery,
now one of the true Cocos people, in whom all the grace of
body and limb that she inherited from her race had developed,
under the happy circumstances under which she had come,
into the perfection of the human female figure. She could not
have performed her work with more neatness and dexterity had
she been trained athome. With all the respect of a servant, she
mingled a kind solicitude in looking after my comfort and
attending to my wants, which as a daughter of the island to its
guest, she might without presumption use. A fresh rose was
daily laid on my pillow and on the folded-down counterpane,
while, that the water in my basin might seem fresher than its
sparkling self, she sprinkled it with fragrant rose leaves.
No more flourishing or contented community could have
been found at the opening of 1876, than its 500 island-born
inhabitants. On the 25th of January, however, the mercurial
barometer indicated some unusual atmospheric disturbance,
and the air felt extremely heavy and oppressive. On the 28th
it fell to close on 28 inches, a warning which gave time for
all boats to be hauled to a place of safety, and other prepara-
tions for a storm to be made. On the afternoon of the same
day, there appeared in the western sky an ominously dark
bank of clouds, and at 4 p.m. a cyclone of unwonted fury burst
over this part of the Indian Ocean. The storehouses and
mills, but recently renewed, were completely gutted and de-
molished ; every house in both villages was carried completely
away. Among the palm-trees the wind seems to have played
a frantic and capricious devil’s dance. Pirouetting wildly
round the atoll, in some places it had cleared lanes hundreds
of yards in length, snapping off the trees close to the ground;
in others, it had swooped down, without making an entrance or
exit path, and borne bodily away large circular patches, leaving
unharmed the encircling trees; here and there, sometimes in
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 19
the centre of dense clumps, selecting a single stem—a thick
tree of thirty years’ growth—it had danced with it one light-
ning revolution, and left it a permanent spiral screw perfectly
turned, but otherwise uninjured.
About midnight of the 28tb, when intense darkness would
have prevailed but for the incessant blaze of lightning, whose
accompanying thunder was drowned by the roar of the tempest,
when every one was endeavouring to save what rice—the only
provision spared to them—they could, Mr. Ross discovered to
his horror, the bowsprit of a vessel which had been lying at
anchor, riding on the top of a great wave straight for the wall
behind which they sheltered. There was just time to make
themselves fast before the water rushed over them, fortunately
without carrying the ship through the wall; a second wave
washed completely over the spot where Ross’s house had stood,
distant 150 yards from high-water mark. The storm attained
its height about one o’clock on the morning of the 29th. At that
hour nothing could resist the unsubstantial air, worked into a
fury; no obstacle raised a foot or two above the ground could
resist its violence. The inhabitants saved themselves onl
by lying in hollows of the ground. To what distance the
barometer might have fallen, it is impossible to say, for the
mercurial was carried away, and two aneroids gave in at
263 inches.
The following morning broke bright and calm, as if the
tempestuous riot of the night might have been an evil dream,
only not a speck of green could be seen anywhere within the
compass of the islands. Round the whole atoll the solid coral
conglomerate floor was scooped under, broken up and thrown in
vast fragments on the beach. On the eastern shore of Home
Island, in particular just opposite the settlement, I observed
a wall of many yards breadth, portions of it thrown up clear
over the external high rim of the island, and several yards
inwards among the cocoanut trees, al] along the margin of the
island. After six months, every tree and shrub was clothed
in verdure; and before three years, they were in full bearing
again.
About thirty-six hours after the cyclone the water on the
eastern side of the lagoon was observed to be 1ising up from
below of a dark colour. The origin of the spridg, which
20 . A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
‘continued to ooze out for about ten to fourteen days, lay some-
where between the southern end of New Selima and the
northern end of Gooseberry Island. The colour was of an inky
hue, and its smell “like that of rotten eggs.” From this point
it spread south-westward as far as the deep baylet in South-
east Island, where meeting the currents, flowing in at the
westward and northern entrances, which run, the one round
the western, the other round the eastern shore of the lagoon,
its westward progress was stopped ; whereupon, turning north-
wards through the middle of the lagoon (becoming slightly
less dark as it proceeded), it debouched into the ocean by the
northern channel. Within twenty-four hours, every fish, coral
-and mollusc, in the part impregnated with this discolouring
substance—probably hydrosulphurie or carbonic acid—died.
So great was. the number of fish thrown on the beach, that it
took three weeks of hard work to bury them in a vast trench
dug in the sand.
At the time of my visit, the islands were slowly recovering
efron this sad disaster, and the whole settlement, living far from
-the, busy strife of the world, yet. sufficiently mingling with
it to afford contentment without envy, seemed the-iileal of a
peaceful and happy colony. Mr. Ross, who is associated with
several of his brothers, occupies a commodious and comfortable
house midway between the two villages, surrounded by a high
wall, enclosing a large garden in which fruit-trees and shrubs
_—sow manilla (Mimusops), bananas, loquat (Hriobotrya), Poin-
cianas, and roses in grand profusion,—seem to flourish remark-
‘ably well, notwithstanding the scanty soil. Each Keeling
family possesses its own neat plank house, comfortably fur-
nished, enclosed in a little garden. Housed in a trim shed by
‘the- water’s edge, each has one or more boats. These boats are
their pride; and so ardently do they vie with each other in
their speed, and in the elegance of their shape and furnishings,
that the village possesses a fleet of really masterpieces of boat
architecture. Living on the sea, as they do, they are all from
their birth naturally skilful sailors; and one of the pleasantest
reminiscences of my visit, is the sight of that little white-
sailed fleet beating home across the lagoon, in a sunny evening,
against-a stiffish eee:
It. was. exceedingly pleasant to observe the cordial and
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 21
affectionate relations existing between The House and the Cocos
village. I noted little presents of first ripe fruit, or specially
large eggs constantly being offered. When a death occurs—
as one did during my visit—it is felt by each individual as if
the departed had been of his own family. The interment
takes place as soon as possible, and the usual vocations are
resumed at once, every one trying, as best he may, to seem as
if he had forgotten that they were one fewer. hat in their
relations one with another there should be perfection, is not to
be expected, but a finer and more upright community I have
never known ; not a simpler or more guileless people—many
of whom have never known, and neyer seen a world wider than
their own atoll, which can be surveyed in a single glance of
the eye ; and I feel more than half confident that the English
Service for the Dead has been said over, and that beneath the
coral shingle of Grave Islet there rest, as blameless lives as
perhaps our weak humanity can attain to.
The labourers’ village is neatly kept, and though the coolies
live under a stricter régime, they are treated liberally and
kindly, and housed in comfortable dwellings. Their children
are educated along with the Cocos children. Should a head of
a family die, his children are, at the mother’s option, sent
back to their native place in Java, or if she elect, she and
they may throw in their lot with, and after a certain probation
become, Cocos people. Malay is. the language spoken in both
villages, though many of the Cocos people understand English.
As this was my first acquaintance with living coral formation,
everything about me had the interest of novelty. My first
morning's walk was to the seaward margin of the reef. As half
a century is hardly a day’s life in the existence of an atoll, Mr.
Darwin’s accurate description of that part of it might have
been written the day before. The waves so continually break
on the shore, that it is difficult, except on the very stillest
days, to examine the coral on the furthest margin; yet I got
every now and then, on the recoil of the waves, a good view of
the shoals of Scarus feeding in the surf on the living coral.
They are furnished on the front of their heads with soft pads,
so as to be able to retain their position undisturbed among the
breakers, by squeezing hard up against the uneven wall, while
they are gnawing off the tips of the living polyps. During
22 A NATURALIST ’S WANDERINGS
my visit I had no very calm days; but in the still waters of
the lagoon there was enough to occupy the busiest pair of eyes
for wecks.
The wonderful display of colour seen in the placid water of a
lagoon has been often described ; but it can give to one, who
has not himself visited a coral reef, but a very slight idea of
the fairy bowers to be seen from over the side of a boat
gliding gently across the surface of such a marine lake.
I carefully examined that part of the lagoon over which the
poisoned water had spread, on a day when the water was so
calm that I could see the minutest objects on the bottom. Its
whole eastern half was one vast field of blackened and lifeless
coral stems, and of the vacant and lustreless shells of giant
clams and other Mollusca, paralysed and killed in all stages
of expansion. Everywhere both shells and coral were deeply
corroded, the coral especially being in many places worn down
to the solid base. Since the catastrophe, there had been, till
almost the date of my visit, no sign of life in that portion of
the lagoon; I saw very few fishes, and only here and there
a new branch of Madrepora and Porites. I found only one
tridacna alive (its three years’ growth being 12 inches in
length, and 13 in breadth).
That an earthquake certainly occurred on this reef, as
recorded by Mr. Darwin, two years before the visit of the
Beagle, is an interesting fact. That an earthquake took place
in 1876, cannot, I think, judging from the tidal wave, be
doubted, although no tremor was detected by any one on the
island—scarcely to be wondered at during the war of the
elements. The wave, as well as the darkened water which
issued, doubtless from a submarine rent, was almost certainly
the result of volcanic disturbance in the close vicinity of the
atoll, Mr. Darwin has described a dead field of coral observed
by him, in the upper and south-east part, and has accounted
for it by assuming, from information given him by Mr. Leisk,
that S.E. island had been at one time divided into several
islets by channels, whose closing up had prevented the water
from rising so high in the lagoon as formerly; and that,
therefore, the corals, which had attained their utmost possible
limit of upward growth, must have been killed by occasional
exposure to the sun.
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 23
I examined the chart made by Ross in 1825, ten years
before Mr. Darwin’s visit, but it exhibited no perceptible
difference in the external configuration of the various islets.
The soundings in the lagoon, however, showed a greater
continuous depth at that time, and I am told that his vessel
sailed, on her first coming, far up the bay, and anchored
where now no ship can nearly approach. It is more probable
that the explanation of this dead field lies in the supposition
that a like phenomenon to that just narrated accompanied the
earthquake of 1834. Beyond the boundary affected by the
dark water, the coral was unharmed, and growing vigorously
in thick bosses, (called “patches” by Mr. Darwin,) composed
chiefly of Madrepora and Pocillopora, between which were
basins of no great diameter, but reaching to a depth of some
eight or ten fathoms, which were marvellous natural aquaria
planted round with anemones, tesselated in blue and green
designs with Fungi# and brain-corals. But why no other
species should grow in these deep clear pits, and why the
various corals forming the bosses—which are chiefly of
Echinopora lamellosa—do not stretch out their arms into
and obliterate them, seems difficult to understand.
In the small boat channel close to the settlement, one of the
few poisoned places in which the coral had begun to grow
vigorously since 1876, I dislodged with my hand several
living bunches from the chalky bottom on which they
were growing. Their average diameter across the top was
12 inches, and their height from the centre to the tip of
the branches 6} inches. ‘This channel was thoroughly
cleaned out down to the white mud on the 20th May, 1878,
and as my measurements were made on the 30th January,
1879, the age of these bunches was under eight and a half
months.
I could not help being struck by the number of brilliantly
hued fishes in the deep pools of the lagoon. Banded and
spotted Murcenoids (species of Levwranus and Opisurus) glided
about in snake-like fashion; in sea-weed or hydroid-covered
crevices motionless Antennarii lay in wait, but it required a
sharp eye to distinguish their quaintly adorned and mimicking
bodies from the excrescences of their retreat. Other singular
denizens of the lagoon are the Crayracions, which look like
24 A NATURALIST '§ WANDERINGS
round hedgehogs floating (as they do often) oa the surface of
the water; their jaws are armed with formidable solid teeth to
enable them to feed on the coral ; and the File-fishes, painted
with coerulean bands and harnessed with blue bridle-lines,
which not only feed on the coral, but bore their way through
the shells of Mollusca to extract the succulent morsels within.
Their bodies terminate in a most convenient-looking tail, as
if made purposely to handle them by, and I could not help
feeling maliciously imposed on when I did so, by having
very precipitately to drop a fine specimen I was lifting for
examination, on the sharp hidden spines, with which that
organ is set, running into my hand like a series of lances.
One of the commonest genera of fishes in the tropical seas
of the Atlantic, Australian and Indo-Pacific regions is the
Chxtodon, which is particularly attractive on account of the
form and the singular brilliance of the coloration of its species.
The heaps of fish that my boys, a couple of urchins not more
than four years of age, used, by alternately harpooning and
diving after them to bring in, formed when piled on the white
background of the coral shore, a bright picture indeed from
the wonderful variety of their colours—emerald-green, cobalt-
blue, rich orange, and even scarlet.
Most of the lagoon fishes are good for food; but there
is a species of Scarus which requires to be prepared for the
table with very great care, for should the gall-bladder be
ruptured, and its contents escape into the body-cavity, the
flesh of the fish becomes quite poisoned. Several fatal cases
had occurred in the settlement, especially among children,
who almost immediately after partaking of the flesh were
seized with giddiness and stupor, followed by death, with a
dropsical state of the body, within two or three hours. The
effect of the application of the bile externally produced simply
a bad fester. A woman while cleaning such a fish by the shore,
on one occasion threw out the entrails on the water, when a
Frigate-bird (Tachypetes minor) which had been hovering over
her, swooping down picked up the tempting morsel; but it
had risen only some thirty feet in the air, when it fell back on
the water lifeless. The sharks, the albacore (Thynnus termo)
and the baracuta are the pirates of the lagoon, and the chief
agents in restraining its over-population.
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 25
Among the branches of the ginger-coral, a great variety of
Crustacea are to be seen creeping about, and in all the crevices
Mollusca of every family, most conspicuous among them being
the giant clams of the genus Tridaena, whose mantle edged with
turquoise beads forms a beautiful object to look down on; but
one must shudder for the diver who should accidentally thrust
his head or a limb into its gape, which the slightest touch
causes to close with a snap.
Nor was the interest of the atoll confined to its surf-beaten
barrier and its teeming lagoon ; every foot of the surface of the
land, every atom of its substance, every stem of the vegetation
that covered it, and each separate existence that crept or
winged itself on and around it, by its very presence in this
mid-ocean speck, was charged with a wondrous tale of strange
vicissitudes and wanderings. By the inner margins of some
of the islands (as will be seen on looking at the map), and
forming lagoonlets in some of them, there are soft limy mud-
flats, which are gradually becoming land, mainly by slow
elevation and by crustacean agency.
One of the largest of these is in West Island. Its lagoon-
ward portion, near the entrance conduit, which is submerged
at high water, is tenanted by two, if not three, species of
crab (Gelasimus vocans, tetragonon, and annulipes). They live
in narrow corkscrew burrows, round the top of which there
is always a little mound just such as is seen about an earth-
worm’s; and indeed they are most perfect worm substitutes.
I counted one hundred and twenty of their holes in an area
only two feet square; and as there were many square acres in
the ground of which I speak, some idea of the number of this
busy army may be obtained. They were incessantly active
during the recess of the tide and even during high water,
which is generally perfectly still, in carrying down twigs of
trees or fucus leaves, scraps of cocoanut shell, and seeds,
laying the foundation of the future land.
On placing the foot on the region occupied by them, one
perceives an undulation of the surface followed, over a circular
area, by a surprising change of the pure white ground into a
warm pink colour, which for the moment the stranger puts down
to some affection of his eyes from the reflection of the light.
He soon perceives that this movement is caused by the simul-
26 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
taneous stampede of the dense crowd of the peopled shore into
their dwellings, just within the door of which they halt, with
the larger of their two pincer-claws, which is of a rich pink
colour, effectually barring the entrance except where one
watchful stalked eye is thrust out to take an inquiring look
if the alarm is real. As one advances the pink areas again
change into white, as the Crustaceans withdraw into their sub-
terranean fastnesses. On traversing a broad field occupied by
these crabs, the constant undulations and change of colours,
produce a curious dazzling effect on the eyes.
The land between tide-marks is occupied by another turret-
eyed vigilant pioneer of vegetable occupation against marine
possession, which extends its operations further landward than
the Gelasimus, and where the ground is more or less wet. This
is a species of Macrophthalmus whose colour protects it from
general observation till it starts to run. One-third of its time
is spent under water, and two-thirds in energetic mining opera-
tions on land. It is to be seen constantly scattering around ‘it,
with a nervous jerk, the arm-fulls of sand which, held between
its body and clawed foot, it has dragged up from below out of
the burrows into which it carries all sorts of vegetable débris.
On the slightest sound it scampers off to take refuge in the
water, and is at once noticeable by its mobile stalked eyes curi-
ously pricked up high over its body. These eye-stalks are
conical cylinders set round, except on the narrow area along
which they are applied to each other in the mid-line of the
body, with facets which really form perfect little watch-towers
commanding an unobstructed outlook to all points of the
compass.
The area along the dry margin of the land is occupied
by a third—a short-eyed—species of crab (Ocypoda), whose
labours seem to tell more than those of the others. Besides
burying smaller particles of vegetable débris, it lowers down
large branches of trees, and even cocoa-nuts, by scooping away
the soil below them, and carries down also the newly fallen seeds
of the iron-wood tree (Cordia). Both these trees, which along
with a rough sort of grass (Lepturus repens) and the hard-
wooded Pemphis acidula lead the van of vegetable occupation
of lands wrested from the sea, are in this way aided in their
forward march. As soon, however, as its busy labours have.
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. ig
changed the white calcareous fore-shore into a dark vegetable
mould, its occupation seems gone, and it retires in quest of
new land to conquer.
Further landward the soil is tilled and turned up to the sun
and rain by a species of Gecareinus, which lives almost entirely
in the dry land, visiting the sea only in times of great drought.
A still more effective tiller is the great cocoa-nut crab (Birgus
latro), one of the largest of shore Crustacea. It is chiefly noc-
turnal in its habits, and is not so often seen as the others. It
makes in the ground deep tunnels, larger than rabbit burrows,
lined for warmth (?) with cocoa-nut fibre. It has a habit of
climbing the cocoa-nut palms, but whether to take the air or
for temporary lodging is doubtful; it does not rob the trees,
however, as has been charged against it, since it feeds only on
fruits that have fallen. One of its pincer-claws is developed
into an organ of extraordinary power, capable, when the creature
is enraged, of breaking a cocoa-nut shell ora man’slimb. ‘The
inner edges of the claw are armed with a series of white
enamelled denticulations whose resemblance to teeth is
singularly close, even to the irregular scarlet line below them
which might pass for gums. The Birgus feeds on the nuts
almost exclusively, using its great claw to denude the fruit of
the husk surrounding it, and to get at the eye of the nut, which
it has learned is the only easy gateway to the interior.
Ors the three eye-spots seen at the end of a cocoa-nut only
one permits an easy entrance. The Birgus does not waste its
energies in denuding the whole nut, and it never denudes the
wrong end. Having pierced the proper eye with one of its
spindle ambulatory legs, it rotates the nut round it till the
orifice is large enough to permit the insertion of its great claw
to break up the shell and triturate its contents, whose particles
it then carries to its mouth by means of its other and smaller
cheliferous foot.
From this nutritious diet it accumulates beneath its tail
a store of fat, which dissolves by heat into a rich yellow oil, of
which a large specimen will often yield as much as two pints.
Thickened in the sun, it forms an excellent substitute for
butter in all its uses. I discovered it to be a valuable pre-
serving lubricant for guns and steel instruments ; and only
when a small bottle of it, which I had had for two-years, was
28 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
finished, did I fully realise what a precious anti-corrosive in
these humid regions I had lost.
The Birgus, though belonging to a water-living family,
spends the greater part of its time on the land, and Professor
Semper* has discovered that, following on its change of habit,
a portion of the gill-cavities of this singular crustacean have
become modified into an organ for breathing air— into a true
lung,” in fact.
Not less interesting than the marine, was the terrestrial life
of these lenely isles. Mr. Darwin’s famous visit was made
about eleven years after their colonisation. More than half a
century more had elapsed till I landed there. In 1836 Mr.
Darwin gathered some twenty-two species of flowering plants.
On comparing the list (at the end of this Part) of the plants
collected or identified on the atoll by me with Professor Hens-
low’s of those collected by Mr. Darwin, it will be observed that
considerable additions have been made to its flora. It is not
improbable, however, that a few of those not enumerated by
Professor Henslow may have been overlooked by Darwin during
the occupied days of the Beagle’s short stay. Some are of more
recent introduction, and are due with little doubt to the
accidents of human inter-communication, while others have
been intentionally introduced. Direct intercourse has princi-
pally been with Java, Mauritius, and India, and occasionally
with Australia, by means of horse-laden vessels calling for
water. The greater part of the indigenous vegetation consists,
as Mr. Darwin has pointed out, of plants common to Australia
and Timor ; and it is certainly these we should most expect to
find here, as the ocean currents which wash the shores of the
atoll by running westward from Australian seas, and sweeping.
round north-eastward in the Indian Ocean towards Sumatra
and Java, bring it nearer to Australia and the eastern part of
the Archipelago than to its geographically closer neighbours.
Thus by slow degrees and after many a failure have the ocean
streams succeeded in clothing this lone speck with verdure.
When first occupied che islands were covered abundantly
with iron-wood (Cordia) and Pemphis acidula, as well as cocoa
palms. Accidental fires, however, both on North Keeling
* Of. The Natural Conditions of Existence as they affect Animal Life,’ by
Karl Semper. International Series; p. 103. Kegan Paul & Co. 1881.
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 29
(fifteen miles distant) and on the south islands, destroyed nearly
all the iron-wood forests, the most valuable timber the colonists
possessed. This tree grows often with a most curious arching
habit, and as the name they have given it indicates, its timber
is very durable. I sawa trunk on one of the islets which after an
exposure of over forty years was in every part perfectly sound ;
and a beam whose natural curve fitted without artificial bend-
ing the double arch of the ribs of a schooner of 200 tons building
on the stocks of the island. The vegetation of the islands is
now almost entirely cocoa-nut trees.
The history of this commonest member of its family might
occupy a long and interesting chapter, if space permitted.
‘Few, perhaps, know it better than Mr. Ross; and while enjoy-
ing the grateful shade and the delicious beverage that its
fruits supply, I passed many a pleasant half hour in listening
to his accounts of its growth and habits. As a rule it is a
branchless palm, but on West Island he took me to see its rare
occurrence as a branching tree, which, instead of fruiting spikes,
invariably produccd persistent branches crowned with a bunch
of leaves—adding to the beauty of the already graceful palm.
Most nuts, as is well known, contain, on opening them, only
one ovary cavity, but, as the three eye-spots indicate, all nuts
ought to have, were they not naturally suppressed, three of these.
Many of the Keeling palms produce not only their full com-
plement of three compartments, but, what is more surprising,
some have as many as eight and even fourteen. Such nuts
produce palms with a common root, but with as many stems as
they have cells. Under favourable conditions the cocoa-nut
can produce its first fruit within four years from the fall of
the seed nut from its parent tree, while it can go on for an
unknown period throwing out every month a new fruit spike
bearing from seven to fourteen nuts, which require from eight
to thirteen months to ripen.
The palms in the centre of the islets grow to a greater height
—some of them to 120 feet,—on account of the deeper soil and
more abundant supply of fresh water, than those along the
shores, but the oil-producing capacity of their fruit is not,
however, greater. More oil is obtained from’ nuts which hare
formed during the early part, and ripened during the later
months of the year. Mr. Ross assured me that during every
4
n
30 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
full moon, many of the fruits exposed fully to its rays
are blighted, the pulp becoming puckered and shrunk. Sun-
stroke, he said, was also very common; but in this case the
affected nut shrivels up, and when it is opened only a withered
embryo is found inside.
I searched for the two trees seen, but not obtained by Mr.
Darwin, as mentioned in his ‘ Voyage.’ Of the one “of great
height on West Island” I would have secured specimens but
for an unfortunate discharge by a twig of Mr. Ross’s gun,
resulting in a severe and painful wound to his hand (happily
not more serious than a bad flesh wound), which necessitated
our return home, before we had succeeded. As it was the last
occasion I could visit the islet, I was unable certainly to iden-
tify the tree, although from the seeds which I obtained, I have
little doubt that it is a species of Pisonia (probably P. inermis)
which is found in the Australian and Pacific islands. Its
seeds are spiny and glutinous, and, by adhering in great
numbers to their feathers, often prove fatal to the herons that
nest in its summit. As many sea-fowl have almost a cosmo-
politan distribution, it is easy to perceive how widely this tree
might be disseminated by the birds that roost on it.
Mr. Darwin records that he took pains to collect every kind
of insect he saw. Exclusive of spiders, which were numerous,
thirteen species were found by him. A list of all those col-
lected or seen by me would far outrun Mr. Darwin’s, showing
that by some means or other species are still finding their way
to this distantspot. Unfortunately, this collection was destroyed
on my way back to Java, and cannot be now named ; but few, if
any, of the species were referable to Australian, Timorese or
East Archipelago forms, so that the origin of the fauna is
evidently different from that of the flora of the atoll, and is
doubtless due to many chance passengers, that half a century of
the coming and going of ships has brought as stowaways and
landed unknowingly ; now an adhering cluster of eggs, now a
gravid female, or perchance a mated couple. From the testi-
mony of Mr. Ross, whom I have found a most accurate observer,
the cyclones of 1863 and of 1876 added, if not new species, at
least a host of new individuals to the Keeling fauna.
Among Coleoptera Mr. Darwin mentions only one small
Elater ; while I observed hosts of small Melolonthide (genus
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 31
Serica) and Rutelide (genus Anomala), whose presence, I am
told, had been noted in abundance for only a few years previous
to my visit. I saw them frequenting almost every open flower,
towards which they were performing the kind fertilising office
usually done by bees, whose place they seemed to take. Of
Orthoptera, besides the ubiquitous cockroach (Blatta orientalis),
there were a few Acrididae, and the common locust, which
was found in increased numbers after the cyclone. The
Hemiptera were represented by several species.
Of Neuroptera, white ants had spread their baneful hordes to
most of the islands; while Chrysopa innotata and dragon-flies were
very plentiful. Immediately after the cyclone the surface of the
water was observed to be densely strewn with broken bodies of
the latter, as if, in its course, the wind had encountered a cloud
of them, and scattered their mangled remains as it travelled.
I did not succeed in collecting any true Hymenoptera, but ants
were abundant ; a minute Fire-ant (Camponotus), the common
Javan long-legged venomless species, and several black sorts
had become domiciled on the islands. Every trading vessel in
the tropics has its formicine fauna, and cannot help acting asa
transporter of all sorts of ants from one region of it to another.
Lepidoptera had perhaps increased more than any other family.
The Diopea, so common in Java among the sensitive Mimosa,
and a minute Plume-moth sheltering among the red-wood (Pem-
phis acidula), and the Scevola, were perhaps the most common ;
the large Atlas-moth had become a settled resident here, as
well as several moderately large diurnal species with a habit
of pitching on the warm, bare ground and frequenting the
Guetarda and the Asclepias cuirassavica. Among several sorts
of flies, an Aszlus, much like the large carnivorous fly common
in South Europe, was most conspicuous.
The Mammalian fauna of the Keelings was an entirely
introduced one. A herd of deer on Horsburgh Island, was in-
teresting as being a cross between the Javan Rusa (Cervus hip-
pelaphus) and the darker Sumatran species (Cervus equinus).
Pigs ran semi-wild, and throve remarkably well on the broken
scraps of cocoa-nuts everywhere lying about in the woods.
Australian sheep, which fed on the Portulaca oleracea, on
a species of grass, and on the tubers of an aroid which they
scraped up, did not seem to suffer much from the novel maritime
82 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
conditions under which they found themselves. The settlers
would be rendered supremely happy if such conditions would
by any means prove prejudicial to the rats—the sole living
creature unwelcome to their island home,—whose fecundity is
becoming appalling, for every vessel that calls serves to infuse
only fresh blood and vigour into the race.
Occasionally flying foxes (Pteropus) reach the atoll, but
hitherto in too exhausted a state to survive. Once a pair
arrived together; but both, unfortunately, soon died. It is
not improbable that some day, through the favourable cir-
cumstance of an unusually strong and healthy pair shaping
their course Keeling-wards, they may yet survive the arduous
journey, and the atoll find them some morning added to its
fauna. What has only just failed here, has doubtless suc-
ceeded in other oceanic islands, with different volant species.
Bird life was limited, but very interesting. Graceful
Noddies (Anous stolidus) and Gannets (Su’a piscatria) were
in thousands; and I had the satisfaction of watching what has
been over and over described, but was new to me, how their
industrious habits are taken advantage of by the swift-winged
Frigate-birds. Hiding in the lee of the cocoa-nut trees, the
Tachypetes would sally out on the successful fishers returning
in the evening, and perpetrate a vigorous assault on them
till they disgorged for their behoof at least a share of their
supper, which they caught in mid-air as it fell. Such feelings
of reprobation as I ought to have felt at their conduct was, I
fear, not very deep ; for the swoop after the falling spoil was so
elegant an evolution, that, I confess, I always hoped that the poor
Noddy would give up as heavy a morsel as possible, in order to
necessitate a correspondingly eager dive after it. Refractory
Gannets were often seized by the tail by the Frigate-birds, and
treated to a shake that rarely failed of successful results.
Fierce foes as they were in the air, on terra firma they roosted
near each other like the best of friends. They breed only on
North Keeling, and during that season the bare skin of the
throat is of a very rich scarlet colour. They are powerful
fliers, and can head against even a gale by taking in a reef in
their long wings, so as to expose only the greater quills to its
force.
The Tachypetes minor used to nest in the bushes of Pemphis
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 33
acidula on the South Keeling group; but since the settle-
ment, constant interruption from the nut-gatherers has driven
it to breed in North Keeling. When brought up from the
nest in a state of semi-captivity, they can be trained to aid in
the capture of their fellows, which are much used as food by
the settlers.
A hunter wishing to shoot a few of these birds, throws out
within gunshot on the surface of the water a piece of attractive
bait, which the tame Frigate-bird swoops down, almost osten-
tatiously, time after time, to pick up. Several of its hungry
brethren, always hanging about, soon make their appearance
to struggle for a share; after two or three gyrations, the eager
stranger swoops down for the tempting morsel, the decoy
soars out of reach, while his unfortunate dupe falls a victim.
If the others take flight, the same tactics will be followed
again and again by the decoy, who exhibits no alarm at the
report of the gun or the death throes of its companions.
The white, satin-feathered Tropic-bird (Phaeton candidus)
was far from uncommon; but being a very high flier it was
difficult to secure specimens of it. I was happy, nevertheless,
to be able to examine in the flesh one, at least, of these
beautiful creatures. It must possess wonderfully acute powers
of sight, for when sailing along at a great elevation, I have
seen it suddenly descend like an arrow, disappear below the
surface of the sea, and in a few moments soar up with its prey
in its mouth.
On West Island two species of Heron (Herodias nigripes, and
Demiegretta sacra) nested on the high Piésonia trees, and, as I
have said above, often died from the number of the glutinous
seeds which clogged their feathers. The Australian Night-
heron (Nycticorax caledonicus) builds on the same trees. This
is the first record of its occurrence so far to the west, and
ranging, as it does, from New Caledonia through the Moluc-
cas and Timor, some ancestor of its own may, perchance,
have carried out thence the seeds of the trees on which it now
builds, just as its own young may be now distributing them
to distant isles.
The most engaging of all the birds was our little pilot. the
pure white Tern (Gygis candida) so chastely spcken of by Mr.
Darwin. As the swallow is to us, such a pet is this bird to
34 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
the settlers. It chooses a strange place to set its nest in, if
one may so speak of its brooding place. Its solitary egg is
deposited on the leaf of a young cocoa-nut palm, .at the time
when the leaf has rotated from its vertical position to one
nearly at right angles to the stem. The egg is laid in the
narrow angular gape between two leaflets on the summit of the
arch of the leaf, where it rests securely, without a scrap of nest,
in what one would think the most unsafe position possible, yet
‘defying the heaving and twisting of the leaves in the strongest
winds. The leaf, as in all palms, goes on drooping further and
further till it falls; and among the settlers it is a subject of
keen betting, when they see a Tern sitting on an ominously
withered leaf, whether the young bird will be hatched or not
before the leaf falls. The result I am told has always been in
favour of the bird ; if the leaf fall in the afternoon, the Tern
will have escaped from the egg in the morning.
Not infrequently the “ Tjoo-Tjooit” lays its egg on a ledge
in the work-sheds of the island, but it never builds a nest.
The young one is fed incessantly by the parents with fishes,
which are brought in mouthfuls of generally six at a time,
arranged alternately head aad tail. The old birds often feed
on the Papaya fruit, hovering on their wings all the while like
honeysuckers at a flower. This beautiful bird is to be found
only on the lone islands of the great oceans.
Besides the little Philippine Rail (Rallus philippensis), a
resident species often employed by the colonists to hatch out
their domestic fowls, which they do with care, a species of Snipe
and a Teal visit the islands every February and March in large
numbers, where they find a grateful rest in that annual voyage—
whence and whither I could not ascertain—that the changing
seasons resistlessly impel them to. Jungle fowl, introduced
from Java, were breeding and throve well; and lastly, I ob-
tained some nests of the Yellow Weaver-bird (Ploceus hypox-
anthus.) Strange to say, it also comes often across the sea (most
probably from Java) to nest on this lone island. Mr. Ross in-
formed me that it builds more frequently on North Keeling ;
neither parents nor brood, however, take up their residence,
but wend their way back whence they came, leaving their
elegant flask-shaped nests on the branches of the trees to
intimate that they have come and gone.
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 35
CHAPTER III.
SOJOURN IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS—continued.
Coral reef formation—Observations on the elevation or subsidence of the
Keeling atoll.
As the Keeling atoll was the reef most carefully examined and
described by Mr. Darwin, and that with which, in propounding
his famous theory of coral reefs, he has compared the others he
describes, I felt specially pleased at being able to go over
his own ground with his book in my hand, and gain a clearer
understanding of several points which I had found it difficult
to comprehend.
Unfortunately the weather during my visit was not suffi-
ciently favourable to enable me to examine so closely as I
could have desired the corals of the outer margins or to make
the series of seaward soundings I had intended.
The first questions that present themselves to the traveller
in midst of his amazement on first reaching that peculiar
production of the warm seas—an island-speckled ring of coral
holding its own against the waves—are, How came it into being
here, Why of this singular form, and How does it continue to
exist ? Mr. Darwin was the first to attempt any far-reaching
solution of these difficult questions, applicable to coral forma-
tions over all the world. As true reef-building corals, it is well
known, can flourish only beneath a very limited depth—some
twenty fathoms—of water, a great apparent difficulty existed
“respecting the foundations on which these atolls are based,
from the immensity of the spaces over which they are inter-
spersed and the apparent necessity for believing that they are
all supported on mountain summits, which, although rising very
near to the surface of the sea, in no one instance emerge above it.
To escape this latter most improbable admission, which implies
the existence of submarine chains of mountains of almost the
36 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
same height, extending over areas of many thousand square
miles, there is but ore alternative; namely, the prolonged subse-
dence of the foundations on which the atolls were primarily based,
together with the upward growth of the reef-constructing corals.” *
Since Mr. Darwin published this theory, several expeditions
expressly directed towards the examination of the floor of the
great oceans have taken place, prominent among them being
the United States Exploring Expedition, the Tuscarora, the
Blaké, and our own Challenger voyages. These have put us in
possession of a large body of facts scarcely guessed at when
Mr. Darwin broke deep ground on this subject. Mr. Dana,
Professor Semper, Professor Agassiz and Mr. Murray of the
Challenger staff, have also specially made coral reefs a subject
of study. These three last named investigators have shown
that the explanation of coral reef formation may be in other
causes than those of elevatiqn and subsidence. Great submarine
banks have been discovered, “covered by deposits of Pteropods
and Globigerina ooze serving as foundations for barrier reefs
and atolls, while their volcanic substratum has been completely
hidden.” “The fact that these great submarine banks of
modern limestone lie in the very track of the great oceanic
currents sufficiently shows that these currents hold the immense
quantity of carbonate of lime needed in the growth of the .-
banks. ... Mr. Murray has shown that if the pelagic fauna
and flora extend ..., as experiments seem conclusively to
prove, to a depth of 100 fathoms, we should have 16 tons of
carbonate of lime for every square mile 100 fathoms deep.
But the greater the depth at which these plateaux begin to
form, the less rapid must be their formation. Deep water
itself being, as Professor Ditmar has recently shown,} a greater
solvent (not from, as has been held, its containing a much greater
proportion of free carbonic acid, but because of its depth,) than
shallower water, would dissolve up all the lighter and thinner
calcareous shells and débris; while in less deep water, the dead
siliceous and calcareous shells of Foraminifera, Sponges, Hy-
droids, Corals, Mollusca, ete., would accumulate and build up
these plateaux,” with a calcareous conglomerate. “ Whenever
* ¢The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs,’ by Charles Darwin,
1842, pp. 146-7. The italics are the present author's,
{ Official Report of the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S.
Challenger: Physics and Chemistry. Vol. I.-
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 37
such plateaux have reached, on their windward side, the level
at which corals prosper, that is, some 120 feet below the surface,
these coral reefs spring up and flourish,”* and subsisting at a
greater depth than all others, a solid foundation is laid by the
close compactly growing Astre#x ; then on their dense floor, in
whose myriad crannies, molluscs and all manner of marine
beings have sheltered, died and left their shells compacted by the
carbonate of lime let loose from their partial disintegration and
solution into a solid limestone conglomerate consisting of coral,
of shells and of all that may have fallen on it, which they have
raised layer above layer as near the surface as they may, the
Brain-corals (Meandrina) and the Porites assume and continue
the upward task till they “in their turn reach the limit beyond
which they are forbidden by the laws of their nature to pass. . . .
But the coral wall continues its steady progress; for here the
lighter kinds set in—the Madrepores, the Millipores and a
great variety of Sea-Ferns,—and the reef is crowned at last with
a many-coloured shrubbery of low feathery growth.” t
This is in its main outlines Murray’s, Semper’s, and Agassiz’s
explanation of how a reef originates. Unfortunately for my
own satisfaction and guidance when examining the Keeling reet,
I had not read Professor Semper’s views, and those of the other
two naturalists were not then published. I have now pictured
the reef as risen to almost the surface of the sea at ebb spring-
tides; higher than this the coral polyps, which die when
exposed for a very short period only to the air and the sun,
cannot raise it; but as corals flourish best in the battle of the
waves, which are better aérated and charged with the pelagic
life which sustains them, they can extend only seaward and
grow their fastest, checked solely where ocean currents scour too
fiercely past them. In this stage such a coral structure (as the
Keeling atoll) might be seen to be roughly circular in form,—
observable also in all the raised islets of the group as well as
in North Keeling,—doubtless by being beaten on all sides.
Travelling from the exterior margin of the reef inwards, coral
growth from less abundant sustenance is seen to be less
* ©The Tortuga and Florida Reefs,’ by Alexander Agassiz, Mem. Am.
Soc. of Arts and Sc., vol. xi. p. 118.
+ ‘Florida Reefs,’ L. Agassiz, Mem, Mus. Comp. Zoology, p. 49. Proce.
R. S. Edinb., No. 107, 1880: “ On the Structure and Origin of Coral Reefs and
Islands.”
38 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
luxuriant and has grown to a less height than more externally,
and consequently we have a Lagoon, which sometimes, though
rarely, is enclosed by an unbroken ring of coral; more com-
monly, however, (as in Keeling atoll) the reef is intersected by
several channels communicating between the lagoon and the
outer ocean. These channels are produced by many causes,
such as, swift currents interrupting the growth, decay of
the coral from local causes, and natural or accidental dis-
turbances.
On a subsiding or stationary foundation such a reef, raised
to the level of low-water mark, can never by any luxuriance of
its own growth rise above the water level and become a coral
island. Great storms, however, by breaking off blocks of its
living and ever seaward-growing margin, and throwing them
on the lagoonward portion’ of the reef, alone are able to
commence the raising above the surface of the ocean of
future islets, on which after the gradual accumulation of soil,
consisting of sand and the decaying flotsam and jetsam of the
ocean, and the germinating seeds that the winds, the sea currents,
or the birds of the air may chance to cast on its bosom, a
green clothing of vegetation inevitably grows up.
In traversing the Keeling atoll it seemed to be unaccount-
able how the interior, or lagoon margins of the islets, which
must necessarily have been thrown up above water at the
earliest stage of the existence of the atoll, still continue (on
the supposition that the atoll is subsiding) several feet
elevated above high-water level, and show no indication of the
water's encroachment. As a storm so violent as the cyclone
of 1876 was capable of piling the torn-off blocks of the reef-
floor—composed of a natural concrete of worn coral, shells,
and the hard parts of pelagic animals, imbedded in a solid
calcareous matrix—only a few yards over the higher edge of
the island, it is impossible for the lagoon margins, in some
places more than 800 yards distant from the sea, to be kept. up
in elevation by the debris of the outer margin ; and the greatest
sturms do not affect perceptibly or permanently the shores of
the lagoon.
Mr. Ross informed me that what Mr. Darwin, from the
undermining of cocoa-nut trees seen by him, supposed to be
sea encroachments, was intermittently taking place during
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 39
gales round the lagoon shores; and pointed out to me that
where, in such places, a portion of the land was washed out,
the same amount was replaced in some adjacent part of the
shore. He showed me also on the little islet, named in the
chart Workhouse Island, a rather exposed corner which had
been completely washed away with all the trees on it, in the
cyclone of 1876, but which in January, 1878, had become to a
great extent replaced. A period going on for half a century
had elapsed since Mr. Darwin’s observations, and the encroach-
ments of the sea on the land had, in my judgment at least, not
increased at all; on the contrary, it struck me that the land
was gaining on the lagoon. This, too, was Mr, Ross’s opinion,
from a thorough and intelligent knowledge of every part of
its coast and surface.
On West Island, in a short time the lagoonlet will be
entirely converted into dry land. At present it is nearly
filled up, and remains dry at all ordinary tides except on
two or three occasions a year, with a pure white chalk-like
sediment, the detritus of coral-attrition by the waves washed
in from the outside of the reef, where the sea is always more
or less turbid; all along its coast also, as far as its south
corner, the West Island is gaining ground by the accumu-
lation of sediment. If subsidence were proceeding, this sedi-
ment could not rise above high-water level. In the centre
of Horsburgh Island, which is three-quarters of a mile in
breadth, the ground exhibits an unbroken solid conglomerate
surface not composed of the strewn debiis from storms;
and a lakelet of salt water containing no life, which occurs
in it, seems to be an old lagoon extremely shallow and nearly
obliterated. In North Island also, 15 miles distant, as Mr.
Ross told me, the lagoon was rapidly filling up; its entrance
passage has since our knowledge of it been always barred by
the reef. In all these islands, in sinking wells down for some
12—20 feet through the solid conglomerate of which all the
islands are composed, fresh water can be found. The only
exception is Direction Island, in which no fresh water has been
discovered, and which is entirely composed, as far as borings
have been made, of shingle debris such as is found along the
beach of the seaward margin.
Between Direction Island and Workhouse Island I observed
40 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
what seemed to me signs of recent elevation. At ebb tide
there the water was very shallow and quite warm to the hand,
and I noticed Ostretde, small Tridacne and other shells-all
dead where they grew, doubtless killed by exposure to the sun at
low tide and by the fresh water during heavy rains. Of these
tropical downpours, Darwin records one as having taken place
before his visit, and Mr. Ross told me that in 1866, there were
several months of such continuous rain that the fresh water
stood for several inches on the surface of the lagoon, causing the
death of large numbers of fish, and no doubt of corals also.
Completely surrounding this little islet was a thrown-up
beach of very white sand, quite different from that I saw
anywhere else on the atoll, composed entirely of the minute
shells of molluscs, Echini, and of crabs, with a small proportion
of coral débris, probably raised by the waves from the seaward
slope of the barrier, indicating, perhaps, a less abrupt descent
than has been supposed. Since its first occupation (by Ross
Primus) the lagoon has greatly filled up with coral patches and
sediment, as he could sail his vessel much ‘farther up towards
South-east Island than now, and several boat channels cut as
indicated on the map have become quite obliterated. On the
east side of the atoll the islets are much smaller than at any
other part, and this may result if such an untoward circum-
stance as the irruption of poisoned water, such as I have
recorded above, were to occur at frequent intervals. It is
possible also that such a stream might issue frequently, if not
in great quantity, without being observed.
I incline to believe, therefore, that the Keeling reef
foundation has arisen as Murray, Semper and Agassiz have
suggested ; but that its islets have been the result of the
combined action of storms and the slow elevation of the vol-
canically upheaved ocean floor, on which the reef is built.*
The atoll offers to the marine biologist a rich mine that
would take not a few years of working to exhaust;t to the
* An abstract of an exhaustive reswmé and discussion by Dr. A. Geikie,
F.R.S., of the Coral Reef theories will be found in Nature, Nov. 29 and Dee. 6,
1883, of which the full text has just been published in the Proc. Phys. Soc.
Edin., vol. viii. (1884).
t Lhave elsewhere (Proc. R. G. 8., March 1884) directed attention to the
admirable situation of this spot for a Biological and Meteorological Station,
where it could be kept up at the most trifling cost.
IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. | 41
philosopher and student of human nature not a little to reflect
on, 2s to the effect on the colonists of a life so isolated, so apart
from the active stimulus of rivalry, and the sharp incentives to
advancement born of public opinion and the intercourse of
fresh minds, and so distant from the cheering influence of
the warm sympathies of their fellow men; yet among whom,
at least, instead of symptoms of physical, mental or moral
degeneration—despite the belief of Mr. Dana * that, “ notwith-
standing all the products and all the attractions of a coral
island, even in its best condition, it is but a miserable place for
human development, physical, mental or moral,’—he would
find continuous endeayour, industry and care crowned with
progress, and lives spent in contented happiness; to myself
it had opened a field of study charged in every aspect with
all that was interesting and very much that was new.
On the 8th of February Mr. Ross brought me at last the
inevitable news that the Mabel was again freighted with her
cargo of nuts and oil, and would sail next day for Batavia,
coupled, however, with a warm invitation to wait till her next
return from Batavia, and visit in the meantime the North
Keelings. Every consideration urged me to accept, but it
was with liveliest regret that I found it impossible to do so.
The recollection of its pleasures and its owner’s Highland-
chieftain-like hospitality (born of his blood) will ever make
the Keeling atoll a memory to. dwell on.
On the 9th we set sail, and falling in a few days later with
the steadily blowing Monsoon wind we scudded gaily along
before it, and anchored in Batavia on the 16th, accomplishing
in a week what it had taken us thirty days to sail over on our
outward voyage.
* Dana, ‘Corals and Coral Islands,’ p, 246.
42 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
APPENDIX TO PART I.
: Norr.—J., represents Java; 'T., Timor; T-L., Timor-laut; Sum., Sumatra;
T. dA., Tristan d’Acunha. ‘Ihe plants obtained by Mr. Darwin were described
by Rev. J. S. Henslow in Ann. Nat, Hist., vol. i. p. 337.
I.—List of the Keeling Atoll Puants. (vue. ee ae ‘Author.
Anonacezx.
Anona reticulata, D. By Pr ah i i _ x
Cruciferz.
Sinapis juncea, Z. Aru... ae ate, es ae = x
Capparidacex.
Gynandropsis, sp. Prob. cultivated. .. 7 i = x
Malvacez.
Hib‘scus tiliaceus, L. T., J., Pacf. Ids. Ys ee x x
Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis, ZL. Introduced. hs be _— x
Sida carpinifolia, L. fil. Madeira. Mauritius. _ x
Tiliaceer.
Triumfetta procumbens, Forst. ae #3 5 x x
Leguminose.
Acacia farnesiana, W. T. ae Oh. oS
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IN SUMATRA.
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268 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
II—LIST OF THE BIRDS OF SUMATRA.
“Tho first systematic account of the avi-fauna of Sumatra” (I quote
from the late Lord T'weeddale’s valuable paper, On a collection of birds
made in the Lampongs in 1876 by Mr. E. C. Buxton, in the Ibis for 1877,
page 288) “was written by Sir Stamford Raffles at Fort Marlborough,
near Bencoolen. .. Most of the birds enumerated were obtained in the
vicinity of Bencoolen itself, or during short trips into the interior of
the district of that name, during the years 1819 and 1820, partly by
Sir Stamford, assisted by Dr. Joseph Arnold, and partly by Messrs.
Diard and Duvaucel. These two gentlemen were French naturalists,
whose services Sir Stamford had secured while on a visit to Bengal. An
unfortunate misunderstanding that soon after their arrival in Sumatra
occurred between the Lieutenant-Governor and these two Frenchmen,
led, in about twelve months, to a cessation of their labours, and to their
departure from Bencoolen; and Sir Stamford was obliged to undertake
the description of the materials collected himself, or to allow the results
to be published in France. Hence his papers in the ‘Linnean, Trans-
actions.’ The number of species therein catalogued, and more or less
described, is about 168. But some birds obtained in the Prince-of-Wales
Island and Singapore are included, and a few species appear to have
been introduced into the list through oversight, and on the strength of
caged birds. :
“Tu 1830, Lady Raffles published a memoir of her late husband, to
which was appended a catalogue, by Vigors, of the zoological specimens
collected in Sumatra... . About 194 species are enumerated. °
“ Since 1830, no attempt at a complete account of the birds of Sumatra has
been published ; but a good many species not contained in Vigors’ list have
been discovered and described, principally by the Dutch zoologists, more
particularly by Temminck and by Solomon Miiller. Mr. A. R. Wallace,
during a stay of about three months in the year 1861, collected some birds
in the district of Palembang, penetrating a hundred and twenty miles
inland; but no separate account of his collection has appeared.
“ During a period of about five months, commencing the 30th of May
1876, Mr. Edmond C. Buxton travelled in the Lampong district ... He
started from Telok Betong, and went inland to Sukadana, a distance of
about eighty miles, and obtained in all 152 species, of which two were
undescribed.” .
“From 1877-1879, the Dutch mid-Sumatra expedition, through the
Padang Highlands and along the Batang Hari river, added much to our
knowledge of the natural history of that region.
From June to September, 1878, Dr. Beccari, the well-known Italian
naturalist, visited and collected on the mountains of Padang, chiefly on
Mount Singalan (8900 feet). It contained representatives of many Indo-
Chinese genera which have not been found in the Lampongs, some of
which were, however, collected by the Author in the more Southern
residency of Palembang.
In August of the same year, Mr. Carl Bock, a Swedish naturalist,
collected over the same region on behalf of the late Lord ‘Il'weeddale,
obtaining 166 species. An account of this collection by Captain Wardlaw
Ramsay will be found in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of
London, 1880, p. 13.
During 1880-1881, the Author made extensive collections in the Lam-
pong and Palembang Residencies, which have been carefully worked out
by Mr. F. Nicholson, and a list given in the Ibis for 1879, pp. 51 and 235.
” IN SUMATRA.
269
Aatur trivirgntus, Temm. Lampongs,
soloensis. Lath.
Ace’piter virgutus, Temm. Padang.
Neopus malayensis, Temm.
Spizaetus liunaetus, Horsf,
Spilornis pallidus, Wald. Lampongs.
bacha, Daud. Palembang. Lampongs.
Haliastur intermedius, Gurn.
Milvus govinda, Sykes, >
Pernis ptilonorhynchus, Temm.
Baza sumatrensis, Lafr. Palembang.
Microhierax fringillarius, Drap. Lampongs, Palembarg.
Falco peregrinus, Gm. ce
melanogenys, Gould.
Poliosetus humilis, Mul. and Schl. Pal. mbarg.
ichthyaetus, Horsf.
Ketupa javanensis, Less. Lampongs.
Bubo orientalis, Horsf.
Scops lempiji, Horsf. Lampongs.
tufescens, Horsf.
Glaucidium sylvaticum, Bp.
Ninox scutulata, Rafi. Lampongs.
Syrnium myrtha, Bp. Palembang.
Rhopodytes erythrognathus, Hartl. Lampongs.
diardi, Less. Lampongs.
Centrococeyx eurycercus, Hay. Lampongs. Palembang.
javanensis, Dum. Palembang.
Zanclostomus javanicus, Horsf. Lampongs. Palembang.
Surniculus lugubris, L. Lampongs.
Chrysococcyx xanthorbynchus, Horsf.
Hierococeyx fugax, Horsf. Lampongs:
Penthoceryx pravatus, Horsf. Lampongs.
Rhinortha chlorphca, Rafi.
Chrysophlegma mystacalis, Salv. Padang. . Palembang.
Xylolepus validus, Rafi. Lampongs. Palembang.
Thriponax javensis, Horsf. Lampongs.
Tiga rafflesi, Vigors. Lampongs.
javanensis, Ljung.
Iyngipicns auritus, Hyt. Lampongs.
Callolophus mentalis, Temm. Lainpongs.
puniceus, Horsf. Lampongs.
malaccen-is, Lath.
Micropternus badius, Raff.
Meiglyptes tristis, Hore. Lampongs.
tukki, Horsf. Lampongs.
Dendrotypes unalis, Horsf. LLampongs,
Henicurus sordidus, Hyt. Lampongs.
Loriculus galgulus, ZL. Palembang.
Palzornis longicauda, Bodd, Palembang.
Psittinus incertus, Shaw. Lampongs.
Orescius gouldi, Bp. Palembang.
Harpactes duvauceli, Temm. Lampongs.
kasumba, Rufiics. Lampongs.
erythrocephalus, Gould.
Batrachostomus cornutus, Temm. Lampongs.
Caprimulgus pulchellus, Salvy. Padang.
Lyncornis temmincki, Gould. Lampongs.
Merops sumatrana, Raffles. Lampongs. Palembang.
philippinus, Z. Padang.
Nyctiornis amicta, Temm. Lampongs. .Palembang.
Megaleama mystacophanos, Temm. Lampongs.
ehrysopogon, Temm. Lampongs,
19
270 a NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Sasia abnormis, Temm. Lampongs.
Cypselus subfureatus, Blyth. Padang.
Collocalia francica, Gm. Padang.
Macropteryx comatus, Temm. Lampongs.
longipennis, Rufi. Lampongs.
Carcineu'es pulchellus, Horsf. Lampongs. Palembang.
Halcyon pileata, Bodd. Lampongs. Palembang.
Sauropatis chloris, Bodd. Lampongs.
Pelargopsis fraseri, Sharpe. Lampongs. Palembang.
Alcedo euryzona, Shaw. Lampongs. ,
meninting, Horsf. Tampongs.
bengulensis, Gm. Lampongs.
Ceyx rufidorsa, Less. Lampongs. Palembang.
Mezalema versicolor, Rafies. Lampongs. |
Xuntholema rosea, Dumont. Lampongs.
hemacephala, Mull. Lampongs.
duyaucelli, Less. I:ampongs.
Caloramphus hayi, Gray. Padang.
Psilopogon pyrolophus, M.dl. Paiembang.
Hydrocissa albirostris, Shaw. Lampongs.
Anthracucerus malayanus, Rafles. Lampongs.
emyexus, Temm. Lampongs.
Anorhinus galeritus, Temm. Lampongs.
Rhytidocerus undulatus, Shaw. Lampongs.
subrufficollis, Blyth. Palembang.
Buceros rhinoceros, Z. Palembang. Lampongs
Corone macrorhyneha, Wagl.
enca, Horsf. 5
Dendrocitta occipitalis, Mull.
Crypsirhina varians, Lath.
Cissa chinensis, Bodd, var. minor, Cub.
Platysmurus leucopterus, Temm.
Uriolus maculatus, Vieill. Palembang.
xanthonotns, Horsf. Palembang
cruertus, Wagl. ‘
Dicrurus annectens, Hodys. Palembang.
sumatranus, W. Rams.
Chaptia malayensis, Blyth.
Buchanga cineracea, Horsf.
Bhringa resmifer, Temm.
Dissemurus paradiseus, L.
Trena criniger, Sharpe. Valembang.
Tepbrodornis gularis, Rafi.
Hemipus intermedius, Salv. Padang.
obscurus, Horsf.
Platylophus coronatus, Ragl. Lampongs.
Cochoa beecarii, Salvad.
Artamides sumutrensis, Aull.
Graucalus melanocephalus, Salvad. Padang,
Pericrocotus xanthogaster, Raji. . Palembang.
montanus, Salvad.
cinereus, Lafr.
peregr.nus, D.
Lalage terat, Bodd.
fimbriata, Temm., var. culminata, Hay.
Alseonax laticostris, Hal.
Poliomyias luteola, Pall. Palembang.
Muscicapula hyperythra, Blyth.
maculata.
Xanthopygia cyanomelena, Temm
Hypothymis azurea, Bodd.
occipitalis, Vig.
IN SUMATRA. 271
Rhipidura javanica, Sparrm.
perlata, Mull.
albicollis, Vieill.
salvadorii, Sharpe.
Terpsiphone affinis, Blyth.
incii, Gould:
Philentoma pyrrhopterum, Temm.
velatum, Tem.
Rhinomyias pectoralis, Salvad.
Culicicapa ceylonensis, Swains. Palembang.
Stoparola ruficrissa, Salvad. Padang.
concreta, Mill.
thalassinoides, Salvad.
Siphia elegans, Temm. Lampongs. Palembang.
sumatrensis, Sharpe.
Digenca solitaria, Mill. Padang.
Niltava grandis, Blyth. Padang.
Phylloscopus borealis, Blas.
viridipennis, Blyth.
Lusciniola fuliginiventris, Hodgs.
Geocichla sibirica, Pall.
Turdus cabanisi, Bp.
Agithina viridissima, Bp.
tiphia, L. var. viridis, Bp.
var. scapularis, Horsf.
Chloropsis viridis, Horsf.
zosterops, Vigors.
media, Bp.
icterocephala, Less.
cyanopogon, Temm.
venusta, Bp.
Hemixus cinereus, Blyth.
malaccensis, Blyth.
sumatranus, Wardl. Rams.
Tole olivacea, Blyth.
Pinarocichla euptilosa, Jard. & Selb.
Micropus melanocephalus, Gm.
Criniger pheeocephalus, Harél.
gutturalis, Bp.
Tricholestes criniger, Blyth.
Trachycoinus ochrocephalus, Gm.
Pycnonotus bimaculatus, Horsf.
analis, Horsf.
plumosus, Blyth.
simplex, Less.
salvadorii, Sharpe.
leucogrammicus, Mull.
tygus, Bp.
Rubigula dispar, Horsf.
cyaniventris, Blyth.
squamata, Temm.
webheri, Hume.
Trena crinigera, Sharpe.
Pnoepyga pusilla, Hodgs.
Orthotomus atrigularis, Temm. Lampongs.
cineraceous, Blyth. Lampongs. Palembang
ruficeps, Less. Lampongs.
sepium, Horsf.
Phyllergates cucullatus, Temm. Palembang.
Hydrocichla ruficapilla. Temm. Lampongs.
frontalis, Blyth. Tampongs.
velatus, Temn: Palembang.
272 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Eupetes macrocercus, Temm.
Sibia simillima, Salvad. Palembang.
Garrulax bicolor, Hartl. Palembang.
palliatus, Temm. Palembang. Padang.
Melanocichla lugubris, Mill. Padang.
Rhinocichla mitrata, 8. Mill. Lampongs. Palembang.
Stachyris larvata, Bp. Palembang. ;
poliocephala, Temm, Palembang.
nigricollis, Temm.
thoracica, Temm.
maculata, Temm.
Turdinus magnirostris, Moore.
loricatus, Mill. Padang.
rufipectus, Salv. ' Padang.
Erythrocichla bicolor, Less. Palembang.
Drymocataphus nigricapitatus, Eyton.. Lampongs.
Trichostoma rostratum, Blyth.
Myiophoneus dicrorhynchus, Salvad. Palembang. Padang.
melanurus, Salvad. Lampongs. Palembang. Padang. —
castaneus, Wardl. Rams. Padang.
Brachypteryx buxtoni, Tweed. Lampongs.
flaviventris, Salvad. Padang.
umbratilis, Sérickl. Palembang.
saturatus, Salvad. Palembang.
Copsychus musicus, afi. Lampongs.
Cittocincla tricolor, Vierll, var. suavis Sel. Lampongs.
Suya albigularis, Hume. Palembang.
Prinia familiaris, Horsf. Lampongs.
Burnesia flaviventris, Deless. Lampongs.. Padang.
Malacopterum magnum, Eyt. Palembang. Lampongs.
cinereum, Eyt. Palembang.
lepidocephalum, Gr.
affine, Blyth. Palembang.
Mixornis gularis, Ruff. Palembang. “
erythroptera, Blyth. Lampongs. Palembang.
Macronus ptilosus, Jard. & Selb. Lampongs. Palembang.
Anuropsis malaccensis, Hartl. Palembang.
Turdinulus murinus, Blyth. .
Rimator albostriatus, Salvad.
Stachyridopsis assimilis, Wald. Palembang.-
Mesia laurine, Salvad. Padang.
Parus sultaneus, Hodgs.
cinereus, Bonn. & Vieill.
Ptererythrius eralatus, Tickell, var. cameranoi, Salvad. Padang.
Pachycephala grisola, Blyth.
bruneicauda, Salvad.
Lanius tigrinus, Drapiez. Palembang.
bentet, Horsf. Padang.
Sitta frontalis, Hors/.
Chalcostetha insignis, Temm.
AE&thopyga temmincki, Mill.
siparaja, Rafi.
Cinnyris hasselti, Zemm. Bencoolen. Palembang. .
pectoralis, Horsf. Palembang. :
Arachnothera crassirostris, Reich.
longirostris, Lath. Palembang.
affinis, Horsf. Palembang.
chrysogenys, Temm. Bencoolen.
flaviventris, Gadow.
Anthothreptes hypogrammica, Miill.
simplex, Mill.
phenicotis, Temm. Palembang.
IN SUMATRA. 273
Anthothreptes malaccensis, Scop. Palembang. Bencoolen.
Zostcrops aureiventer, Hume. Lampongs.
chlorates, Hartl. Palembang.
atricapilla, Salrad. Padang.
flava, Horsf.
fallax, Sharpe.
frigida, Mull.
Diceum flammeum, Sparm. Tampongs..
olivaceum, Wald. Lampongs
trigonostigma, Scop. Lampong3.
Pitta boschii, Mull. & Schl. Lampongs.
muelleri, Horsf. lampongs.
venusta, Mull. Palembang.
Calobates melanope, Pallas. Lampongs.
Budytes viridis, Gm. Lampongs.
Anthus rufulus, V.
Hirundo javanica, Sparm.
Cymborhyuchus macrorhynchus, Gm. Lampongs.
Calyptomena viridis, Raffles. Lampungs.
ELurlyemus ochromelas, Raff.
javanicus, Horsf.
Corydon sumatranus, Raffles. Lampongs.
Calornis chalybea, Horsf. Lampongs.
Sturnopaster contra, Z. Lampongs.
. Gracula javanensis, Usb. Lampongs.
Artamus leucogaster, Val. Lampongs.
Analcipus cruentus, Wegl. Padang.
Padda orizivora, L. Lampongs.
Munia maja, L. Lampongs.
punctularia, L. Palembang.
leucogastroides, Moore. Lampongs.
atricapilla, V. Palembang.
Ploceus maculatus, Mull. Lampongs.
Erythrura prasina, Sparm. Lampongs.
Treron nipalensis, Hodgs. JLampongs.
Butreron capellei, Temm. TLampongs.
Sphenocercus oxyurus, Retnaw.
Osmotreron vernans, L. Lampongs. Padang. ?
olax, Temm. Lampongs.
Spilopelia tigrina, Temm. Lampongs.
Geopelia striata, L. Laa-pongs.
Chalcophaps indica, L. Lampongs.
Carpophaga badia, Ragl. Lampongs.
enea, L. Lampongs. Palembang. Padang.
Macropygi. leptogrammica, Temm. :
Argusianus argus, L. Lampongs. Palembang.
Polyplectron chalcurum, 7. Palembang.
Euplocomus vieilloti, Gray. Padang.
Acuinus inornatus, Salvad. Padang.
Gallus ferrugineus, Gm. Palembang.
Rhizothera lungirostris, Temm.
_ Arborophila personata, Horsf. Palembang.
Peloperdix rubrirostris, Salvad. Padang.
Excalfactoria chinensis, L. Palembang.
Rollulus rouloul, Scop. Lampongs. Palembang.
Culoperdix oculea, Temm. Palembang.
Turnix pugnax, Temm. Padang.
Charadrius fulvus, Gm. _Lampongs.
ABNgialitis geoffroyi, Wagl. Lampongs.
~ Glareola orientalis. Leach. Lampongs.
Ardea purpurea, L,
~ Herodias interntedia, Hasselt. Palembang.
274 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS,
Demigretta sacra, Gm. Lampongs.
Bubulcus coromandus, Bodd, ‘Palembang, Padang.
Ardetta cinnamomea, Gm, Padang.
Butorides javanica, Horsf. Paiembang.
Leptoptilus javanicus, Horsf. Palembang.
Tantalus lacteus, Temm. Falembang.
Totanus glareola, L. Lampongs.
Tringoides hypoleucus, ZL. Lampongs.
Scolopax rusticola, L,
Rhynchea capensis, L. Padang. Palembang,
Hypoteenidia striata, L. Palembang. Padang.
Erythra phoenicura, Forst. Lempongs.
Dendrocygna arcuata, Horsf,
Sterna media, Horsf.
kergii, Licht.
III.—ADDITIONS TO THE INSECT FAUNA OF SUMATRA.
Descriptions of LEPIDOTERA discovered by the Author in Sumatra,
The descriptions of species under Mr. Smith’s or Mr. Butler’s name, have
been kindly prepared by them for me.
NYMPHALIDE.
Trepsichrois van-deventert, mihi, sp. nov.—Intcrmediate between T.
mulciber of Borneo and ZY. linnei; differs from the former in the slightly
larger spots on fore-wings of male, and in the well-defined whiter mark-
ings in the female—in 7. mulciber they arc brownish; from YT. linnei it
differs in its smaller size, less angulated fore-wings, smaller spots on
these wings in both sexes and much narrower streaks on hind-wings of
female; it occurs in Sumatra, Malacca, and Cachar (Assam). Lampongs,
No. 99. This gpecies is named in honour of Mr. Justice Van Deventer.
of the Dutch-Indian Bench.
Kallima spiridiva, Smith, sp.nov.—Upper side: anterior wing, uniform
dark brown, almost black, “crossed from the centre of the costa to the
inner angle ‘by a. broad band of pale blue, in which between the first and
second median nervures is a small vitreous spot ; a small white spot near
the apex, which is not falcate, as in paralecta and other species of this
genus. Posterior wings with an irregular, almost obsolete, sub-marginal
black line. Both wings with a slight purple gloss. Under side: with
markings and spots resembling paralecta, but the colouring is subject to
variation, as of the two examples I have, one is rici: brown, and the
other olive-green. Expansion, 3} inches. 'lhis species is about the same
size as K. albofasciata, but is distinct from it as well as from paralecta.
Sumatra. Type in Mus. H. G. Smith, Esq.
Cethosia caroline, mihi, sp. nov.—Differs from the C. menalis in having
the transverse black lines more uniform in width, and the white patch
at centre of external area of fore-wings of little more than half the width;
the sub-apical white spots are also smaller, and the orange patch at anal
angle of hind-wings is considerably larger. Sumatra. Hoodjoong,
Palembang Residency. No. 215. I have named this species in recog-
nition of the kindness of my sister-in-law, Miss C. Keith, who aided me
greatly in the preparation of my MS. for the printers.
Cyrestes irmex, mihi, sp. nov.—Intermediate between C. methypsea and
IN SUMATRA, 275
C. penthesilia ; forc-wings with the markings of the latter species, hind-
wings most like methypsea, but with a broader external black margin ;
under side similar to that species, but with the whitc marginal line more
deeply scalloped and better marked, and the pale markings generally
whiter. Sumatra. Palembang Residency. No. 413. Named in honour
of the wife and elder daughter of Surgeon Julius Machik, of the Dutch-
Indian army.
PaPILIoNIDm.
Izvias flavipennis, Smith, sp. nov.—Upper side: both wings orange-
yellow; from the base, extended over about two-thirds of the wings,
shaded with gray, the nervures and remainder of the wings dark brown.
Under side: both wings yellow, mottled with brown; anterior wing,
with a black spot at the end of the cell, and an irregular sub-marginal
row of brown spots confluent, extending from the costa to the inner
angle; posterior wing with a sub-marginal row of brown spots com-
mencing on the costa between the nervures and extending to the third
median nervule, and a black spot on the first disco-cellular nervule.
Expansion, 24 inches. Hab., Mount Dempo, 4C00 feet. Type in Mus.
H. G. Smith, Esq.
Amnosia eudamia § , Smith, sp. nov.—Unper side: both wings brown ;
anterior wings crossed from the centre of the costa to the inner angle by
a broad brownish-white band, beyond the band the wings are darker
brown; posterior wings, with a sub-marginal row of five spots (smaller
than in decora 2), outside of which are two irregular dark brown lines,
and inside one dark line. Under side: both wings lighter brown than on
the upper side, with similar markings to decora, of which it may be a
variety, but it differs from the female decora in the lighter shade of the
brown on the upper side of the wings, in the colour of the band on the
anterior wings, in the size of the spots on the posterior wings, and on the
under side in the absence of the three spots within the cell of the posterior
wing, and of the first of the four sub-apical spots on the anterior wing of
decora, and, in addition, it is somewhat larger. Expansion, 3} inches
Hab., Sumatra. Type in Mus. H. G. Smith, Esq.
Papilio furbesi, Smith, nto. Month. Mag. p. 234 (1882-83).—Upper
side: dark brown, almost black, the margins between the nervures with
lunular white spots, very narrow on anterior wing, much broader on
posterior wing, which is without tails; anterior wings with longitudinal
rays on each side of the nervures of light brown, extending from the
middle to the exterior margin; posterior wing with a row of three
brownish-gray lunular spots between the median nervules, and a spot
at the anal angle, above which is a row of three small faintly-marked
spots of same colour. Under side: anterior wings rayed as above, but
paler; posterior wing with a longitudinal red spot at the base, divided
by the precostal nervure, which is black, and a small red spot below the
costal nervure; a broad band of ochreous yellow, with a row of black spots
in the middle, extending across the wing between the median nervules,
and a small spot of ochreous yellow beyend ; a black spot at the top.of
the band next the anal angle, three blue spots ncar the exterior margin,
from the costal nervure to the median nervule. Expansion, 4 inches.
Hab. Banding Agong, Sumatra. This species belongs to the Memuon
group, in which, however, there is nothing which resembles it. ‘ype in
Mus. H. G. Smith, Esq.
Papilio albolineatus, mihi, sp. nov.—Allied to P. sutwrnus, Guér.
(nephelus, De Haan); differs from that species in the greater width of
276 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
the sub-apical creamy-white band oh the fore-wing (the five spots of
which it is formed being considerably longer), in- having an additional
spot of the same colour at the apex of tho cell, and two small, pale
ochreous spots on the hind margin. The hind wings have the discal
creamy-white patch straight on its inner edge, and continued to the
abdominal margin by two additional pale ochreous spots; the marginal
spots of both wings are also more strongly marked. The under side
differs in having the white markings generally more extended, and the
additional spot in the cell of the fore-wings as on the upper side. Hab.
Borneo. In col. Brit. Museum.
In comparing an example of Papilio saturnus taken in Sumatra with
the specimens in the British Museum, I found this nearly-related species
unnamed in the collection, which the authorities have kindly permitted
me to describe here.
Papilio itam-puti, Butler, sp. nov.—Allied to P. alcibiades, but the
black markings of the primaries much broader, the fourth band forming
an acute triangle; the external black border, occupying nearly a third
of the wing not completely divided by the green band (which is narrower
than in P. alcibiades), its inner edge sub-sigmoidal ; this border terminates
just below the first median branches, not at the external angle as in P.
alcibiades ; the secondaries have slightly longer tails, and the externo-
anal area is greenish-gray, with black outer margin, and two black bars
near the extremity of the median interspaces; on the under surface, in
addition to the differences noted above, the outer half of the discoidal cell
of the primaries is ochre-yellow, and the external half of the secondaries
is uniformly instead of partially ochreous. I xpanse of wings, 77 millim.
Lampongs. In col. Brit. Musnem.
Description of a new LoNGICORN COLEOPTERON.
By Cuarres O. WatEtecuse, F.ZS.
LamiDgz.
Megacriodes forbesii,
From the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for May,.1881, and
figured in Janson’s Aids to the Identification of Insects.
Niger, nitidus, pube snbiilissima cinerea indutus; thoracis disco macula oculata
crocea ornato; elytris basi ct sub humercos crebre grauulosis, plagis sex albis
ornatis, Long. 22 lin.
Near to Mf. Saundersii, Pascoe (Trans. Ent. Soe. 3rd ser. iii. p. 272, 1866 );
but, judging from the figure (pl. xii. fig. 1), it is a more robust species.
It differs chiefly in. having the base of the elytra and all the humeral
region thickly studded with shining granules. The scutellum is yellow.
Each elytron has three patches of white pubescence (which were doubt-
less yellow when the insect was alive)—the first and second placed as in
M, Saundersii, but very irregular in form ; the third very elongate, and as
if formed of the two apical spots of N. Saundersii. The underside is
clothed with yellowish-grey pile, with a broad stripe along the side from
behind the cye to the apical segment of the abdomen; this stripe is part
yellow and part white; it. was probably yellow when the specimen was
alive.
Hab. Lampongs, Sumatra (H. 0. Forbes). Brit. Museum Coll.
.IN SUMATRA. 277
New Ruynenota. By W. L. Distant, P.LS.
(From the Ento. Month. Mag. xix. pp. 156-160.)
‘The following descriptions refer to species which I have received
during the last few years in collections made by Mr. Forbes. Our
present information as to the Ahynchota of Sumatra is greatly due to
Snellen van Vollenhoven, whose studies, however, did 10t extend to the
Coreidx of this island; to Ellenrieder, who alone treated of the Pentato-
mide ; to various descriptions by the late Dr. Stal; and the same, in a
much less satisfactory sense, of the late Mr. Walker. It will be thus scen
that at present our catalogues and collections of Sumatran Hhynchota are
of the most meagre and superficial character though we may reasonably
hope that this comparative ignorance will soon be greatly modified by the
publication of the natural history section of the late Dutch Fxpedition
into Central Sumatra. {This work has now been completed, and contains
descriptions of many specics new to science. H.O. F.]
Hemipters-HitTERoPrEra.
PENTATOMIDE.
Canthecona cognata, n. sp.,* allied to C. javanica —Ent. M. Magq.,
p. 157.
Neosalica n. gen., allied to Piezosternum. Loc. cit. p. 157.
forbes’, n. sp. Loe, cit. p. 157.
PynrRHOcoRIDz.
Loh‘ta grandis, Gray, var. Sumatrana. Loc, cit. 158.
REDUVIID2&.
Panthous cocalus, n. sp. allic| to P. dedalus, Stal, and P. nigriceps,
Reut. Loc. cit. p. 158.
Panthous talus, n. sp., alliel to P. icarus, Stal. Loe. eit. p. 159.
HemIpTeEkA-HoMOPTERA.
CERCOPIDE.
Cosmoscarla juno, n. sp., allied to C. viridans, Guér. Loc. cit. p. 160.
* The descriptions of these species are given in full at the given pages of the
work cited. H.O.F.
278: . A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
IV. ADDITIONS TO THE FLORA OF SUMATRA.
Description of a new Vaccinium. By WiLLiaM Fawcett, B.Sc., F.L.S.
Vaccinium Forbesii (sp. nov.). WUerb. Forbes. in Mus. Brit., No. 2371.
Frutex aut arbor ramulis racemis calycibusque pubescentibus, foliis
brevi-petiolatis ellipticis utrinque obtusis 13 mm. longis racemis margini-
bus recurvis integris coriaceis glabris subtus rufis imbricatis, 38 mm.
longis terminalibus, floribus breve-pedicellatis, in axillis bracteorum
VACCINIUM FORBESII.
foliis paullo minorum, calyce 3 mm. longo lobis tubi longitudine
obtusis, corolla 5-7 mm. longa ovoido-tubulari extus vix pubescente aut
glabra intus pubescente rubra aut coccinea marginibus albis (H. O. F.),
filamontis staminum pilosis, loculis antherarum ellipticis minutissimis
spinulis tectis dorso exaristatis in tubulos breves rectos apice apertos
IN SUMATRA. 279
productis; disco epigyno pubescente extrorsum sinuato; bacca 5 mm.
longa globoso pubescente purpureo-nigra.
This species differs from V. buwxifolium especially in the bracts being
like the leaves and not much smaller, and in the anthers being without
spurs. This beautiful species was collected on Mount Dempo, from
7500-10,500 feet. In size it varied from a tree four feet in circumference
to a low shrub.
[This drawing has been done for me by Mr. R. Morgan, from a camera
drawing of the author's made from the living plant. H. 0. F.]
Description of a new species of CYRTANDREE. By H. O, Forpes.
(Extracted from the Linnean Society's Journal—Botany, vol. xix. p. 297.
Bora Trevsit, Forbes.—Suffruticosa, caule usque ad 3—4 pedes alto,
pallide cinnamomeo-tomentoso: foliis oppositis, breviter petiolatis,
elongato-lanceolatis, supra glabratis, subtus cinnamomeo-tomentosis ;
pedunculis multifloris, in paniculam terminalem abeuntibus; corolla in
diam. 0:20-0:25 metr. purpurascenti-cerulea.
Folia acuminata, serrulata, undulata; petioli connati, basi dilatati,
caulem amplectentes. Bractese inferiores, foliis similes, sed minores.
Calyx 5-partitus; laciniis lanceolatis, acuminatis, tomentosis. Corolla
oblique campanulata, tubus calyce brevior; limbus bilabiatus, lobis
obovato-rotundatis. Stamina 2 perfecta, corolla multo breviora, 2-3
rudimentaria; filamenta arcuata; antherse magne, cordato-oblonge,
reniformes, aurantiace, dpicibus coherentes, loculis subrectis confluenti-
bus. Capsula ovoideo-cylindrica, bivalvis, valvis etiam in capsula
perjuveni spiraliter dextrorsum tortis, loculicide dehiscens; placente
membranacex, 2-fide, revolute, semina minuta integentes.
Sumatra, in monte calcareo Karangnata, prope Napal Litjin, in prov-
incia Palembang, alt. 1000 ped.
I found this singularly beautiful and graceful plant in full flower in
November, 1881, first near the village of Napal Litjin, 580 feet above the
sea; but in profusion on the large disrupted calcareous blocks near the
summit of the peak of Karangnata, in company with magnificent spike-
bearing Celogynes and pink-fruited Melastomacee. I am not satisfied
that Buea Treubit may not form a new genus; it differs from Boea in its
large size and entire stigma. The specific name is give in honour of Dr.
Treub, Director of the Botanic Gurdens, Buitenzorg.
PART IV.
IN THE MOLUCCAS AND IN TIMOR-LAUT,
CHAPTER If.
FROM JAVA TO AMBOINA.
Sojourn in Buitenzorz, Java—Leave for Amboina accompanied by my wife—
Friends on board—Call at Samarang and Sourabaya in Java—Macassar in
Celebes—Bima in Sumbawa—Larantuka in Flores—Cupang and Dilly in
‘limor—Banda, the island of nutmeg gardens, ;
ARRIVING in Batavia from Sumatra on the 27th of December,
-1881, I was engaged for many weeks in botanical investigations
in the Laboratory of the Buitenzorg Botanical Gardens, in
packing up my very large Herbarium, and in making the
necessary arrangements for my expedition to Timor-laut.
At the end of March, the future companion of my travels
arrived from Europe, to whom I was married on the 5th of
April, and henceforth the record of those wanderings must
pass from the singular to the plural pronoun, while the ob-
servations hereunder recorded are those sometimes of : the
one, sometimes of the other of us.
On the 15th of: the month we left Batavia en route for
Timor-laut vid Amboina. On board the steamer there was a
large complement of passengers, among whom was Major Van
der Weide, the directing medical officer of the Moluccas, and
a most charming Portuguese family, that of Major da Franga,
who was on his way to assume the Governorship of their
possessions in East-Timor.
The steamers of the Netherlands India Company cireum-
navigate the Archipelago every month; and as they often lie
to as long. as a couple of days at the more important islands
along its southern belt, we had therefore the opportunity of
forming a sli¢ht acquaintance with many interesting places
and races of men. After a call at the two Javan ports of
Samarang and Sourabaya, we anchored for several days in
284 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Macassar, the greatest disseminator in these seas of the pro-
ducts of Western civilisation to the barbarous East. Thence,
running a day and night's sail southward to the island of
Sumbawa, we touched for a few hours at Bima. The rest of
that day and till next afternoon we coasted along the shores
of the island of Flores, the Land of Flowers of .the early
Portuguese navigators, but a heavy mist concealed from our
view its wooded features.
Anchoring at Larantuka at ‘its'eastern point, I accompanied
the captain on shore under a dense rain, and spent an hour
or two at a lone monastery there, where some eight or nine
priests were living, who -hospitably proffered us. “the. best. of
their cellar. The buildings and grounds were enclosed and
-strongly fenced in by thick hedges. of the impenetrable bam-
boo-durie. With a few people from Java and the surrounding
islands they were spending their lives in very much like
‘useless solitude. The natives were anything but friendly,
and lived far in the mountains; but every now and then, the
priests told me, they made a raid on their establishment,
shooting a few of their people in the dark and then running
“away. “So that it seemed to me that both the priests and
‘the nuns (who occupied an adjacent nunnery) might lave
established themselves in a region affording more scope to
their self-denying labours. The natives I saw were mop-
haired, with sooty black skins; they. wore triton-shell arm;
lets, squeezed on just below the shoulder so tight that I was
astonished that strangulation of the limb was not the result.
A pink Periwinkle (Vinca rosea), and the lovely dark blue
climbing Clitorea ternatensis grew abundantly near the shore
and in the gardens of the priests.
From Larantuka passing southward through the Flores
straits we made for Cupang in the west of Timur—a bright
clean, neatly laid-out town at the base of a range of abrupt
-hills, with a considerable Dutch population living in sub-
stantial houses. On going ashore we were delighted to find
there an Englishman, Mr. Drysdale, by whom we were most
hospitably entertained during the day. The natives, tall
well-made fellows with their tate done up in a large frizzly
mop, strolled lazily about the streets looking on unconcernedly
at the tide of civilisation and the eager bustle of trade_ set.
IN THE MOLUCCAS. 285
flowing by the arrival of our steamer, as if it was a matter
in which they had absolutely no interest or concern. They
wore little clothing beyond a loin-cloth, and a fringed plaid
—that simplest and most primitive garb of man—about their
shoulders; a little bag, heavily ornamented with gold and
beads, suspended in front by a string round the hips, con-
tained their betel nut and siri leaves, and tastefully carved
bamboo tubes full of tobacco, A Borassus palm leaf for an
umbrella completed their costume and accoutrements, except
their hats, which, made out of the
pure white spathe of the Borassus
palm, really exhibit artistic taste
of a very high order. Somewhat
of the shape of the “ Devonshire
Hat,’ so much worn a few years ago,
but narrower in proportion, they
were elaborately ornamented with a
mass of flowers and plumes really
wonderfully modelled out of little
chips of the spathe. Held in the
hand they were singularly graceful
ornaments; but atop of the natives’
curly mops they had rather a gro- SOUGR ORNAMENTATION
tesque appearance. The indigenes
rarely came down from their own mountain homes to the
town, so that very few of the natives I saw crowding the streets
of Cupang were true Timorese, Mr. Drysdale told me; most
of them were men from the little island of Solor, and are the
servants and coolies of the place.
Trade is carried on by barter, the most prized article of
exchange being a species of bead, by no means plentiful, ealled
by them dakkaz, of an ochreous red colour, evidently some sort of
soft stone. Whence these beads come is quite unknown, and
no imitation yet made in Birmingham or elsewhere has been
sufficiently exact to deceive the native to give the price of the
true article for its counterfeit—a small string of eight or nine
inches long costing over £12.
Another night’s sail brought us to Dilly, the capital of the
Portuguese territory in the east half of the island. Here we
lost our genial companions, the Governor and his family, who
20
286 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
landed under a salute from the fort, and with a great show
of ceremony. Landing later in the day, we perambulated the
town, which wanted much before it could be termed neat or
clean or other than dilapidated, but when we afterwards
came to know how terribly insalubrious it is, we were sur-
prised that the incessant fever and languor which made life on
the Jowlands an absolute burden left a particle of energy in
anybody to care for anything. The supreme evil of Dilly is
its having been built on a low morass, when it might have
stood far more salubriously on the easily accessible slopes
close behind it. Before leaving we received from the Governor
a most cordial invitation to visit them again, and the generous
offer of what assistance I might want, should I have a mind
to travel-in the interior of the island.
A sail of two nights and a day brought us to Banda.
Coming on deck, before breakfast, we found ourselves slowly
steaming in through a narrow winding entrance between
thickly foliaged cliffs, which seemed, after giving us passage,
to glide together and enclose us within a deep blue inland lake
without entrance or exit. It was the most lovely spot we had
yet visited. Fronting us as the steamer warped itself to the
jetty, lay the town as a cluster of white houses, built along
the low, narrow foreshore, overshadowed on all sides by steep
heights densely wooded with bright green vegetation; from
an elevated plateau, a battlemented fort overlooked us, the
scarlet of its Dutch ensign floating in the wind with a
bright gleam of colour; behind us, across the harbour, rose,
from the water's bayleted edge, the high symmetrical islet
cone of the Gunung Api, its base and flanks green with trees,
amid whose shade a white dwelling here and there peeped
out, peacefully reposing, careless of the internal fires that
blistered the smouldering summit of the mouniain.
We walked through the town and viewed at Bin Saleh’s
many native-made Paradise and thousands of other gay New
Guinea birds’ skins, ready for dispatch to the Paris markets.
Two skins of the Seleucides alba and Diphyllodes respublica
were all that were worth purchasing. We were charmed with
its clean aspect, its green parks with gravelléd walks, and
pretty dwellings. Wandering up the heights by a path over-
grown with lycopods and ferns, we presently found ourselves
IN THE MOLUCCAS. 287
under a delightfully shady canopy of tall Kanary trees,
and among the groves of Nutmeg of which Banda is the
famous garden. Quite a picturesque object in the wood was
a boy busy gathering the fruit into a neat creel, with a
jointed pole like a fishing-rod, nipping off the stalk of the
ripe nuts by two claw-like prongs with which the tip of his
rod was armed, when they dropped into a little basket-like
cage worked to the stem a few inches below. He came
and showed us his basketful of beautiful fruit
—in its pale yellow shell, half of which is left
on, in which was nestling the dark brown nut
embroidered with its deep lake mace. This fruit
is the favourite food of the large pigeons (Carpo-
phaga concinna) whose low booming note was one
of the few bird sounds that broke the stillness of
the woods. I snot, however, a lovely green dove
(Ptilopus diadematus) and a little White-eye (Zos-
terops chloris), and noticed traces of the Cassowaries
that have been introduced from New Guinea, which
are said to be now breeding there.
Farther on we came on one of the plantation-
houses, where a large number of men and women
were peeling the mace, drying it in the sun, and
packing both in boxes. ‘These cases are all made
of one size, carefully finished and caulked, and
form as delightful an article of cargo as could eee AN
be wished. None but a trade de luxe would befit gren’s con-
an island so ornate and so wonderfully situated as LECTING
. : 5 OD.
Banda. Its produce, grown in beautiful bowers, is
gathered up round its umbrageous bayleted shores in long
gaudily-painted praus, which are constantly darting about
propelled by lithe rowers, who, as is their custom, synchron-
ously plunge and flash out their paddles in the sun to a
buoyant merry tune, and in whose preparation or shipment
not one hand-soiling operation is required; its atmosphere is
charged with aromatic exhalations; its wharfs and streets are
the picture of tidiness, and the very water that laps its coral
shores is brighter and purer than almost anywhere else in the
world.
A night’s slow steaming brought us to Amboina.
288 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
CHAPTER II.
AMBOINA.
Amboina— Reception by Mr. Resident Riedel — Delay — Visit interior of
Amboina—Paso—Move to Wai—The people there—The flora and fauna—
Return to Amboina.
On landing in Amboina, I sent my letters of introduction
from the Government to Mr. Resident Riedel, and later in the
day we reported our arrival in person at his house. My letters
recommended me officially to him for whatever information
he could give us in regard to Timor-laut; and in that liberal
spirit in which all travellers in the Archipelago are treated
by the Dutch Government, I had been granted the privilege
also of using the voyages thither of the Government’s marine
gunboat, which the authorities in Batavia expected would be
leaving Amboina for the Tenimber Islands shortly after our
arrival there. ‘To our surprise, Mr. Riedel’s bearing towards
us was not at all friendly, and beyond the simple item that
the Tagal had just returned thence, we obtained no further
information as to its movements or intelligence from him about
Timor-laut.
Taking leave of the Resident very disappointed, as I had
relied much on the information that could have been given us,
we set about searching for some shelter for the night. Know-
ing no one in a town where there is neither hotel nor “ Rooms
to be let” for chance travellers, we returned at sundown
unsuccessful on board the steamer which fortunately had not
sailed. Resuming our search next morning, we happily at
nightfall met with the Captain of the Chinese, who, with the
utmost kindness, placed a newly-built house of his at our
disposal, and made it habitable for us.
Our first impressions of Amboina, therefore, were by no
IN THE MOLUCCAS. 289
means prepossessing; they would have been brighter could
we have foreseen that, ere we left it, we were to make many
delightful friends, whose kindness and hospitality would fix it
in our remembrance as one of the most pleasant of towns to
reside in.
Our only means now of reaching the Tenimber Islands was
by the Netherlands tri-monthly steamer, due on the 18th of
June, which had lately begun to run to New Guinea, touching
at Serah and Larat, both islets of the Timor-laut group, where
the Government had just then placed Postholders (civil offi-
cials of subordinate rank) charged with the initiatory work of
these new colonies.
To a naturalist with a spare week or two at his disposal,
few islands can offer so acceptable a retreat as Amboina. To
spend the time as profitably as possible, therefore, we decided
to move a little distance into the interior.
May 14th. Breathless Sunday morning. Started for Paso,
a little village situated at the top of the Bay of Amboina, on
the narrow isthmus—only a few hundred yards broad—that
connects the southern or Leitimor with the northern (called
Hitu) portion of the island. It was a disappointment to us
that a ripple on the water quite prevented our getting a glimpse
of those fairy Gardens of the Sea to be seen here, which have
been so graphically described by Mr. Wallace. Jutting out from
the land along the shores of the bay were the curious Seros or
native fish-maises, in which a double line of close bamboo pali-
sades, reaching above the level of the water, enclosed a lane,
which extended shorewards from its seaward entrance a little
way beyond low-water mark, and doubling back terminated in
deep water in a circular well, where the fish that had entered
during high tide, and whose escape had been prevented by the
ebb, were enclosed and captured from a trap door in a, little
platform erected over it.
As we skirted along the shore, the sound of sacred music
floated out to us over the water from one of the little villages
in solemn and impressive cadence. We landed for a little
to look at the church whence it issued—the people here being
all “Orang Sirani,” or Christians.* The congregation was
just dispersing, and we were surprised at the neatness of their
* Or “ Nazarenes.”
290 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
attire ; the men in badjos (a sort of blouse) and trousers of
black glazed calico, and the women in black sarongs (petticoat)
and kabaias (a loose tunic with sleeves). Their demeanour was
becomingly grave and solemn, like their dress. The parson,
however, looked an odd figure in a white tie, a Kuropean
dress-coat never made for him, black pants of uncertain age,
and a tall narrow-rimmed beaver hat. Their church was fitted
up like a Dutch or a Scottish country kirk, and had been
entirely erected by the villagers, who, according to custom,
each contributed their share of its cost in labour or material.
On arrival at Paso, we found the Rajah (the chief of the
village, an official appointed by the Government without any
territorial possession) preparing to leave for a week to attend
some great native festival in a neighbouring village, but he
has kindly offered us aroom in his house. He remembers Mr.
Wallace, who visited Paso in the time of his father (who was
also Rajah), Beccari, Macleay, and the officers of the Challenger,
who had all occupied his house, he informs us.
May 15th. The Rajah, and a great part of the villagers with
him, left this forenoon. The last thing dune before starting
was to rake and tidy the space in front of the church, “for if
proper respect were not paid to Tuan Allah, perhaps some mis-
fortune might befall one or other of the praus.” The final
start for the boats was made from the church door. Their
belief in the avenging nature of the deity is very strong.
A Strobilanthes hedge-girt path in front of the Rajah’s
house leads straight to the Bay of Baguala, along the isthmus,
which is nothing but a sandbank recently raised from the sea.
Along the 8.E. shore of Leytimor I observe precipitous
cliffs of coral from 200 to 300 feet in height in sctu, indicating
a considerable amount of elevation. The Bay of Baguala is at
this season very calm, but a month hence the natives say the
monsoon will have changed, and it will be difficult for boats to
come in. Now, however, the scene is a very lively one at all
hours of the day, for the traders bringing sago-meal, fish and
fruits from Ceram, Saparua, Nusa-lau and the N.E. shores of
Amboina are hurrying before the change of weather to bring
over their produce to Amboina, and get back again with their
exchanges. On arriving in the Baguala Bay their boats have
to be all unloaded, and dragged over the narrow isthmus into a
IN THE MOLUCCAS. 291
creek of the Amboina Bay, which at high water is only a few
yards distant; and as the constant unpacking and repacking is
accompanied by shouting and singing to the beating of a tom-
tom, without which no work can be done here as it times them
to concerted action, Paso is anything but dull.
May 21. Lopes and Peter as usual out hunting for birds,
while I went to the forest to botanise; Anna labelling the
insects and birds at home. The fine Ornithoptera, the Kupu-
Kupu rajah or royal butterflies, for which this island is
famous, are very difficult to catch, as they fly at so great a
height ; nevertheless the large green O. priamus, and O. remus,
have been obtainel feeding on the Cerbera lactaria and C.
odallam. I have on several occasions found the bodiless wings
of the priamus in the forest paths, as if it had been attacked by
birds, the body devoured and the wings dropped. Nowhere
have I seen insect life—especially beetles—so abundant, or of
greater variety and beauty, as here; one of the less rare
species is the grand Sagueir (palm-winc) feeding-beetle,
Euchirus longimanus, figured by Mr. Wallace in his Malay
Archipelago, which pcrish in thousands every year by
dropping, generally during the night, into the palm-wine
collecting buckets whence they cannot escape.
Coming as I have done from the Indo-Malayan part of the
Archipelago the new character of the fauna has greatly pleased
me. Gay parrots I had counted on seeing; but the unex-
pected richness of the plumage of the pigeons has been a special
delight to us at every return of our hunters. The Marsupial
species of Cuscus also, of which we have obtained three species,
have interested us. They are very plentiful, and at this season
the females all seem to have a little one in their pouch. One
of these was a tiny creature about two inches long, quite hidden
in its pouch, fixed by its lips formed into a simple round orifice
to its mother’s teat. They are much eaten by the natives, by
whom they are caught in nooses set in the trees, or by artifice
In moonlight nights creeping stealthily to the foot of a tree
where they have observed one sleeping, taking care not to lift
their heads so that the light flash in their eyes, they imitate at
short intervals its ery by placing the fingers in the nose; the
Cuscus descends and is fallen on by the watchers below. The
python is their greatest enemy, and devours large numbers of
292 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
them as they cling to the branches during the day in a semi-
torpid condition.
Heavy rain fell for several hours this afternoon, and
suddenly set a patch of forest near the house alive with a loud
hoarse uproar of tree-frogs, that continued without intermis-
sion till long after sunset. Last night, as we were falling
asleep, a colony of a different species, residing in the “atap,”
(thatch) of the rajah’s house, set up an irritating, harsh
croupy bark like a little cur’s, repeated every two or three
seconds till break of day, quite disturbing our rest. I 10used
Lopes several times to beat the thatch, but whey would not be
persuaded to cease croaking.
May 24th. This morning at four o’clock got up and beat a
vigorous tatoo on the rajah’s “ bedug” (drum) to assemble the
rowers who had agreed to row us to Tengah-tengah on our way
to Wai, and with wkom it had taken me the whole of yester-
day to come to terms as to a boat and its hire. On mustering
our crew half of them failed to put in an appearance, sending
word that they did not now wish togo. New men therefore had
to be found and terms discussed with them;. and even with
them much time was lost, as during the loading of the boat they
took every opportunity of slinking off to their homes, whence
they had to be routed out over and over again. This is an
exhibition of the Sirani in their true character—at least, the
side of it they oftenest show, lazy, untruthful, arrogant and
void of conscience. Having abjured the Mahomedan religion
for that of the Europeans—in form—and acquired some words
of their language, they consider themselves quite the equals
of the Dutch. Their change of religion has done much for
them, in many ways, as a community, but little for them
individually. They can be excessively tantalising; and both
as traders or servants I find them less honest hearted and
reliable than their Islamite brethren.
At length got under weigh at eight o’clock in an “ orembai”
with six rowers, a helmsman, and a man to beat the drum.
We skirted the northern shore of the Baguala Bay, and landed
in a little baylet in its promontory, where the village of Tengah-
tengah lies built up in terraces from the shore. These terraces
are lined by thick rows of the true Bread-fruit tree (Artocarpus
incisa), whose produce, the rajah tells me, brings in some £400
IN THE MOLUCCAS. 293
a year to the village. The people are Mahomedans, and their
language was quite unintelligible to us, being the bahasa negorat
or the old language of the country, which the Sirani consider
it beneath them to speak, just as they imagine it derogatory to
their more elevated position as Sirani to wear the head-cloth
and Malay sarong. The largest edifice in the village is the
Baluai, the council room, where the rajah, the priests, and the
chiefs of the village hold their deliberations. The rajah of
Paso told me that his Baluai had fallen to ruins, but as the old
bahasa, which they had quite discarded, might alone be spoken
in it, they could not rebuild it. The Baluai corresponds very
nearly with the Balai of Sumatra, and both words have pro-
bably a Polynesian origin. The manners of the villagers here
are simpler and far less haughty than those of the Sirani; but
they seem poorer and less advanced in civilised ways.
Aiter some delay, but without any unpleasantness, we ob-
tained a boat and rowers and started for Wai. From Tengah-
tengah we sailed through what might have been a bay in
Fairyland: the coral gardens beneath our keel, so beautiful
that we found it difficult to proceed far without bidding our
rowers to rest on their oars to let us admire each more
wonderful spot; around us the white shore line, in front of
a dark green palm-fringe ; behind us the island of Haruku
embowered in foliage, and the distant peaks of Ceram.
When at length we ran our prau on the shore in the mid-
afternoon in front of the village of Wai, the unreal nature of
the scene seemed complete, so buried was the place in sleep,—
not a moving creature was to be seen anywhere on the shore
or in the village, not a sound of life broke the stillness of its
tree-shaded “straats,” not the bark of a dog, or the note of a
bird from among the trees, whose branches hung listless in
the broiling sun. So heavy lay the death-like silence on all
around that we felt as if we ought not to speak above a
whisper, or to tread except on tip-toe, as, led by one of our
boatmen, we slowly made our way to the house of the rajah,
who, after a time, appeared in his sleeping attire, in a half-
bewildered and confused state at finding a couple of white
strangers in his verandah. At last, when he had slowly
grasped the reason of our unexpected advent, we came to terms
with him for an unoccupied house of his a few doors from
294 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
his own, and it was curious to observe the surprised air of the
people as they roused themselves to watch our installation.
Though built of stone in the European style, our new
abode with its damp sand-floor, is not to be compared for
comfort with a bamboo pile-hut. It has one splendid acces-
sory in a large bath-house erected in a secluded spot over
a stream widened out and enclosed where it issues from the
base of the Silahutu mountain, and above where the villagers
are permitted to use it.
Sunday, May 28th. Strolled out together in the early morn-
ing by the shady paths of the neighbouring forest, and back to
the village along the bay whose charming view never ceases
to afford us unmixed delight, and on whose beach the east
wind, now begun to blow roughly, has been throwing a wealth
of sponges, hydroids, and shells among which there is always
something new to us, and where we spend many hours of our
walks in watching the painted fields of shore crabs (Gelasi-
mus) with their richly coloured pincer limbs and carapace,
the restless chattering Flycatchers (Myiagra galeata) and
the sedate Kingfishers on the Mangroves watching for little
crustacea, and those curious fishes (Periophthalmus) that hop
along the shore out of the water in such an odd way.
The village is laid out in rectangular plots fenced in by
Strobilanthes hedges, in which are set the gated entrances to
garden-fronted houses. The streets, lined with overarching
trees, are margined along their water conduits by borders
of pink crocus-like plants. Onc of its chief edifices is the
Gredja, whose grandeur quite overwhelmed us; for it is far
more elaborately decorated than many a rural parish church
at home. The area of the building is set with cane-bottomed
chairs instead of fixed pews; but on one side, raised a few feet
above the floor, a large, canopied, elaborately carved and
richly gilded suite of seats, emblazoned in front with a coat of
arms (!), is reserved for the rajah and his family. The pulpit
is also much carved and gilded, and the church altogether is
tastefully fitted and abundantly lighted with petroleum lamps.
The services are conducted in High Malay by a European
missionary, and in his absence by the Gurw or native school-
master, who with moderate regularity instructs the children
five days a week. Amboinese rajahs keep no state, and wear
IN THE MOLUCCAS. 295
no special dress except on Sundays. To-day we had the
honour of seeing the Potentate of Wai proceed to church in
state, in his black trousers—which, being rather short, displayed
a good deal of white cotton stocking—black ‘swallow-tail’
coat made for a stouter and taller individual than himself,
probably his father, and a beaver hat, tall and narrow, of an
ancient pattern, while over his head a youth carried his
gilded state umbrella. The whole population attended the
service, all of them in black calico attire; but their religion
seems to lie on them like an awesome thraldom.
June 8th. Began packing up in order to return to Amboina
in time for the Timor-laut steamer of the 16th. We have had
a delightful sojourn here notwithstanding the heavy rains that
set in soon after our arrival, which prevented me much to my
regret, from reaching the summit of Silahutu. The later hours
of every afternoon have been looked forward to by us both as
the most pleasant of the day, when the hunters’ spoils were
displayed to be admired, examined and labelled. Among but-
terflies we have added a few more of the fine Ornethoptera
found at Paso, numbers of “ Swallow-tails,” chief among them
the deep blue Papilio ulysses, species of Hebomoia and Pieris,
Charaxes euryolus, and many “ Blues”; among beetles we
have added to our collection many species of all the finest
families, Longicorns, Rose-chafers, Tiger-beetles and golden
Buprestide ; among birds may be mentioned the beautiful
raquet-tailed Kingfishers of the genus Tanysiptera, which I
was rather surprised to find in large chattering corrobories in
the tops of high trees; Maleos, whose terra-cotta eggs are
eagerly hunted for by the natives as a table luxury; Mega-
lurus amboinensis, an isabelline Reed-warbler found chirping
among the tall Kussu grass; bright orange Thick-heads
(Pachycephala), Lories, and among our favourite pigeons num-
bers of the beautiful black and cream-white nutmeg-eaters
(Myristicivora bicolor) of which the little islet of Pulu Pombo,
lying a few miles off the coast, is a densely populated colum-
barium. The most interesting of the plants are species of
Myrmecodia, on which I have been able to continue the observa-
tions begun at Kosala in Java (see pages 79-82).
To-day I had a long talk with the rajah and some of the
people of the neighbouring Mahomedan village, from whom I
296 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
have somewhat extended the Batumerah Vocabulary given by
Mr. Wallace in the appendix to his Malay Archipelago.
Amboina, June 10th. Yesterday at daybreak left Wai to
come here. As the state of the monsoon prevented our journey-
ing to Paso by boat, we proceeded across the promontory on
foot, our baggage carried by porters, and A in a palan-
quin. The road led over numerous small hills, from the top of
which we got many pretty peeps of Haruku and Ceram, through
Gum-tree—the famous Kajuput—forest and Kussu-grass fields,
studded throughout with bright yellow Hibiscus-trees and with
fragrant Habenaria susanne orchids, while by the path-side grew
bright Polygalas and delicate pink Sonerilas.‘ The nectaries
of the Habenaria averaged six inches in length, and though
containing only a small drop of nectar at the bottom, I believe
the flowers to be fertilised by a moth with a tongue far shorter
than six inches. Descending into the Baguala Bay we skirted
the shore all the way to Paso, where we found we must wait till
afternoon for the rise of the tide. It was only after hours of
bargaining and cajoling, and the assistance of the rajah’s autho-
rity, we obtained (long after the tide had sufficiently risen)
a boat and men to take us down the bay. This unnecessary
delay did not tend to raise the Amboinese character in our
estimation, especially as it had turned out a soaking night and
so dark that we could not see where we were steering ; while, to
crown all, our boat was a very unsafe “ dug-out” with no out-
riggers, in which we could not dare to beguile a part of the
way in sleep for fear of capsizing it by an unguarded move-
ment. Luckily the sea was as smooth as glass, and we kept
ourselves awake watching the crickling rain and the drip of
our paddles dancing into phosphorescent drops on the water,
the luminous zig-zag path that the frightened fishes traced
in darting from below our keel, and the flashing torches of
the fishers arranging their Seros. Arriving about midnight
utterly worn out, we were much annoyed to find the door
of our old quarters unopened, and none of the preparations
made which we had sent on Lopes—who was really never to
be depended on out of our sight—in advance to see to; we
pretty truly surmised that he had got “unco happy” among
his friends and forgotten all about us. After a long wait in the
rain the key was at last obtained by rousing up our kind old
IN THE MOLUCCAS. 297
Chinaman, and our baggage drenched in the rain and in the
leakage of the boat, at length deposited undercover. Finding
a boat-sail in one of the rooms, we were glad to throw ourselves
upon it on the stone floor—a wretched night even for me,
but worse for my companion, hardly yet inured to roughing it,
and for whose sake I bitterly grudged such hardship in a town
so civilised as Amboina,
298 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
CHAPTER II].
FROM-AMBOINA TO TIMOR-LAUT.
Leave for Timor-laut—Saparua—Curious village and atoll of Gessir—New
Guinea—Aru—Ke—Timor-laut—First impressions—New birds and but-
terflies—State of siege—Negotiate for a housc—Language—Our barter
goods.
JULY 5th. On board the SS. Amboina. At last, at 5 a.m. “ Full
steam ahead ”—for Timor-laut. Since the 10th of last month,
after completing our stcck of beads, knives, and the thousand
and one knick-nacks bought pretty much on chance in the
hope of their being good trade, we have been living with all
our baggage packed and roped, expecting every hour the
arrival of the New Guinea steamer—a period of intense
discomfort and unrest. Before its arrival was announced we
had quite concluded that some accident had befallen it. At
last, however, we are on board, and have already forgotten our
vexation in the keen satisfaction of being really on our way
Eastward to the islands where we hope to find so many new
forms of life.
Our enforced sojourn in the town was not altogether
witheut pleasure. Amboina is one of the most salubrious
of towns, and is charmingly laid out in arbour-like streets—
very enjoyable in the evenings—which lead to the beach and
to the grassy hilis on the outskirts along the shores; while,
being the head-quarters of a regiment of troops, music was
discoursed twice a week on the plain in front of the Fort;
and, having then no European acquaintances, we had leisure
to look on at phases of Chinese, Arab, and native life, which,
standing in the dark, gazing into lamp-lit churches, dwellings,
shops, and gambling-houses, we could unnoticed interest our-
selves in. On the day after the arrival of the Java mail that
brought us the sad intelligence of the death of Mr. Darwin,
“A Naturalists Wanderings in the Easter Archipdlago”
To face Page 416 .
30)
o
TENIMBER ISLANDS
OR
TIMOR LAUT
Commiled from the latest information
With corrections byM“1L0.Forbes.
Scale of English Illes
Pp : 19 2p
Dotted line indicates region whence
the Author’ collections were obtained.
{
431°
Longitude East from 30' Greenwich 192°
Harper & Brothers NewYork.
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 299
I was delighted to be hailed by Dr. Julius Machik, an old
friend of mine in the Lampongs of Sumatra, who posted to the
charge of the Military Hospital, had come with his family to
reside here. His house was forthwith our constant rendezvous,
and as he was a keen entomologist and ichthyologist, the rest
of the time till our departure passed most pleasantly.
July dth and 6th were spent in touching at Saparua, one of
the Ceram group, and in lying for a day in our favourite port
of Banda. Having steamed slowly during the next night
we anchored in the morning of the 7th at Gessir, a mere
horseshoe-shaped, cocoanut-fringed coral atoll, picturesquely
showing its surface above the sea at the east end of Ceram.
Once one of the most dreaded nests, and the secure hiding-
place of pirates in these seas, it is now one of the busiest and
most curious marts in the extreme East—a rich ethnological
gallery, crowded with representatives and the handiwork of
every race in the Archipelago, and dotted with Malay, Chinese
and Buginese dwellings, each built after its own fashion. The
houses are arranged in quadrangular blocks, each within a
high fence, opening on to clean, carefully kept streets lighted
by oil lamps on painted lamp-posts—all fresh as a new
button.
It is the rendezvous of the Paradise- and other bird-skin
collectors from the mainland of New Guinea, from Salwatty,
Mysore, and Halmaheira, and of the pearl-divers of Aru;
hither the tripang, tortoise-shell, beeswax, nutmegs, dammar,
and other rich produce from a multitude of islands is brought
to be exchanged with the Malay and Chinese traders, of Macas-
sar, Singapore and Ternate, for the scarlet, blue, and white
cottons and calicos of the Dutch and English looms, for the
yellow-handled hoop-iron knives, which form the universal
small change of these regions, and for beads, glass-balls,
knobs of amber, old keys, scraps of iron, and worthless but
gaudy Brummagem. At certain seasons it is quite a rich
zoological garden. Here may often be seen in captivity Birds
of Paradise of species never yet seen alive anywhere else out
of their own lands, parrots, lories, cockatoos, crowned pigeons,
cassowaries, tree kangaroos, and other animals which have
managed to survive a journey thus far, but rarely farther west.
July 8th. New Guinea! This morning we find ourselves
300 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
gazing for the first time on the wooded shores of the land
over which there lies such a halo of romance and mystery.
It was with the intensest interest that we landed by scram-
bling up on the curious and shaky platforms which the
Papuan projects far out into the sea as a foundation for his
house, over which, on narrow planks of split bamboo and on
rolling tree-trunks, guarding against falling into the sea
through the constant vacuities, we made our way to the shore,
which was but a narrow strip of land a few yards wide in front
of high and perpendicular cliffs of rock.
We were surrounded at once by a crowd of tall, erect,
frizzly-headed, well-disposed men and women, who found us
most curious objects apparently. It was evident that they
had but seldom seen white faces, for our colour interested
them very much. They examined our legs, arms, and faces,
rubbing them gently and looking at their fingers to see
whether the colour came off or not; others, taking off the
scanty head-cloth they wore, took our hands within its folds in
a most reverential attitude. A , probably the only white
lady that has ever trod this northern part, was, however, the
object of curiosity. After looking at her very intently for some
time a thought suddenly seemed to strike two of their number,
who, dashing away towards one of the houses, returned in a
little leading between them an Albino woman with fair skin
and yellowish hair, and placing her side by side us, burst into
a hearty laugh, as much as to say, “ We know now why your
skins are white.”
I observed that their dead were buried in the ground, ina
mound-shaped grave. One was entirely curtained above and
round four stakes driven into the ground; while another was
surmounted by a skull.
After touching at Ke and Aru, we bore away south by west,
and early on the morning of July the 13th we sighted the first
of the Tenimber Islands, lying between 6°35’ and 8°25’ N. lat.
and 130°30' and 132° E. longitude; these were the higher
lands of Molu and Vordate, beyond which the mainland of the
larger island came into view as a low-lying country trending
away southwards, presenting to our eyes, fresh from the ma-
jestic forests of the western regions of the Archipelago, by no
means a very luxuriant vegetation.
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 301
When the islands were first discovered and the name Timor-
laut or Tenimber first applied, I have not been able to discover.
In Mercator’s atlas of 1636, they are represented on a small
scale in his map of the East Indian Islands. The first informa-
tion we possess of a reliable kind is by Captain Owen Stanley,
whose name is perpetuated in that magnificent pile of moun-
tains in the south-east promontory of New Guinea, whose heights
no white foot has yet ascended. In his ‘ Visits to the Islands
in the Arafura Sea,’ in 1839 (in Stokes’ ‘ Discoveries in Austra-
lia’) he says: “ We sailed from Port Essington on March 18,
1839....Light airs prevented our clearing the harbour till
the morning of the 19th, and at 3 p.m. on the 20th we made
the land of ‘Timor-laut. . . . At daylight on the 21st we made
all sail to the northward ... and anchored in 11 fathoms,
sand and coral, three-quarters of a mile from the shore. On
landing the contrast to the Australian shores [Captain Stanley
approached from the opposite point of the compass from myself]
we had so recently sailed from was very striking. We left a
land covered with the monotonous interminable forest of the
eucalyptus or gum tree, which from the peculiar structure of
its leaf affords but little shelter from the tropical sun ; shores
fringed with impenetrable mangroves, ... the natives black,
the lowest in the scale of civilised life. . . . We landed on a
beach, along which a luxuriant growth of cocoa-nut trees ex-
tended for more than a mile, under the shade of which were
sheds neatly constructed of bamboo and thatched with palm-
leaves, for the reception of their canoes. To our right a hill
rose to a height of 400 feet covered with brilliant and varied
vegetation so luxuriant as entirely to conceal the village
(Oliliet) built on its summit. The natives who thronged the
beach were of a light tawny colour, mostly fine athletic men
with an intelligent expression of countenance.”
With the exception of this meagre account we have no
further information regarding Timor-laut for nearly thirty-
eight years, when a vessel belonging to some Banda traders
visited the island in 1877, an account of which is given in the
Journal of the Royal Geographical Society for 1878 (p. 294),
under the title of “ Voyages of the Steamer Egeron in the
Indian Archipelago, including the discovery of Egeron Strait
in the Tenimber or Timor-laut Islands.” These voyages were
21
802 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
undertaken chiefly for trade purposes. Mr. Hartog has the
honour of being the first person to sail through the strait
separating the north and south islands which bears the name
of his vessel; but Captain Owen Stanley was really the first
to indicate the existence of this strait; for in his ‘Notes of a
Cruise in the Eastern Archipelago in 1841-2,’ which are to
be found in the Journal of the same Society for 1842 (vol. xii.
p- 263) he writes: “After leaving Baber, we made the island
of Sera, on the west coast of Timor-laut, and then stood across
for Australia. A good harbour is said to exist in the south
part of Timor-laut, which ts separated from the north part ly
a deep channel. Indeed,” he continues, “I feel sure that
when the island is properly examined, it will be found to
consist of several islands separated by narrow channels.”
As we drew nearer and nearer we carefully and anxiously
watched the growing features of our new home. I observed
that the much indented coast, a low and narrow foreshore
covered with a thick forest of cocoa-nut trees and dark-green
mangrove thickets, was fringed in most places with a precipi-
tous bluff, on which principally the villages, whose houses
glinted through the vegetation above them, were situated. At
midday we entered the narrow strait between the mainland
and the island of Larat, and anchored opposite the village of
Ritabel. As soon as we had made fast, several boats—the fore-
most of them rather timidly—put out from both shores, and
in a few minutes we were surrounded by a little fleet, whose
occupants scrambled on board, talking and jabbering as only
Papuans can, affording us an opportunity of forming some
opinion of those who were to be our friends or foes for the
next three months. They were powerful athletic fellows, and
conducted themselves exceedingly well, apparently awed by
what they saw on board of the marvellous things of civilisa-
tion. Their sole request was for Jaru or gin, the most-prized
by them of all earthly commodities.
After depositing our baggage, our three servants and our
two selves on the shore, the Amboina at once hoisted her anchor
and bore away. We sat down on a chest and watched her
grow less and less and disappear over the horizon, with feelings
somewhat of desolation and not without some misgivings, left
there the sole Europeans among a race of the very worst
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 3038
reputation and without the possibility of communicating with -
civilisation for at least three months to come.
We found the Postholder a native of one of the Moluceas
Islands, left here by the Resident in the beginning of May,
fairly well housed ; but he told us he had suffered terribly
from fever. He was good enough to let us a room, and to
allow us to. store our baggage under the verandah of his house
till we should obtain one of our own. We then sauntered out
through the village, which is situated on the foreshore against
a cliff; the houses resembled those figured in Captain Owen
Stanley’s narrative already referred to. They were arranged
more or less in irregular streets, with their gables as a rule to
the sea, to allow of their praus being. run up under them,
though in many cases separate sheds were erected for them.
All round the village we found a high strong palisade, with a
portion removable, however, on the shore side in the daytime.
In attempting to pass out by the landward gateway we were at
once restrained by several of the villagers following us, who
pointed to the ground in an excited manner, demonstrating to
us its surface everywhere set with sharpened bamboo spikes,
except along a narrow footpath. Their gestures instantly
opened our eyes, with an unpleasant shock, to the truth that
we were environed by enemies, and the village was standing
on its defence.
Outside the gate we entered under a cocoa-nut forest, among
ferns (Asplenium, Pteris, and Polypodium), Clerodendrons, low
Solanums and Malvyaceous shrubs, which grew densely over
the coral foreshore of the island, in front of the abrupt cliffs,
along whose sunny bases I saw several butterflies unknown to
me and new to science; but-—not possessing cuirassed limbs
which could despise the bayonet crop that overspread the
ground, from which in that climate even a slight wound pro-
duces often the most serious results—many of them defied our
deftest attempts to ensnare. The first specimen I netted was
a new Swallow-tail butterfly (Papilio aberrans), and the first
beetle a gorgeous golden Buprestid (Cyphogastra splendens).
Turning in another direction, breaking through gigantic
maises and walls of spiders’ webs, we ascended the bluff of
which I have spoken, on which grew some Papilionaceous trecs
of considerable height, along with Erythrinas and others I did
304 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
not know, but in their branches I espied the beautiful scarlet
Lory (os reticulata), which, though it had been long known from
these islands, I was perhaps the first European to see alive in
its own country, and certainly the first to shoot there. During
the same walk we were surprised to hear from a cocoa-nut tree
near the village a most singular bawling, or caterwauling,
which I thought must proceed from one of the children at
play, but which I at last perceived to be produced by a new
species of Honey-eater (Philemon), whose voice became familiar
to us as the earliest and the latest sounds of the day. These
observations raised high hopes in my breast as to what I yet
might discover, for the species I had seen were almost all new.
The next sight was less exhilarating—on a tree-clad
elevation the half-burned and recently deserted village of
Ridol ; and from the branch of a high tree before us a human
arm, hacked out by the shoulder-blade dangled in the breeze,
and at no great distance further were recently-gibbeted human
heads and limbs.
A state of war, we found, existed between, on the one hand,
the villagers of Ridol burnt out by the Kaleobar people,
leagued with Waitidal on the north-western corner, which had
taken them in, and with Ritabel, our village; and on the
other hand, those of Kaleobar, one of the largest villages on
the island situated on the north-eastern corner, which was
leagued with Kelaan and with Lamdesar, two other villages
on the south-eastern coast. Frequent raids had been made
recently by these villages on Ritabel, the wife of whose chief
had recently been picked off from the outside of the palisade
by a lurking Kaleobar marksman, while many of the villagers
showed us their recent wounds received in an attack made a
few weeks before our arrival. The bamboo spikes in the
ground round the village were set to prevent such clandestine
approaches. During the day they were removed from the
paths which led to their fields and wells, and at sunset, when
the last man: had returned to the village, the pathway was
carefully reset, and the gateway barricaded for the night; it
was the duty of the first goer-out in the morning to open
the gate and. remove the spikes. In this affray it was that
the unfortunates, who owned the dismembered limbs we had
seen, were captured. These grim mementoes did not inspire
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 3805
either of us with the most pleasant reflections, but we deter-
mined to close our eyes on all but the bright side of the
picture of which we had got a glimpse.
The villagers seemed perfectly well disposed towards us,
without fear or suspicion of us. We ventured to look into
their homes as we returned from our survey, and they beckoned
us in with a smile.
_ Onur first care was to obtain a house, and at once on our first
morning I set about looking for a site. Those who know best
what uncivilised ways are will understand our vexation at the
difficulties now encountered, the excuses for refusing one spot
after another, the whole-day palavers abandoned at night
without result, and day after day for eight days. By a large
present all round I had the satisfaction of at last cajoling the
old men into deciding on a site lying within the tide mark,
which forthwith was occupied before they could change their
minds. ;
During the progress of the building which of necessity
had to be a pile dwelling, and when my presence and
actual help were not necessary, we made short excursions to
the immediate neighbourhood on which we were always
accompanied by some of the natives, who seemed to take
the liveliest possible interest in our doings, and with whom
we mixed as much as we could. Perceiving that I recorded
their names for everything we encountered, they themselves
adopted the rédle of teacher—the young women aot less
than thé men—repeating to us the name of every tangible
object, as well as trying to bring us to a comprehension of
their expressions for abstract ideas. After some days they
began regularly to catechise us in past lessons, bringing us
various objects whose names they had already given us,
and by signs requiring us to repeat to them their names,
laughing heartily at us when we made a failure or a mis-
pronunciation. The buttons on our garments formed ex-
cellent objects on which to teach us numeration, and many
a score of times we have had to stand while some Venus-
formed maiden encountering us in the village insisted on
hearing us recount their tale again. So assiduous and
apparently interested in our acquiring their language were
they, that their willing lessons are to us now one of the most
306 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
pleasing reminiscences of these simple people. We of course
very soon began to be able to hold some sort of converse with
them in their own language, which resembled that spoken by
the Ké Islanders ; and through A , who had become a great
favourite with the people, caressed and affectionately patted
by them in her wanderings about the village, we got to know
much of their inner life.
We soon found that a great deal of the barter goods we had
brought were of little use among these people. Only our
German knives, cloths, and calico would be tradeable. Our
beads they would not look at, they were too coarse and large ;
their taste lay in the small scarlet and blue sorts. I had
brought a good many English sovereigns; they looked at
them narrowly and weighed them, but would not trade in
them. This I considered very strange, inasmuch as their most
valued possessions were gold earrings. The explanation, how-
ever, I discovered later. The Hgeron’s master, it seems, had
brought a quantity of false English gold made in Singapore,
using them as barter articles with the people on his first
voyages, and some of which they showed me. When they
came to beat out these coins the deception was at once discoy-
ered, and during our visit it was impossible to pass a single
gold piece. Had the natives had the certainty that the coins
were genuine, they would have given many times their value
in exchange, and, being easily transported, they ought to have
formed our most valuable trade medium. We learned, too,
what caused us considerable anxiety, that the islands produced
practically no rice ; nor was sago, as used on the other islands,
to be had unless we could manufacture it ourselves from the
trees. The products of the island from which the natives
mainly obtained their food-supply were Indian corn, sweet
potatoes, and a few species of legume, which was all we should
have to fall back on if our own not very ample supplies ran
short.
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 307
CHAPTER IV.
SOJOURN IN TIMOR-LAUT—continued.
The natives—Hair and cviffures—Vanity—-Stature and living characteristics
—Cranial characters — Clothing — Tjikalele dance—Arms — Marriage
—Artistic skill—Individual and moral character—Treatment of their
children—Games—Fine figures—Graves—Gocd butterfly resorts.
Many trying and vexatious delays—the laziness of the natives,
quarrels in the village, and fear of attacks from our neigh-
bours, which are easier to look back on from the midst of civili-
sation than to bear at the time, with equanimity—prevented our
house, which taxed all our energies, from being finished till
the nineteenth day after our arrival, and not till then was I
able to commence making any close study of the surrounding
country, or of its flora and fauna. But we had no useless time
on our hands, everything was so new to us. The people that
came about us to gaze, were all subjects deserving the closest
study. Their every gesture and every custom had to be
watched with microscopic acuteness, if we were to improve our
opportunities and not fail in deciphering the story—only thus
recorded and to be ere long blurred and blotted by foreign
in their every unconscious word and commonest action.
All the natives of the islands we saw were handsome-featured
fellows, lithe, tall, erect, and with splendidiy formed bodies.
They dyed their hair of a rich golden colour by a preparation
made of cocoa-nut ash and lime, varying, however, in shade
with the time, from a dirty grey through a red or russet colour,
till the second day, when the approved tint appeared. Several
modes of arranging their hair were in vogue. It was either
carefully combed out, transfixed with a long fork-like comb,
and confined within a single girdle of palm-leaf, or a black, red
308 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
and white patchwork band, was allowed to hang loose to the
shoulders; or it was done up in a frizzed mop, different, how-
ever, from the unravellable matted wisp seen on the Papuans
JB.O
COIFFURES OF THE NATIVES OF TIMOR-LAUT,
of Macluer Inlet in New Guinea, or among the Aru Islanders.
Their coiffure seems to depend on the kind of hair, straight
or frizzled, that Nature has given them; when frizzled it is
COIFFURE.
arranged in a mop, and when straight it is combed out and
crimped with the instrument shown on page 309, to hang
down the back ina “ cataract.” The arranging of their hair is
one of their most enjoyed occupations, and the vanity with which
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 309
they bind it within various coloured bands---narrow above broad
—laid one on another, before a mirror formed of water collected
in the bottom of a prau, or on the calm sea-face itself, is most
amusing to see. The men are very fond of having their hair
cut quite short, as it no doubt relieves them for a time by
reducing the population in that region of their bodies.
One day some of them seeing in our house a pair of scissors,
eagerly begged its use for this purpose, whereupon one of
them at once started as haircutter, and as soon as it was known
that such operations were going on a crowd collected, and,
sitting down in a row, waited for their turn. We- tried to
get some specimens of their locks, but when they saw that we
desired to keep the portions we picked up, they became quite
afraid, and excitedly demanded them back, for fear, as they
said, they would die if they remained in our keeping. They
gathered up every scrap, and had
not a kind wind assisted us, and
blown a few pieces to a little dis-
tance out of their sight, which
A and I marked down noting [7,
the subject from which each had {i
come, we could not have obtained
2 single specimen. In Sumatra
I once saw a man most carefully "°TRNEST TOS ORINPING THE
bury the scraps after paring his
finger-nails. It seems as if there existed in these countries
a superstitious dread of any part of their person being in pos-
session of another. One day, when I purchased from a man
his father’s skull, something of the same dread appeared ;
for as soon as the bargain was completed, the seller took from
his Zuvu (or siri-holder) a piece of areca-nut, and, setting the
skull before him, he placed the nut between its teeth, and before
handing it over to me he repeated a long and devout.invoca-
tion. On another occasion, also, when I purchased from an old
man a large fish, which he had just taken with great difficulty,
he would not hand it over to me till he had cut off one of the
pectoral fins, to return it, with an invocation to the nitu, or
soul of the fish, lest he should come by harm.
The character of the hair is the same in bothsexes. Among
the women hair is abundant on the head without being
310 A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS
profuse ; but they take little or no care of it, simply twisting
it into a knot behind, where it is transfixed with a neatly
ornamented comb. ‘They never dye it, that apparently being
the prerogative of the male sex alone.
The men vary very greatly in stature: some are short and
thick-set, and reach little over 5 feet, if they even attain that
height. The greater proportion are tall, well formed men of
about 5 feet 11 inches, but some stand well over 6 feet—
splendid looking fellows with perfect frames and magnificent
muscles. In their walk they stride forward in a jerky,
bouncing style, which gives to the head and their hair
‘when combed out behind, a quick nodding motion. Their
whole motion is full of grace, but so proportioned are they that
it really seems scarcely possible for them to move ungrace-
fully. As youths they are splendid examples of the human
form; as children not a few of both sexes are really pretty
in face and figure, but unfortunately they are frequently dis-
figured by an enormously distended stomach and abdomen,
which induces a sad and sickly expression of countenance.
The women vary greatly also; some being short and thick-set,
scarcely reaching 5 feet, while others are as tall as the taller
of the men. Many of the girls are handsome, and a few are
even beauties, with pensive eyes, delicate features, and fault-
less in contour of body and limb; but as they pass into the
married state their features become coarser, yet on the whole
neither sex can be called ugly.
The colour of their smooth soft skin is a rich chocolate brown ;
but here and there among them occurs a quite black-skinned
individual, who is at once remarkable as being an exception to
the prevailing colour. In feature the forehead retreats slightly
from the prominent superciliary ridges, as seen in profile. En
face it is somewhat flat. In the malar region, in some the
cheek-bones are very prominent; while in others, again, this
feature is as little observable. The brows are low, but not con-:
spicuously hairy. The eyes are small and narrow, and in some
of them a slight obliquity is observable, while, on the other hand,
there are those with the eyeball very. prominent. There are two
distinct forms of nose among them: one in which that feature is
very low between the eyes, advancing with a straight dorsum to
the retroussé tip, which discloses both nostrils conspicuously,
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 311
the tip being markedly pointed; the other form in which the
dorsum is higher between the eyes, is straight, and sometimes
arched, and the tip pointed, depressed, and incurved to form a
thick fat septum. In this form the nostrils are almost concealed,
and the alz nasi much inflated. En face both dorsa are straight,
the first form exhibiting the nostrils fully and the septum ; the
second form with the dorsum compressed slightly in the middle,
the nostrils scarcely seen, and the alz nasi inflated. The upper
lip is prognathus ; the lower somewhat retreating or orthogna-
thus. The teeth of the upper jaw overlap those of the lower
jaw, but this is not invariable, many of both sexes having the
teeth meeting evenly. From the malar region the face rapidly
conyerges to the small, non-protruding, round, and rather well-
shaped chin. The ears are small, but a good deal disfigured
by the large irvegularly bored holes and slits made in the
lobe, while the helix and scaphoid fossa are distorted by a
series of smaller holes in which the earrings graduate from
above downwards, from small to greater.
From my own observations on the living people, as well as
from an examination kindly made for me by Dr. Garson of the
erania which I brought home, two very different types can
be made out, the brachycephalic and the dolichocephalic, the
former greatly predominating. From the differences in colour of
the skin, from the variation seen in the features and in the
character of the hair it is evident that in the Tenimber Islands
we have a distinctly mixed race, consisting of Malayan and
Polynesian elements, as well as of the Papuan as found in New
Guinea; in fact, some of their crania are indistinguishable from
specimens obtained near Port Moresby. The Malayan type of
nose did not always coincide with the presence of straight hair,
though in some cases they did so markedly. I noted women
in Larat with perfectly straight hair, and yet with the Papuan
type of nose and face; and others again in whom frizzly hair
accompanied a nose half Papuan, half Malayan.
By Polynesian I mean the brown race seen in the Fiji and
Samoan Islands, as distinguished from the sooty black tribes
occurring in Aru and New Guinea. This commingling may
be the result of many causes. Timor-laut was probably one
of the last Islands, as Mr. Keane believes, occupied by the
Polynesian race in Malaysia during its eastern migration to
312 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
the remote Archipelagos of the Pacific, and some members of
the family may have been left behind, and these mingling
with subsequent arrivals from Papuasia and Malaysia may
have thus contributed to the present heterogeneous ethnical
relations observed by me.
That some connection with the Indo-Malayan region has
taken place, seems to be indicated by the presence of the
Tangalunga one of the Viverrid#, so commonly carried about
by these people, and of the herds of buffaloes on the mainland,
A td
g
Ss
=
3 a
= ‘9
= [a
3 rs
= b
4
ORNAMENTED BELT-BUCKLE,
animals quite foreign to the Austro-Malayan region, which must
have been brought by the Malays, though it is incredible that
in their small praus they would carry so great a quadruped
as abuffalo. The Timor-laut tribes have, moreover, been long
notorious for their piratical habits, attacking all boats passing
near their shores, making slaves of the men, and concubines of
the women. In the boats that called at Ritabel on their way
home from various parts of the group I have secn being taken
back with them women, whom the chain binding them to
the mast proclaimed to be slaves captured or bought. ‘The
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 8138
Buginese and Macassar traders also carry on a considerable
traffic in slaves, bringing them from Halmaheira and the coasts
of Borneo and Celebes. In this way also may be accounted
for some of the race-mingling.
The clothing of the men consists of a narrow T-shaped loin-
cloth, with the ends which hang down in front decorated with red,
black and white patchwork, and adorned with sections of cowrie-
shells and with beads. The women wear a short sarong (Malay
petticoat), artistically woven by themselves out of the fibres of
the Aloan-palm (Borassus flabelliformis), suspended by a broad.
belt made from the stem of its leaf and fastened by an elaborately
carved buckle of wood which frequently in married women has
been the gift of her husband at the time when her purchase-money
was agreed on, possibly a sort of engagement token. Armlets
cut from conus shells, of brass, of ivory, or
of wood, carved like those worn by the Till
Dyaks of Bornco, are worn by both sexes ;
while the women have in addition toe-rings
and anklets of brass. Round the helix and
in the lobe of their ears the women wear a
graduated series of silver or of gold lor-
lora or rings, which in the case of the men is
is often so heavy as to break away the [MMi i
cartilage. The patterns of these ear orna- (Milli
ments are exceedingly chaste, especially
those carved out of bone, of ivory and
ebony combined, or of the tooth of the rare
and highly-prized dugong (Halicore).
Both sexes tatoo a few simple devices,
circles, stars and pointed crosses, on the breast, on the brow, on
the cheek, and on the wrists; and scar, with the utmost equani-
mity, their arms and shoulders with red hot stones in imitation
of small-pox marks, as a charm that will ward off, they think,
that disease. I did not, however, see any one variola-marked,
nor could I learn of an epidemic of the disease having appeared
among them. As it was considered by the women a mark of
beauty to have filed teeth, some of them had only a narrow
rim left protruding from their gums.
The men spend a life of savage indolence or indulgence,
the women alone are always busily occupied. In the morning,
MTA YE He
|
SEM
SUR AUANS
)
EARRING.
314 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
after arranging their hair, the men remove from the palm-
trees, invariably to the chanting of a song of invocation, the
bamboos with the tuak collected in them over night, and trim
the stem for running during the day to supply their evening
libations. Than when ascending the trees the Tenimber athlete,
his fautless form against the sky, and his brown skin and
golden hair in contrast with the grey stem of the tree, never
shows to greater advantage.
The chief meal of the day lasts from about eight o'clock till
nearly noon, and consists of boiled Indian corn meal, mixed
with mashed manioc and peas, along with fish—hunted for along
the shore with bow and arrow, or by scattering on the water
rice steeped in an infusion of a poisonous vine—and a very great
deal of palm wine, fresh drawn as well as distilled. The meal
is partaken of in considerable companies together in large sheds
open at the gables in or near the village, generally in the
buildings where their ¢wak is being distilled, which are used also
for common assembly rooms. Very few of the older men leave
the meal sober, or become “ capable ” during the rest of the day,
a condition in which they are boisterously talkative, querulous
and pugnacious. The women eat in private, or snatch a bite
of food when they can.
All day long two ceaseless sounds are heard, the click-clack
of their looms and the dull thud of the stamping of Indian corn
and peas in large tridacna shells.. If the women are not thus
employed they are away by prahu, accompanied by some of the
younger men, to fetch the necessary stores from their gardens.
In these plantations, made in the forest on the poor soil which
covers the underlying coral rocks, they cultivate sweet potatoes,
manioc, sugar cane, and their staple food, Indian corn, with
a little rice (which grows very badly), some cotton, and a good
deal of tobacco, whose leaves they chew but do not smoke.
In time of war the common safety is watched all night by
the villagers, eight or ten at a time in rotation, who dance the
Tjikelele round a figure of their deity, or Duaddlah, each man
beating with his hand on a cylindrical drum, singing to its
accompaniment a song or invocation with a wild and shrieking
chorus, which at the time of full moon is kept up for many
unbroken days and nights.
Their arms are a shield, often elaborately carved and
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 315
adorned with the hair of their enemies, bows and arrows, and
various forms of iron or copper pointed lances and spears,
which they can use with marvellous precision, and a long
sword carried in a loop in a buffalo-hide corslet to fit beneath
the arms made by themselves, and resembling a 16th century
cuirass, of which it is probably a copy. They use also
counterfeit Tower guns (made in Singapore), but as they fill
them with gunpowder almost to the muzzle they are nothing
like the dangerous weapon—except to themselves—that their
unerring arrow is.
A man may have as many wives as he can purchase, but as
a rule it is all he can do to secure one, till, at least, he is con-
siderably advanced in years, and has disposed of some of his
daughters for gold earrings and elephants’ tusks, two factors
which cannot be eliminated from the bargain, and are not over
common. These tusks are brought chiefly from Singapore
and Sumatra where they cost 200 or 300 florins cach, by the
Buginese traders, who with the westerly winds seek out the
creeks and bays of the “far, far Hast” to exchange them for
trepang and tortoiseshell. The father of the girl has often to
wait a long time for the ivory portion of her price; but he
hands her over, on the payment of the other items of the
bargain, to her purchaser, who takes up his abode in her
house, where she and her children remain as hostages till the
full price is paid. A girl sorely wounded by the Blind God
occasionally takes the settlement of affairs into her own hands,
and runs away with the object of her affection, without the
permission of her parents, a proceeding which does not relieve
him of the purchase money. If, however, she had been or
was about to be disposed of to another man, and had eloped
with a more desired youth, she would be forcibly seized and
her companion would be punished with death. Their wives,
if not treated with a great show of affection, are not subjected
to much restraint or subjection, and live a free and not
unhappy life.
The opening months of a Tenimber’s islander’s existence are
not passed ona bed of roses. Strolling through the village one
evening we were beckoned into a hut to see a newly born infant.
It was lying quite naked, with only a hard palm-spathe be-
neath its back and a square inch or so of cloth on its stomach,
316 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
in a rude cradle or Siwela, a rough rattan basket suspended so
as to rock over a fire in a smoke so dense that we were
amazed that it was not suffocated. Occasionally the nurse drops
CARVED COMB, ORNAMENTED WITH INLAID BONE.
to sleep, and the fire burns the bottom out of the Siwela, and’
the child is worse off than if it had been bitten by all the mos-
quitos of Larat, to be free from which it is so suspended. The
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 317
child, it would seem, is invariably laid in exactly the same posi-
tion in the cradle, either on its back or on one side according
to the place of its suspension in the house, with the result that
the hinder part of its head becomes quite flattened. In some
living infants the deformity was very prominent, and that it
remains permanent is evidenced by one of
the crania of a full-grown man which I
brought home; but no sort of binding is
applied to the head in any stage of their
youth, as among many tribes, to induce an
abnormal and admired shape of head.
The artistic ability of the Timor-laut
people is unquestionably very high. , They
are very deft-fingered and clever carvers
of wood and ivory. The “ figure-heads ”
of their outrigger praus, dug out of single
trees, especially attract attention by the
excellence of the workmanship, carefully
and patiently executed, and the elegance
of their furnishings; while the whole
length of the central pillars of their
houses are also most elaborately carved
with intricate patterns and representa-
tions of crocodiles and other animals.
Their appreciation of beauty is a charac-
teristic of them, which, absolutely wanting
in the Malay people, I was surprised to
find among a less advanced race. While
walking through the forest they invariably
pluck and tastefully arrange in a hole in
their comb which is there for the very
purpose, any particularly bright bunch of
flowers they see.
Their houses, though little more than
floor and roof, are very neat structures, elevated four or
five feet above the ground, and entered by a stair through
a trap-door cut in the floor, which is shut down and slotted
at night. In front of the door is a seat of honour—dodokan
—with ornamented supports and a high carved back, on the
top of which is placed an image—Duadilah—with, at its
al
= —
SS
SSS
= ~ —_— =
LS
ORNAMENTED CHALK-
HOLDER.
318 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
side, a platter whereon a morsel of food is offered every time
they eat in its presence. Every time they drink they dip
their finger and thumb in the fluid, and flick a drop or two
upward with a few muttered words of invocation. Along
the four sides spaces for sleeping on are raised some nine
to twelve inches above the level of the rahanralan or floor of
the house. The inmates sleep on small, neatly made bamboo
mats, and rest their heads on a piece of squared bamboo with
rounded edges, exactly similar to the Chinese pillow. In one
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HOUSE IN TIMOR-LAUT.
gable is the foean or fire-place, and opposite to it on a trellis-
work platform is placed the cranium of the father of the Head
of the house. Indian corn and other comestibles and various
articles are stored on little platforms stretching between the
rafters, and their scanty clothing and other articles are sus-
pended from the roof by wooden contrivances often elaborately
designed and elegantly carved (see pp. 820, 824). After seeing
how elaborately covered almost everything they used was with
carvings, executed with undoubted taste and surprising skill,
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 319
we began to ask ourselves, first, Can such artistically developed
people be savages ?—and, next, the more difficult question,
What is a savage?
The Tenimberese are very independent in character ; “every
man his own master” is their motto. Though they have an
Orang Kaya or Chief, his voice has but little more influence
than any other full-aged man’s. The “old men’s” opinion has
some weight with the younger men, but every man speaks out
Teale thine TTT
HOUSE IN TIMOR-LAUT, WITH ROOF REMOVED TO SHOW THE INTERIOR.
his mind boldly and fearlessly. When any serious deliberation
is going on, the whole community crowds round the assembly
room, the women even taking part, and expressing freely and
without offence their opinions. The voice of the majority is
the law of their community.
Their moral characteristics are such as might be expected
from a rude people subject to no restraint; they are sensual,
though no immorality in their actions or in their carvings
ever comes to the public gaze. They are essentially selfish and
820 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
devoid of all feelings of gratitude or pity. To give anything
for nothing would ke a breach of all their hereditary instincts.
On one occasion, towards the end of
our stay, when our larder was empty
and our men were away in the northern
island of Molu, a bunch of fish, which
A was sorely in need of after a
long bout of fever, was brought to us
for sale; but the barter demanded was
a particular kind of button, of which
we had not a single example remain-
ing. We offered almost anything they
might choose from our stock—cloth,
knives, beads—nothing, however, but
the button would satisfy them. Give
us the fishes the owner would not;
instead, he hung them on a peg at our
very door, where we dared not have
touched them, where they remained
till next day, when I had to fetch him
to relieve us of the putrefying odour,
which he did by casting them into
sUSPENSORY conTRIvaNcE the sea! Where they think they can
MADE OF PAIN-ITAT’ escap2 detection they lie and steal
without compunction, though their laws punish the latter with
slavery, from which the thief can be ransomed only by a great
sum. When sober they are good natured enough and live in
harmony with each other, but in their cups they are easily
offended. To their enemies they are savagely cruel, executing
on those that fall into their hands the most revolting atrocities
before affixing their dismembered quarters to their public
places.
Like all untutored races they are very inquisitive. They
watched our “manners and customs” as eagerly as we did
theirs. From morning to night we had constant relays lying
in or sitting about our house, whom it was impossible to dis-
miss without giving offence. ‘Though it was a very interesting
study and there was much to be learned from watching those
big children in their various moods, it was not quite pleasant to
have them always with us, or to take our food with an infinitesi-
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 321
mally clad savage sitting at the table, rubbing his hips against
our plates. Happily, I observed one day that they had a
mighty horror of snakes, which supplied me with an effectual
means of ridding ourselves when over-burdened with their com-
pany. I would cautiously proceed to insert my hand without
any apparent reference to our visitors, into the large tin in
which my spirit specimens were kept, an operation they pressed
closely and intently round me to watch. A vigorous splutter
inside made them draw back somewhat ; but on withdrawing my
hand with a writhing snake, the crowd would tumble over each
other out at the door screaming and shouting. As they never
waited to see the end of the operation, they never came to know
that I had not a mania for keeping live snakes.
In the treatment of their children, both parents were inya-
riably kind and affectionate. To see the fathers carrying about
their children in the evenings, with kindly care, one could
scarcely believe in the savage ferocity of their natures, as we
had seen it exhibited more than once. Like mothers every-
where else, the women seemed pleased at the notice A would
take of their infants, who, like those with white skins, derived
amusement from little dolls—stuffed with rice grains instead of
sawdust; and the little packets of sugar she often gave them
were inviolately kept though tempting enough to the mothers
also, and given to them little by little. All their children were
profusely adorned with beads and necklets, and their little
limbs were encased in perfect bucklers of shell armlets.
The youths and boys used to play in the evenings in the
most lively manner, often in company with the younger fathers,
while a crowd of interested’ villagers looked on. One of their
great amusements was the sailing of miniature boats elegantly
made out of gaba-gaba, or sago palm stems, which they entered
for championship in spirited regattas. They would build also
forts of sand, and defend them against their comrade foes with
balls of wet mud. The laughter which hailed a good hit told
of the enjoyment and interest of the on-looking crowd of
villagers of all ages.. Their chief game, however, one more of
skill and precision than the others, was played with dises cut
off from the top of conus shells, of which each player had two
One of these quoits he deposited in a little depression in the
ground, aud the other he played from a crease a few yards
{
322 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
distant, so as to dislodge a quoit from the row. If the player
failed to hit he had to return to the crease to play again in his
turn, but if he succeeded he played a second time from where
his quoit rested. Passing his right hand holding the disc round
to his left side as far as he could stretch, and steadying it with
his left hand, he would take in this position steady aim, calcu-
lating with a glancing eye the spot he intended to hit, then with
arun forward a few steps to the crease, he would deliver with
all his might. Not only did the young lads and boys engage
in this game, but even the grown-up men joined with much bois-
terous laughter. At a very early age the children begin to
wade about the shallow margins of the sea, practising with spear
and arrow the capture of fish, training arm and eye till when
they have come of age, they have attained an almost unerring
accuracy of aim. A fine exhibition was to be witnessed of
the beauty of the human figure when the youths—fine fellows
in the perfection of their manhood--came out at sundown
to practise the drawing of the bow or throwing of the lance.
How awkward were the attempts of myself and my Amboinese
boys! How well-merited their good-natured jeering! The
marvellous grace, however, of the human form was unsur-
passingly exhibited when—the setting sun behind their lissom
untrammelled figures—the women were returning from the
fields, standing erect at the stern, and with long strokes poling
in their buoyant praus. One view might shame half of the
spine-deformed, waist-distorted slaves of fashion out of cus-
toms, which are as barbarous as any which are recorded as
strange or hurtful among savage peoples.
When a man dies, his children and relatives assemble to
lament his departure, but I have never seen any outward
expression or sign of mourning. A pig is killed, but I am in
doubt whether it is given to the assembled people to eat or
laid with the dead body, which is then placed in a portion of
a prau fitted to the length of the individual, or within strips
of gaba-gaba, or stems of the sago palm pinned together. If it
is a person of some consequence, such as an Orang Kaya, an
ornate and decorated prau-shaped coffin is specially made. This
is then enveloped in calico, and placed either on the top of a
rock by the margin of the sea at a short distance from the
village, or on a high pile-platform erected on the shore about
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 323
low-tide mark. On the top of the coffin-lid are erected tall
flags, and the figures of men playing gongs, shooting guns, and
gesticulating wildly to frighten away evil influences from the
Si :
GRAVE OF A NATIVE CHIEF,
sleeper. Sometimes the platform is erected on the shore above
high-water mark, and near it is stuck in the ground a tall
bamboo full of palm-wine; and suspended over a bamboo rail
324 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
are bunches of sweet potatoes for the use of the dead man’s
Nitu. Two days after the burial, the family. go to bathe and
wash their hair; and after two days more they search for
ten fishes and one tortoise wherewith to give a feast, which is
finished with siri and libations of palm-wine. When the body
is quite decomposed, his son, or one of the family, disinters
the skull and deposits it on a little platform in his house, in
the gable opposite the fire-place, while to ward off evil from
himself he carries about with him the atlas and axis bones of
its neck in his dwvu, or siri-holder. The bodies of those who
die in war or by a violent death are buried, and not placed on
CARVED SUSPENSORY CONTRIVANCES,
a .
rocks or on a platform, where only such as die naturally are
deposited; and if his head has been captured a cocoa-nut is
placed in the grave to represent the missing member, and to
deceive and satisfy his spirit.
I am doubtful if these rites are always faithfully performed,
for on walking along the shore I have often seen, where the
coffin has fallen to pieces, complete crania on the rocks where
the body had been deposited, while occipital and frontal bones,
mingling with jaws of pigs, lay quite uncared for on the shore.
The. dead man’s spirit, they say, goes to Nusa Nitu, or Mara-
matta—* an island near to Ceram,” which the navigator passes
fearful and vigilant, believing he hears strange unsiren sounds
wafted out to him on the sea, and is thankful when the Home
of the Spirits has sunk down in the horizon behind him.
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 325
Northward from Ritabel, our village, the shore of the channel
was dotted with detached coral boulders, on each of which
several corpses reposed, whence the most fearful stench used
especially after rain, to come down the wind. Whether this, or
the Convolvulacew and creeping Papilionacex that flowered in
abundance there, was the attracting cause I cannot say; but
certain it is that these most pestiferous spots were our richest
butterfly grounds. There A caught the new Hypolymnas
forbesit, Terias laratensis, and among many others two different
species, Callipleea visenda and Chanapa sacerdos—which it was
next to impossible to distinguish on the wing from their
mimicking each other—both new to science, while the lovely
Ptilopus wallacti frequented in crowds the fig-trees that over-
hung this fcetid shore,
326 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
CHAPTER V.
SOJOURN IN TIMOR-LAUT—continued.
Nelizion and superstitions—Visit to Waitidal—Barter for a skull—Send my
hunters to the northern islands of the group—Climate of Timor-laut—
A mauvais quart @heure—Desiznation of the group—Geographical and
veological features.
THE Tenimber islanders recognise some supreme existence
whom they call Duadilah, of whom there is an image in their
houses, over the principal seat, or dodokan, facing the entrance,
with at its side a platter, or dilaan, on which a little food and
drink is placed whenever they themselves eat. From their luvus,
among the other heterogeneous odds and ends which it con-
tains, they can generally produce one small image, sometimes
more. Their little gods vary in form according to the occupa-
tion they are engaged in; but in what light they regard them
I could not discover. Singularly enough, one cf these images
(on the left hand, p. 327) has a most wonderful resemblance to
one brought by Mr. Wallace from New Guinea, and figured
in his ‘ Malay Archipelago.’ That they have a firm belief in
a powerful, chiefly an avenging, spirit I feel certain. One
day a stranger to the village had his loin-cloth stolen. After
several days had passed without his recovering it, we were
surprised to see a boat urgently propelled across the bay,
from which the owner of the stolen cloth impulsively sprang,
bringing with him a small red flag on the end of a slender
pole. This he erected on the spot whence his cloth had dis-
appeared, and after looking up with a steady and penetrating
eye and repeating in a most tragic and excited manner a long
imprecation against the thief and the village, he removed the
pole, jumped into his boat, and, without accosting any one,
withdrew in the same urgent manner from the now doomed
village.
e
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 397
As the constant dread of attack by the Kaleobar tribe on our
village, by keeping us in a daily state of suspense and anxiety,
restricted my operations to a narrow area, I proposed to the
native Postholder that we should together visit that village to
DUADILAH.
try what could be done by personal influence to establish peace.
He, however, seemed by no means willing to accompany me,
excusing himself on the plea that the people of Waitidal the
next village, which had lost more than our own by Kaleobar
raids, would oppose a peace. I therefore determined first to
328 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
sound them on the subject. Accompanied by an Orang Kaya
or chief, from Sera, on the west coast, who happened to be in
Ritabel on a visit, and who spoke a little Malay, I proceeded
to Waitidal. As like most of the Tenimberese villages, it was
situated on a flat space of some extent on the summit of a bluff
which stood a good way back from the shore, we had in order to
reach the gateway to ascend the perpendicular face of the cliff
by a steep wooden trap stair, which I observed was of dark-red
wood, its sides elaborately sculptured with alligators and
lizards, and surmounted by a carved head on each side. On
entering I saluted those near the gate, but we were rather
coldly received. As we proceeded up the centre of the vil-
lage two elderly men, who were evidently intoxicated, rushed
at us with poised spears, gesticulating and shouting to those
around to oppose us. The tumult brought out the Orang
Kaya, whose approach prevented any immediate act of hos-
tility, and to him my guide explained the object of our
visit. Having shaken hands with us—a sign of friendship—
he, accompanied by the older men, conducted us to his house,
through the door-hole of which I ascended with the uneasy
feeling of entering a trap. My proposals being fully ex-
plained to them, they were received at first with little oppo-
sition, till my intoxicated friends joined the circle. One was
evidently a man of some importance in the village, and at once
opposed the project in a spirit of hostility, which gradually
spread to the others. As no palaver is ever conducted without
profuse libations raw palm-spirit distilled by themselves, was
passed round in cocoanut-shell cups, and I was expected to
keep pace—no slow one—with their drinking. As the spirit
circulated the hostile feeling developed, especially as the
discussion had merged into another, viz., that I should be per-
suaded to leave Ritabel and dwell in Waitidal. They found I
had sold much cloth and knives in Ritabel, but had brought
none over to them ; I could have plenty of fowls among them ;
they would find me no end of birds, and would not cheat me in
the way the Ritabel people were doing. To this, of course, I
could not agree, and put my refusal as pleasantly as I could.
I tried to bring the palaver to a close by rising to leave;
but this they would not permit, for onc of them barred my
exit by sitting on guard on the top of the hatch. I shortly
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 829
discovered that the subject of their excited wrangling was
whether I should be permitted to leave at all. My guide, after
whispering to me not to be alarmed and adding a remark I did
not comprehend, went away, luckily leaving the door open,
intending, as I imagined, to return soon ; but he either joined
some other drinking party and forgot to do so, or purposely
left me to my own resources. Pretending to be quite pleased
to prolong my visit, I presented my cup for more spirit, and
as successive rounds were filled my companions became in-
capable of observing that I did not drain my cup till I had
passed its contents through the floor, and was imperceptibly
nearing the now open trap-door. I took the first opportunity
of diving through the orifice, and with a bold step shaped my
course for the stairway at the top of the rock, where I felt I
could dispute my departure on even terms. My guide appeared
with rather a hang-dog look, and we wasted no time in getting
to our boat and rowing out some distance from the shore.
I did not venture a second time amongst them, although
the villagers of Waitidal in order to secure a share of the cloths
and other goods I was disposing of, came over constantly to
our village in twos or threes, to barter provisions, carved
work, and ethnological objects. On one occasion an amusing
incident occurred during the purchase from a Waitidal man of
acranium. He had brought me, with the usual secrecy, a fine
skull, but fitted with a lower jaw which I saw did not belong to it.
I pointed out the fact, and urged him to make a search for the
corresponding bone. After arguing the point along time with-
out effect, he thought he had settled matters by saying, “ There
is really no mistake; I remember quite well when my father
was alive he had just this sort of under jaw!” Finding it was
no good and that I would not trade, he went his way ; but ina
few hours he came back with a beaming face—he had found
his father’s lower jaw. His father’s brother had been laid down
on the same stone, hence the mistake. I traded to his dutiful
son’s satisfaction, who, before giving me possession, inserted a
piece of pinang nut between its teeth, and in a most reveren-
tial manner paid his last invocation to the Head of his line.
That son’s welfare is regulated now from the Mammalian
Gallery of the British Museum !
The Postholder, backed by the action of the Waitidal
330 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
people, would not venture to Kaleobar, and I did not consider
it prudent to go alone. We had therefore to bear with
equanimity what could not be remedied ; but it was galling
to be in a new and unknown country and be tied to a few acres
of it, without being able to cross the mainland to the west
coast, or to penetrate farther south from want of guides, and
especially of carriers to accompany me; for, contrary to the
general statement that there exists a “black frizzly-headed
savage people in the interior,” * there are absolutely no in-
habitants in the interior of Timor-laut. Villages occur pretty
thickly along the coasts, except on the northern portion,
where there does not appear to be any population at all.
As the Postholder was about to pay a visit to the outlying
islands of Maru and Molu, which were inhabited by a very
friendly people, I decided to send with him my two men—as I
dared not myself leave my Herbarium to the care of a native,
and my stores and collections unguarded—to collect and bring
me all the information they could on the points I instructed
them on, while I continued my operations on the still fruitful
region to which I had access.
The climate of Timor-laut is one of extreme insalubrity.
For the first eighteen to twenty days none of my company
suffered in the least ; but that period seemed to be with us all
the limit of resistance to the deleterious miasma. The fever,
the result in great part of the bad water (there being no
streams in the district), and of the strong south-east winds
that then supervened was one of great severity. Coming on
with sickness, the temperature rose rapidly to 103°-105°
accompanied with strong delirium, which in A "3 case
continued for nearly three weeks with but short intervals of
release. During the continuance of the fever—which happily
rarely attacked us both on the same day, a circumstance that
enabled us to aid each other—the two most effectual remedies
were, besides quinine, salicilate of soda and chloroform, the
latter especially very rapidly lowering the temperature and
inducing perspiration.
Neither of us will likely ever forget our fever-attack of
August 27th. A , wretchedly weak and reduced from wecks
of almost continuous fever, was assisting me to get up after a
* Stanford's Compendium, Australasia, by A. R. Wallace,
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 381
bad day of the same about the hour the village was going to
rest for the night. A terrific shot from a native gun—always
charged to the very muzzle—startled the whole community.
Shouts of “Kaleobar” resounded everywhere. Like a dis-
turbed ant’s-nest the villagers, every man with his arrow on
the string or a sheaf of javelins in his hand, one of them ready
poised, clustered out round the barricades shouting and ges-
ticulating. We were alone—the Postholder and our men not
having returned from Molu—except for one servant, use-
less in such a case. After barricading the door and sliding
an explosive shell into my Martini, with a cheery word to
my companion who held ready a handful of cartridges, and a
hasty look to see if the boat which, unknown to her, I had
purchased expressly for perhaps such an emergency was still
riding by its line to the piliar of the house, to serve as a last
means of escape, I stood ready at the open window for what
might follow. A sudden silence of the shouting supervened, a
period of acute suspense to us, whose window did not look out
on the barricades, and then the chief’s son came to tell us
that the shot was an accidental discharge of a late-returning
villager’s gun. It was a mauvais quart d’heure, short but
terribly trying, which showed how tense was the nervous ex-
pectancy under which the whole village was living. The
eaction of relief was nearly as difficult to endure as the
suspense had been.
Besides fever, which affected the natives also, few diseases
existed on the islands. With the exception of that curious
fungoid skin disease so common among the Papuan races, of a
little scrofula, and, among the old people, rheumatic affections
of the hands and limbs, the people were very healthy.
Among other interesting facts, I learned from the inhabi-
tants that the name of Timor-laut was quite unknown to
them. This is a Malay appellation, probably given by the
Macassar traders, who, falling on a large island farther in the
sea than the one they best knew as the Easterly isle—which
the name Timor signifies—designated this, by Timor-laut or
the Eastern Is’and in the Sea. Another derivation of the name
has been given that the appellation of the group is not Timor-
laut but Timorlao, in which the termination lao means far,
and that, therefore, their designation signifies the Far-east
332 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Islands. I could not discover that they gave any general
name to the whole group; but they invariably designated the
mainland of the northern of the two larger islands by the
name Yamdena, while they spoke of the southern portion
as Selaru, which, in their language, is the word for Indian
corn.
In examining the Tenimber islands, one is struck with the
resemblance that exists between them and the Aru group, in
the curious way in which both are cut up by narrow channels.
“Some of the southern islands of Aru (I quote from the
narrative of the voyage of the Dutch corvette Triton in 1828) are
of considerable extent, but those to the north, lying close to
the edge of the bank, are rarely more than five or six miles in
circumference. The land is low, being only a few feet above
the level of the sea except in spots where patches of rock rise
to the height of twenty feet, but the lofty trees which cover
the face of the country give it the appearance of being much
more elevated.”
The island of Larat is separated from the mainland by a
narrow strait, whicb I have designated with the honoured name
of the author of the ‘ Malay Archipelago ’—Wallace Channel,
which forms a fairly good harbour at its northern entrance,
but shallows away towards the south end so much that only
small boats can come through it at low tide, and in fact, to
the south of Ritabel village the bottom can be reached all
the way across, with the exception of a few yards, by a poling-
rod.
Between Larat and Vordate there is, in calm weather, a
safe channel, yet on Captain Stanley’s authority it is quite
shoal. The sea to the northward, again, is very shallow, only
narrow passages separating the islands of Frienun, Maru, and
Molu, as I gather from my hunters (whose information I
believe to be correct) whom I sent there for a few weeks to
collect, and gather information.
The lowness also of the country in our immediate neigh-
bourhood struck me much. I could see on Larat and on the
mainland, no ground rising at the most over a hundred feet
or so, for standing on the shore I could look right across the
main island, and see the greater part of the only height
worthy of the name of mountain, within the range of vision,
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 333
the Peak of Laibobar. This mountain symmetrically conical
in form, rises out of the sea on an islet on the west coast, and
is, judging by the eye, somewhere about 2000 feet in height.
Thave little doubt that it will be found to be an extinct or
dormant crater. I was shown by the natives a piece of
pumice stone, used by them to polish their spearheads, which
they say floats into their bay after northerly and westerly
winds. Possibly some of it may be washed into the sea off
the slopes of this mountain during the rainy season. Further
experience showed me that the whole of the mainland of
Yamdena, as far as my excursions extended, was also of coral,
which formed precipitous cliffs nearly all round the islands,
in some places as much as sixty to eighty feet in height; but
about Egeron Strait the coast is said to rise about four
hundred feet.
I was early struck with the fact that everywhere the island
was composed of coral, and that the vegetation grew on the
scantiest possible soil. No rock of a sedimentary or granitoid
character could I detect anywhere on the islet of Larat. 1
had at first thought that a stratified-like mass near our resi-
dence had that character, but on closer examination it turns
out to be entirely non-arenaceous.
There are no mountains in the islands, and no fresh water
streams. All our so-called fresh water was skimmed off the
surface of holes made in the coral, and was brackish and un-
palatable. On the mainland, however, I noticed at points
slightly above high-water mark fresher water than that found
in Larat, flowing, it seemed, from springs.
The whole of the northern portion of the islands, therefore,
appears to have been recently elevated or is perhaps still
being so, after a long submersion below the sea.
The cliffs are all of coral, and the shore at low tide is
formed of the stumps of elevated branched corals, and in
many places a flat floor of hard concrete like what I saw in
the Keeling atoll.
23
834 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
CHAPTER VI.
SOJOURN IN TIMOR-LAUT—continued.
Natural history—Flora—Disaster to Herbarium—Fauna—Mimicking birds
—Insects—Fever and failure of supplies—Anxious waiting for stearner
—Arrival of 88. Amboina—Leave Timor-laut for Amboina.
Or the natural history of Timor-laut, about which almost
nothing was known before our visit, I have been able, to a
considerable extent, to fill up the blanks in our knowledge.
In some places the low shrubby under-forest is so dense as
to be almost impenetrable on account of its spiny character,
while in other parts the woods are open below. ‘The trees were,
some of them, of considerable height, but of no great thick-
ness, and but sparsely distributed. The largest I observed
were Sterculias and fig-trees of the genus Urostigma. The
former are common and, in throwing out their flowers in
advance of their foliage, their crowns form enormous bright
scarlet bosses and are the most characteristic objects in the
landscape. Doubtless they occur all along the coast, and very
likely suggested the term “brilliant” used by Captain Stanley
in his description, already quoted, of the vegetation about
Oliliet. This tree (Sterculia foetida) is probably a near
relative of, if it is not identical with, the Fire-tree of Aus-
tralia, which has attracted so much admiration there. Legumi-
nous trees and shrubs were very abundantly represented ; and
with myrtles, pandans, palms, euphorbias, Malvacex, figs,
and Apocynaceous trees, formed the bulk of the vegetation.
Under these a green carpet of Commelyna (C. nudiflora)
hides the rough and knobbly coral. Casuarinas and Cycads,
which, both in Timor and Aru, form so striking a feature of
the vegetation, and phyllode-bearing Acacias with the Euca-
lyptus and Melaleuca, which characterise the Australian flora,
were singularly conspicious by their absence in the districts
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 335
over which my operations extended. Artocarpus inezsa, not the
true bread-fruit, which is a seedless variety, but the species
more common in the Moluccas, was found in considerable abun-
dance. In its broad features, as far as we yet know, the plants
of the Tenimber Island belong to a typically coral island flora.
But among them are two most interesting species belonging to
monotypic genera hitherto represented, as Sir Joseph Hooker
has pointed out, only by single specimens—the one from the
far separated islands of New Caledonia, and the other from
West Australia. Growing in the coral crevices, often within
the splash of the waves, I gathered a most lovely orchid, Den-
drobium phalenopsis, previously known only from Queensland
in Australia, while open to the wash of the Arafura Sea out-
side Cape Vatusianga, the trees were covered with Polypodia-
ceous ferns and orchids of the species Dendrobium antennatum,
while the whole shore was strewed. with seeds of many kinds.
The Herbarium on which our present knowledge cf the
flora is based is very small; my own would have been much
larger but for an unfortunate fire in the drying-house in which
it was being prepared, which consumed the greater portion of
my botanical collection—a heart-breaking episode which I
give in my companion’s words :—
“ September Ith. This forenoon, when quite alone, H——
and the hunters having gone to the opposite shore for the day,
and Kobes to the well a mile off, while I was sitting in that
miserable, restless condition which succeeds a fever attack, a
longing seized me to look out of the door, for I had for many
days been unable to leave my sleeping apartment. J ortunate
impulse! Kobes had piled half a dozen great logs on the fire
of the drying-house (an erection like our dwelling, and all the
Tenimber tenements, of bamboo and atap thatch, now, at the
close of the dry season, very imflammable) and left them to
the whims of a strong breeze, which, at the moment I looked,
had just fanned the fire into fierce flames. I sped into the
village for help, but met the Postholder with his men running
towards me, attracted by the rushing noise of the flames. With-
out a moment’s delay some of them cut great palm branches
to interpose between the burning house and the overhanging
eaves of our dwelling, others tore apart the framework, scattered
the bundles of plants, and beat the flames with green branches,
336 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
while the Tenimber natives poured on water which they carried
in gourds and bamboos from the sea close by. With what
breathless anxiety I watched the effect of each gust of wind,
for the thatch of our house—in which were stored several tins
of petroleum and of spirits of wine, and a quantity of gun-
powder—was already scorched. Had it caught, nothing could
have saved the whole village, nor us from the vengeance of the
people. At last the flames were got under, and I had time to
realise that the few charred and sodden bundles before me was
all that remained of more than 500 of the first gathered
specimens of the flora of Tenimber collected at such risk and
pains. I could not bear to stand on the shore, as usual, to
welcome the home-coming boat, but long ere it touched, the
ruined drying-house had told them the disheartening news of
the disaster that had happened.”
If we except birds, animal life I found to be but poorly
represented. Besides a Cuscus, a genus of Marsupials common,
to the Moluccas and new Guinea, and doubtfully a wild pig,
I saw no indigenous mammalian animals—with one reserva-
tion. On the mainland we found large herds of buffaloes
living in a wild state, being indigenous as far as native
tradition could enlighten us, for they believe that they came
up out of the earth. When, and by what means they arrived
is unknown; but there can be little doubt that they have
been brought by the accident of shipwreck, or by design.
They must feed on the Commelyna, and on the leaves of low
shrubs, for there is no grass to be found ; and they must often,
I feel sure, be pressed for water to drink in the dry season.
No kangaroos were seen or heard of in any of the islands,
but a small species of mouse-like mammal, of which I was
unable to catch a specimen, may be a Perameles or jumping-
mouse. Of Rodents the common rat was—too abundant. No
species ot Sciwrid# were observed. Of Cheiroptera there were
several small species, besides a common Pteropus or “ Flying
Fox.” There are no deer. One species of Sirenian, probably
the Halicore australis, frequents the shore, and is hunted by
the natives for its ivories from which they make earrings.
One frog was collected, while snakes and lizards were found
in considerable numbers, one of each being a species new to
science. While, out of sixty species of birds, I brought no
7, FORBES),
-THRUSH (Geocichla machth
MACHIK S GROUND:
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 337
fewer than twenty forms, and of the butterflies and insects
nearly one-half, that were undescribed before.
One of the objects of my visit was to determine to what
zoo-geographical province Timor-laut belonged. Lying as
it does at no great distance from Aru and New Guinea on
the east, from Australia to the southward, and from Timor
to the west, it was an interesting question which of them
had behaved most bountifully by it. It is surrounded by a
very deep sea, deeper, so the captain of one of the Dutch
men-of-war surveying in that region just before my return to
Europe informed me, than is represented in most of the charts.
Looking to the birds peculiar to the group, all belong to
Papuan genera (and nearly allied to known Papuan species)
with the exception of a few species, which have their nearest
representatives in Timor or in Australia. The insects, on the
other hand, as collected by me, show a great preponderance of
Timor over Aru or new Guinea forms, with a slight Australian
tinge. The presence of snakes and frogs is also of great
interest—a new species of the former (Simotes forbes: of
Boulenger) being remarkable as the only one of the genus
known to exist east of Java—when we consider its deep
surrounding sea and all the indications that the Tenimber
group, which is entirely of coral formation, has been elevated,
after a long subsidence above the surface of the sea.
The most interesting discoveries among the birds were a
species of ground-thrush (Geocichla machskt), figured on the
opposite page ; and the finding in Timor-laut of a new species of
Honey-eater (Philemon timorlacensis), (the first bird to attract
our attention after landing), mimicked by a new species of
Oriole (Ordolus decipiens). For some time I was quite puzzled
by the difference of behaviour of certain individuals in flocks
of these. birds on the trees. Only after the closest comparison
of the dead birds in my hand was the enigma solved by my
perceiving that the birds were distinct species, of widely
removed. families, and I learned later that I had obtained
new examples of that most curious case of mimicry first
detected (among birds) by Mr. Wallace, where an Oriole con-
stantly derives protection from its foes by acquiring the dress
of a bird always of the same powerful and gregarious Honey-
eaters. In the Island of Buru an Oriole accompanies and
3388 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
copies a Philemon; in Ceram and in Timor also, and now in
Timor-laut yet another—the model and the copy—both of
them distinct in each of the islands. When my collection was
laid out for description by Dr. Sclater, the Oriole and the
Honey-eater’s dress were so strikingly similar, that the sharp
eye of that distinguished Ornithologist was deceived, and the
two birds were described by him as the same specics. Besides
these, another lovely new species of the same family (see
Frontispiece) of the Honey-eaters, belonging to the genus
Myzomela, which has been named after the devoted companion
of my travels (Myzomela annabellz) was obtained ; but though
it flitted about at the flowers of the cocoanut palms, and of
an Apocynaceous shrub just at our door, I could not succeed
in shooting a single individual, till on the mainland I at last
secured the one specimen that graced my collection.
On the 20th of September the steamer was due to return ;
but for a week we had been anxiously counting the days, for
we had been obliged, in order to eke out our supplies, to fall
back on roasted heads of Indian corn, which sorely tried our
teeth. We could purchase fowls on rare occasions only, as our
barter articles suiting the tastes of the natives were all gone—-
it is a characteristic of the race, as I have said, to give away
nothing, and to part with their possessions only for what they
want at the moment, no matter if something of many times
the value be offered them. Our stock of febrifuges, so often in
demand, and of tea’ and coffee, was exhausted, and above all
we were sadly reduced by the pernicious fever which was diffi-
cult to combat without luxuries we could not command.
Boats from Vordate brought in the news that the threatened
Kaleobar attack was really about to be made, tidings which to
our villagers seemed confirmed by the simultaneous recogni-
tion of the great comet of 1882 in our northern sky. Extra
guards were placed, who danced, as is their custom on such
like occasions, round the village god night and day witha
hideous howling chant accompanied by beating of drums
which was equally incessant, and to our fever-strained nerves
execrable and unbearable during the day, but perfectly
maddening in the night. How we longed and looked for the
steamer !
On the 28th, when our larder was absolutely empty, the
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 339
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IN TIMOR-LAUT. 353
Nores oN THE TABLE OF MEASUREMENTS.
All the measurements given in the preceding table correspond to
those recommended by Broca in the ‘Instructions Craniologiques”
Cars, 1875), except the following, some of which are not given in that
work :—
The transverse arcs—These are measured with the tapa from the point
on the ridge at the posterior root of the zygoma immediately above the
middle of the cxternal auditory meatus, where the ridge is crossed by
the auriculo-bregmatic line (the courbe sus-auriculare of Broca) over the
respective parts of the cranium, to the corresponding point on the
opposite temporal bone. :
Naso-alveolar length.—From the nasion to the alveolar point.
Palatine region.—The maxillary length is measured from the alveolar
point to the middle of a line drawn across the hinder borders of the
maxillary tuberosities. This is easily done by stretching a piece of fine
wire across the back of the mouth, the wire resting on each side in the
groove between the pterygoid and the tuberosity. The width is taken
between the outer borders of the alveolar arch immediately above the
middle of the second molar tooth.
Facial angle.—The angle formed by the meeting of the auriculo-alveo-
lar base line with the ophryo-alveolar face line at the alveolar point
measured with Broca’s median goniometer.
Nasi-malar angle—The angle formed by the nasal bones and the ex-
ternal margins of the orbits at a point a little below the fronto-malar
articulation.
Nasi-maxillary angle—Explained in the text, page 344.
Basilar angle —This is the angle N B Y of the “ Instructions,” p. 92,
or the naso-basio-opisthial angle.
Bi-zygostephanic Index.—Defined in the text, page 343.
Conoroid height.—From the gonion to the top of the coronoid process.
Gonio-symphesial height measured with the calipers.
The size of the glabella, nasal bones, and spine, inion, wormian bones,
and wear of teeth, are indicated by Broca’s descriptive numbers given
in the “ Instructions.”
Explanation of Plate (pp. 344, 345).
All the figures represent the skulls with the alveolo-condylar plane
horizontal.
The photozincographs were reduced from drawings by Mr. J. G.
Goodchild, the outlines of the skulls from which they are taken having
been previously geometrically projected by means of Broca’s stereograph
by myself.
This paper is reproduced from the ‘Journal of the Anthropological
Institute’ for May, 1884. (H.O.F.)
N
854
A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
II.—LIST OF PLANTS FROM TIMOR-LAUT.
Compiledfrom the Author's Herbarium, as determined at the Royal Gardens,
Kew, along with a small Collection made by Native Collectors employed
by Resident Riedel.
Clematis sp.
Anamirta Cocculus, W. & A.
Ochrecarpus ovalifolius, T. And. ?
Sida humilis W. var. repens.
rhombifo'ia, L.
Abutilon indicum, Don.
graveolens, W. & A.
Hibiscus surattensis, L.
tetraphyllus, Roxb.
Gossypium barbadense, L.
Thespesia populnea, Corr.
Sterculia foetida, L.
Melochia odorata, Forst.
velutina, Bedd.
brata,
pubescens, BI.
Corchorus trilocularis, L.
Murraya exotica, L. var.
Glycosmis pentaphylla, Corr.
sapindoides, Lindl.
Tristellateia australasica, A. R.
Owenia (may be O. cerasifera, F. M.).
Calophyllum Inophyllum, L.
Dodonzea viscosa, L
Vitis coriacea, Mig.
Strombosia sp.
Erioglossum edule, Bl.
Flemingia strobilifera, R. Br.
Desmodium umbcllatum, DC.
Pongamia glabra, Veut.
Phaseolus spp.
Mucuna (Stizolobium) sp.
Canavalia obtusifolia, DC.
Vigaa lutea, A. Gr.
Dolichos Lablab, L.
Cajanus indicus, Spr.
Indigofera unifoliata.
Dichrostachys nutans ?
Cynometra ramiflora, L.
hijuga, Sp.
Cassia javanica, L.
alata, L.
Cesalpinia pulcherrima, Sw.
Nuga, Ait.
Bauhinia Blancoi, Benth.
Pemphis acidula, Forst.
Bruguiera caryophylloides, Bl.
Lumnitzera coccinea, W. & A.
Peltophorum ferrugineum, Btb
Eugenia javanica, Lam.
aff, javanice.
Luffa cylindrica, Roem.
Momordica Charantia, L.
var. gla-
Zelneria aff. mucronate.
Delarbrea sp.
Sesuvium Portulacastrum, L.
Carapa moluccensis, L,
Portulaca oleracea, L,
Bryophyllum calycinum, Salisb.
Randia spp.
Ixora sp,
aff. I, timorensis, Dene.
Psychotria sp.
Morinda citrifolia, L.
Carium Roxburghianum, Benth.
Vernonia cinerea, Less.
Blumea membranacea, DC,
Wedelia biflora, DC.
Bidens bipinnata, L.
Diospyros maritima, Bl.
Maesa sp.
Jasminum lancifolium, Dene.
Dischidia sp.
Marsdenia sp.
Gymmema vel Sarcolobus sp.
Mitreola oldenlandioides, Wall.
Alstonia spectabilis, Br.
Tabernemontana parviflora, Poir.
oricntalis, R. Br.
Cordia subcordata, Lam.
Ipomee. Turpethum, L.
ey:nosa, R. & Schult.
Hewittia bicolor, W. & A.
‘Convoivulus parviflorus, Vahl.
'Tournefoitia sarmentosa, Lam.
Solanum verbascifolium, L.
Lycopersicum esculentum, Mill.
Physalis minima, L.
Datura alba, Nees.
Capsicum frutescens, L.
Buchuera angusta.
Leucas decemdentata, Sin.
Coleus scutellarioides, Benth.
Ocimum canun, L.
Hyptis spicigera, Lam.
Premna obtusifolia, R. Br.
Vitex trifolia, I.
aff. V. Negunio, L.
Clerodendron longiflorum, Dene. vel
sp. aff.
Barleria Prionotis, L.
Dilivaria ilicifolia, Jacq.
Asystasia (an) chelonoides, Nees.
Hypoéstes floribunda, R. Br. var.
Eranthemum sp. (? variabile.)
Deeringia celosioides, R. Br.
IN TIMOR-LAUT.
399
4Erua scandens, Wall., vel velutina,
Mig.
sanguinolenta, BI.
Amarantus caudatus, L.
Salsola Tragus, L.
Myristica insipida, R. Pr.
Aristolochia sp.
Piper sp. aff. P. canino,, Dietr.
Loranthus (Dendrophthoe) sp. aff. L.
rigido, Wall.
Manihot utilissima, Po'il.
Acalypha indica, L.
Phylanthus diversifolius, Mill. Arg.
vel sp. aff.
Excecaria Agallocha, Mill. Arg.
Mallotus albus, Mill. Arg.
repandus, Mill. Arg.
Trewia sp.
Sponia timorensis, Dene.
Fatua pilosa, Gaud.
lanceolata, Dene.
Pipturus velutinus, Wed I.
Fleurya interrupta, Gaud.
Pouzolzia pentandra, Benn.
Urostigma sp.
Ficus sp. aff. acanthophylle, Miq.
Balanophora sp.
Dendrobium antennatum, Lindl.
Phalenopsis, Fitzg.
Dioscorea spp.
Cordyline terminalis, Kth.
Commelina nudiflora, L.
Cocos nucifera, L.
Borassus flabelliformis, L
Metroxylon lave, Mart.
Pandanus sp.
Aroidez spp.
Cyperus pennatus, Lam,
Setaria italica, Beauv,
Sorghum vulgare, Pers.
Polypodium irioides, Lam,
Pteris tripartita, Lam.
Asplenium gaicatum, Lam.
Vittaria elongata, Sw.
Lycopodium carinatum, Des.
Phlegmaria, L.
ITI.—LIST OF THE BIRDS OF TIMOR-LAUT.*
In order to give as correct a list as possible of the Avifauna of the
Tenimber Islands, I have reproduced the original descriptions of my
collections given by Dr. Sclater, in the ‘ Proceedings’ of the Zoological
Society, (1883, pp. 48, 194). I have also included the species recently
described by Dr. Meyer, from specimens obtained by Mr. Reidel’s hunters,
in the paper read by him at the Ornithological Congress in Vienna in
1884, entitled, “ Neue und unbeniigend bekennte Végel Nester und Eier
aus dem Ostindischen Archipel im Kénigl. Zool. Mus. zu Dresden.”
Some of these species were also met with by myself, but I have in many
cases not been able to recognise their distinctness from other. previously
described forms. As many of these differences of opinion have been the
subject of discussion between Dr. Meyer and myself, I have thought it as
well to reproduce my published remarks in the present appendix.
I. AcciPiTrREs.
. ASTUR ALBIVENTRIS, Salvad.
Urospizias albiventris, Salv., Meyer, loc. cit.
. HALIATUS LEUCOGASTER, Gm.
Cuncuma leucogaster, Gm., Meyer, loc. cit.
. HALIASTUR GIRRENERA, V.
. Baza SUBCRISTATA, Gould.
. PANDION LEUCOCEPHALUS, Gould.
. CERCHNEIS MOLUCCENSIS, H. & J.
Tinnunculus moluccensis, Sclater, loc. cit.
. Nrinox FoRBESI, Sclater, loc. cit.
Supra rufescenti-brunnea, fere unicolor, in alarum tectricibus et scapulari-
bus fasciolis albis variegata; fronte et superciliis albis; alarum
* See Reports of the Timor-laut Committee in Rep. Brit. Assce, 1881, p, 197,
1882, p. 275, and 1883, ;
aro po
N
356 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
remigibus terreno-brunneis, nigro transfasciatis ; snbtus dorso concolor,
mento albicante, ventre albo transfasciato ; tarsis, omnino plumosis, cum
suhalaribus rufis unicoioribus ; alarum et caude pagina inferiore pallide
corylino-brunnea nigro regulariter transfasciata; rostri nigri apice
flavicante; digitis fuscis setis vbtectis: long. tota 11:0, alee 7:4, cauda
45, tarsi 1:3.
Fab. Lutur, Timor-laut. :
Obs. Sp. quoad colores NV. dantu maxime affinis, sed facie alba fasciis
ventris albis, et alis subtus nigro vittatis diversa.
The single specimen of this Owl is a male, obtained at Lutur on
August 9, 1881. It is noted: Irides golden; bill pale cinereous; feet
pale yellow, covered with bristly hairs; soles of feet nearly orange.”
I have dedicated this apparently distinct species to its discovercr,
Mr. Henry O. Forbes, F.Z.S.
8. Strix sororcuna, Sclater. ;
Supra terreno-fusca flavicante variegata, et punctis rotundis albis regulari-
ter aspersu; disco faciali amplo albo, margine nigricanti-brunneo
circumdato; macula antevculari niyricante; remigibus fuscis, nigro
transfasciatis, in pozoniis externis fulvo maculatis et albido vermicu-
latis; cauda1 nigricunte, teniis quinque fulvis transfasciata et albido
vermiculata ; subtus alba, preecipue in ventre maculis rotundis nigris-
Julvo cinctis aspersa, subalaribus ventre concoloribus ; tarsis postice fere
omnino plumulis obtectis, antice digitos versus setis paucis obsitis;
rostro et pedibus carneis: long. tota 11'5, ale 8'5, caude 3:5, tarsi 2°2.
Hab. Larat, ins. Tenimberensem.
Obs. Species novee-hollandie affinis et ejusdem forme, sed crassitie
valde minore, tarsorum plumis brevioribus et dorsi punctis rotundiori-
bus distinguenda ;
Mr. Sharpe, who has kindly examined the single skin of this Owl sent,
is of opinion that it belongs to a species allied to Strix nove-hollandie,
but easily recognisable by its inferiox size.
The example was obtained on Larat on the 24th of September, 1882,
and is labelled :— Female: irides dark brown; bill, legs, and feet flesh-
colour ; legs covered with flesh-coloured bristles.” :
II. Psirract.
9. TaNYGNATHUS SUBAFFINIS, Sclater.
Flavicanti-viridis, in pileo et capitis lateribus prasinus, in dorso postico
ceruleo lavatus ; alis viridibus ; scapularium apicibus, campterio alari
extus et tectricum majorum marginibus ceeruleis ; secundariorum tectri-
cibus flavo marginatis; cauda supra viridi, apice flavicante, subtus
obscure aurulenta ; subalaribus viridibus cceruleo mistis, alarum pagina
inferiore nigricante ; rostro ruberrimo ; pedibus nigris ; long. tota 18-0,
ale 95, caude 6-0.
Hab. Larat, ins. Tenimberensem.
Obs. Species T. afini maxime affinis, sed dorso flavicante virili .vix
ceeruleo lavato, diversa. 2
The single specimen is a female, obtained in Larat on August 8, 1882.
“ Trides cream-yellow, with inner ring of pale gamboge.”’
10. GEOFFROIUS KEIENSIS, Salvad.
G. timorlaoensis, Meyer, loc. cit.
The Geoffroius determined by Dr. Sclater to be G@. keyensis (Salyv.)
has been elevated into a new species, G. timorlacensis by Dr. Meyer.
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 357
He admits that the separation is based on very minute differences,
which, however, he believes will be found constant. “ Geoffrotts [timor-
lacensis!, G. keyensi, Salva., simillimus, sed minor ct primarie extimm
pogonio externo virescenti diversus.” On comparing tho Timor-laut
birds with Ké specimens in the British Museum determined by Court
Salvadori, the case stands as follows:—Timor-laut skins vary from
2410-290 millim., while G. keyensis (Salv.) ranges from 235-255 millim.
Length of wing in the former 165-170 millim., and in G. keyensis
(Salv.) 175-185 millim. The tail is shorter in G. timorlacensis than in
G. keyensis; while the tarsus agrees in both. In Timor-laut speci-
mens the external web of the outermost primary, where in the upper
portion the colour is blue, and in the lower green, exactly agrees
with a specimen from Ké, of the Challenger collection, determined as
G. keyensis by Salvadori. Both these are males. A female from Ké has
the same region of this feather blue throughout its length; while a
female from Timor-laut has a very narrow yellowish edge to the green-
blue margin of the primary. A female obtained by the Challenger natu-
ralists, also determined by Salvadori as G. keyensis, is identical in colo-
ration, while, lastly, the colour of the under surfaces of the wings can
scarcely be detected to differ. It would appear, therefore, so far as the
skins from ‘limor-laut and Ké, in the British Museum and in my own
collection, afford material for forming an opinion, that these differential
characters will not be found to have the constancy that Dr. Meyer has
expected. The wing measurements certainly are less in Timor-laut
specimens. It is probable that the differences in coloration are duc
to age only, and are not sufficient to separate the Ké from the Tenimber
birds. [H. 0. F.]
11. Ectectus r1EDELI, Meyer, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 917. Sclater, loc. cit.
Pl. XXVI.
Dr. A. B. Meyer has accurately described the femalo of this fine
species.
All the green skins are marked “ ¢,” and all the red “9.” The male
not yet having been described, I give short diagnoses of both sexes.
&. Lete viridis, capite clariore, subcaudalibus flavicante tinclus; sub-
alaribus et hypochondriis coccineis ; campterio alari et remigum prima-
riorum marginibus externis et secundariorum (extus dorso concolorum)
apicibus ceruleis; alarum pagina inferiore nigra ; cauda supra viridi
dorso concolori, subtus nigra, apice plus quam semipollicari abrupte
fiavo; rectrice una utrinque extima in pogonio exteriore cxruleo notato ; *
rostro superiore rubro, apice flavicante; inferiore nigro: long. totu
11°8, alex 8°7, caude 4°6.
@. Rubro punicea, capite et corpore subtus coccineis ; crisso flavo ; camp-
- terio alari et remigum primariorum marginibus externis ceruleis; cauda
supra ad basin viridi in rubrum transeunte, ad apicem late flava, subtus
flava ad basin nigricante ; rostro niyro; crassitie paulo minore,
Hab. insulus Tenimberenses.
Of the four skins inthe present collection, two males (green) arc from
Larat, and one male and one female from Lutur.
As [have remarked (P. Z. 8. 1883, p. 49), there can be no longer any doubt
that Eclectus riedeli is quite a distinct species of the genus, characterised
by the broad well-defined yellow tail-end of the male, and by the absence
of the blue on the back of the neck and on the belly. in the female.
Neglecting /. westermanni and Eclectus cornelia, of which we do not know
358 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
the opposite sexes or the localities, we are now acquainted with both
sexes and the patrie of four species of these anomalous Parrots, dis-
tributed as follows :—
(1) E. pectoralis (Salvad. op. cit. p. 197), of New Guinea and the Aru
aa < islands, extending to New Britain, New Ireland, and the Solomon
Islands. ‘ :
(2) E. roratus. (Salvad. p. 206), of the island group of Halmahera, #.c.
Halmahera, Ternate, Batchian, Morty, and Obi.
(3) E. cardinalis (Salvad. p. 210), of the island group of Ceram, «e.
Ceram, Amboina, and Boru.
(4) £. riedeli, of the Tenimber group.
The males of these four species are very similar in colouring; but with
the help of Dr. Salvadori’s diagnosis of the first three we may separate
them as follows:
A. Majores: cauda supra cerulco variegata.
Cauda minus cerulea . . 7 ‘ A . (1) pectoralis.
Cauda magis cerulea . F 3 : (2) roratus.
B. Minores: cauda supra viridi, subtus nigra.
Cauda apice angusto flavicante . a , . (3) cardinalis.
Caudee fascia apicali distincle flava ‘ é . (4) riedeli.
The female of LE. riedeli, as already mentioned, is very easily distin-
guished from the same sex of the first three species by the absence of
the blue neck-band and of the blue on the abdomen. As regards its
yellow under tail-coverts and yellow tail-end, it comes nearest to E.
roratus.
12. Eos reticunata, 8S. Mill.
18. NEOPSITTACUS EUTELES, T.
14. CaAcATUA SANGUINEA, Gould.
To my great surprise this Cacatua iy not C. citrinocristata, as I had
suspected. The original specimens of C. sanguinea were obtained at Port
Essington in N. Australia; so that its occurrence in the Timor-laut group
is not after all so very remarkable.
III. Picarrz.
15. SauRoPATIS CHLORIS, Bodd.
16. §. AUSTRALASIA and var, MINOR, Meyer, n. var.
17. S. sanota, V. & H.
IV. PassEREs.
18. PreEzoRHYNCHUS CAsTUS, Sclater.
Monarcha castus, Scl. P. Z. S. 1883, loc. sup. cit.
Supra niger ; pileo et regione auriculari albis, fronte et tenia nucham
cingente nigris circumdatis; dorso.summo teenie nuchali proximo,
wropygio et tectricibus alarum minoribus cum scapulariwm marginibus
externis albis; subtus albus, gutture nigro, maculis tribus albis ornato ;
cauda alba, rectricibus tribus externis albo late terminatis ; subalaribus
et remigum pogeniis internis albis ; rostri plumbei tomiis albicantibus ;
pedibus plumbeis: long. tota 5°7, ale 2°7, caudee 2'8.
Hab. Lutur, Timor-laat.
Obs. Affinis M. leucoti, sed gula nigra distinctus.
The single example is marked “Male: irides reddish brown; bill
lavender; legs and feet ditto; September 1882.” -
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 859
Hereranax, Sharpe, gen. nov. (érepos = alter, dvaé = rex) is closely allied
to the Australian genus Sizura; but the bill is narrower, less flattened
and strongly compressed, so that it is higher than broad at the notrils.
19. HeTERANAX MUNDUS, Sclater.
Monarcha mundus, Scl. P. Z. S., 1888, loc. cit.
Supra obscure cinereus, fronte lato, capitis lateribus et tectricibus alarum
totis nigris; subtus albus, mento et plaga
gule media nigris; cauda nigra, rectiicum
quatuor lateralium apicibus latis albis ;
subalaribus albis, remigum pagina inferiore
cinerea; rostro compresso, colore plumbeo, «
gonyde ascendente ; pedibus nigris; long.
tota 6:0, ale 3°2, caude 2°7.
Hab, Ins. Tenimberenses, Larat et Yamdena.
This species seems to be allied to M. moro-
tensis, M. bernsteini and M. nigrimentum, but
has an unusually compressed bill, of which UPPER SURFACE UPPER SURFACE
the gonys is slightly curved upwards. OF LO Liane
: H. mundus. P. castus.
20. Monarcua NITIDUS, Salvadori. (WITH PERMISSION OF COUNCIL
21. RuipipurA HAMADRYAS, Sclater. OF ZOOL, SOC.)
Supra castanea, in capite postico et cervice magis fuscescens, fronte dorso
concolore ; subtus pallide cervina, torque gutturali niyro ; gula alba; alis
caudaque nigricantibus, illis rufo anguste marginatis ; hujus reclricibus
externis cinerascente albo late terminatis ; rostro et pedibus nigris: long.
tota 57, alee 2°3, caudee 3°2.
flab. Larat, ins. 'Tenimberensem.
Obs, Proxima R. dryadi (Gould, B. N. G. pt. ii. pl. 11), sed cervice
postica rufescente nec fusca et alarum tcctricibus rufo marginatis,
dignoscenda.
22. RHIPIDURA FUSCO-RUFA, Sclater.
Supra obscure terreno-fusca, in dorso rufescenti tincta ; alis nigricantibus,
tectricum minorum apicibus et secundariorum marginibus externis late
rufis; subtus rufa, mento et gutture toto ad medium pectus albis; sub-
alaribus rufis; remigum marginibus internis fulvis ; caude nigricantis
rectricibus tribus externis totis et paris proximi apicibus rufis ; rostro et
pedibus nigris. Long. tota 7:0, ale 3:3, caude 3°4.
Q. Mari similis.
Hab. insulas Tenimberenses Larat, Molu et Lutur.
Obs. Sp. rostro robusta lato, cauda parum graduata fusco et rufo
bipartita insignis. 7
There are 14 specimens of this apparently new and very distinct
Rhipidura in the collection, from the tbree localities above mentioncd.
The irides are marked “ dark brown,” and the legs and feet “ black.”
The bill is broad and robust, and the rectrices but slightly graduated.
the external being only about 0:4 inch shorter than the middle pair; so
that the species would appear to come in the same division as Nos. 12
and 138 of Count Salvadori’s list.
23. RHIPIDURA OPISTHERYTHRA, Sclater.
Supra cinerascco-fusca, dorso postico castaneo-rufa ; loris albidis ; alarum
nigricantium marginibus externis rufescentibus ; subtus pallide fulva,
gutture albo, crisso castaneo, hypochondriis rufescenti lavatis ; caudee
elongate et valde graduate rectricibus rufescentibus, supra castaneo extus
marginatis ; rostro superiore nigro, inferiore ad basin et pedibus pallidis :
long. tota 6°7, ale 3°4, caude rectr. med. 3°8, ext. 2'5, tarsi 0-9.
360 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Hab. Tnsulas Tenimberenses Larat et Maru.
Obs. Sp. gutture albo et dorso postico et crisso castaneis, sicut videtur,
facile dignoscendo.
The two specimens of this species in the collection are both marked as
@ ; but the male would probably not differ in coloration. “ Irides dark
brown; upper mandible sooty brown, lower mandible same at top, but
pale flesh colour at base; feet lavender pink.”
' This species belongs to the section with small bill, and the tail-
feathers much graduated, the outer pair being 1:3 iv. shorter than the
middle pair. Below, the tail is pale, rufous, the inner webs of the
rectrices passing into blackish. Above, the outer tail-feathers are
margined externally at their bases with the chestnut-red of the rump.
24, MYIAGRA FULVIVENTRIS, Sclater.
Supra plumbea, capite et dorso nitore ceeruleo tinctis ; alis et cauda fusco-
nigricantibus ; subtus saturate castaneo-rufa, abdomine et subalaribus
fulvis ; remigum marginibus interioribus albicantibus ; rostro et pedibus
nigris : long. tota 58, alee 2°7, caudce 2°7.
Hab. Larat, ins. Tenimberensem.
Obs. Proxima A/. rufigule ex Timor, sed ventre et subalaribus fulvis
distinguenda.
“Trides dark brown, bill lavender-blue, legs and feet black:” Tho
type was obtained in Larat on August 2nd, 1882; and others later.
25. Mick@ca HEMIXANTHA, Sclater.
Supra flavicanti-olivacea ; alis caudaque fuscis dorsi colore marginatis,
loris et linea superciliari obsoleta flavidis; macula auriculari fusca ;
subtus flava, remigum marginibus internis albidis ; subalaribus flavis ;
rostri fusci mandibula inferiore pallida ; pedibus nigris: long. tota 4°8
alee 2°9, caudce 2-1.
Hab. Larat et Lutur.
Obs. Species Pecilodryadi papuanx, quoad colores, fere similis, sed, ut
videtur, generi Micrece apponenda.
26. ARTAMIDES UNIMODUS, Sclater.
Graucalus unimodus, P. Z. S. 1888, p. 55.
The collection contained two ma’es and three females of this species.
The sexes are not quite similar, as wul be seen from the subjoined
diagnoses. ;
g Cinercus ; fronte, loris et capitis lateribus cum gutture toto ad medium
pectus eneo-nigris ; alis et cauda nigris illis cinereo extus marginatis ;
subalaribus pallide isabellinis; remigum pagina inferiore albicanti-
cinerea ; rostro et pedibus nigris: long. tota 13°5, ale, 7:3, caude 6°5,
tarsi 1°3.
Q Mari similis, sed paulum obscurior et colore nigro nisi in loris carens ;
crassitie paulo minore.
Hab. Larat, ins. Tenimberensem.
Obs. Species Graucalo cxruleo-griseo affinis, sed_colore corporis cineras-
centiore et remigibus intus non albis distinguenda.
97. A. TIMORLAOENSIS, Meyer, in ‘ Zeit. f. dic Ges. Ornith.’ 1884, p. 10.
98. GRAUCALUS MELANOPS, V. & H.
29, LALAGE MasstTA, Sclater.
Supra sericeo-nigra ; superciliis brevibus et wropygio albis; alis nigris,
tectricibus minoribus et majoribus et secundartis albo late terminatis;
corpore subtus, subalaribus et remigum pogontis internis ad basin omnino
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 361
albis ; cauda nigra, rectricibus duabus externis albo terminutis ; rostro et
pedibus nigris: long. tota 6°2, alee 3°7, caude 3°3.
Hab. Inss. Tenimberenses.
Obs. Affinis L. atro-virenti et L. tricolori, sed superciliis curtis albis
dividenda.
30. ARTAMUS LEUCOGASTER, Val.
A. musschenbroeki, Meyer, loc. sup. et.
Hab. Larat, ins. Tenimberensem.
Artamus musschenbroeki, is the name proposed by Dr. Meyer for the
Timor-laut Wood-Swallow, which has been determined by Dr. Sclater as
A, leucogaster, Val. (P. Z. S. 1883, pp. 51 and 200). Of the Artamus from
Dr. Meyer’s identical locality I have in my own collection three specimens.
I have examiued carefully seventeen others from different localities, in the
very long series in the British Museum derived from (elebes, the Philip-
pines, Sumatra, Java, Lombock, Flores, Timor, Batjian, Buru, Halmaheira,
Goram, Aru, Batanta, and from N. Australia. The speciesin the Dresden
Museum from the underlined localities are admitted by Dr. Meyer to
belong to A. leucogaster. It is impossible to separate my Timor-laut
skins from specimens collected in Zebu by the Challenger Vxpedition,
and determined by Lord Tweeddale (P. Z S., 1877, pp. 544-545). The
colour in both isabso!utely the same. Lord Tweeddale, however, remarks
on the difference of dress—“‘one in which the upper plumage is of a
light bluish and cinereous colour, the other where it is of a more smoky
brown and bluish ash. This does not seem to depend on sex; for one of
these examples (Zebu 362) is marked %, while I possess a Luzon example
exactly similar, which Dr. Meyer determined to bea 9. The other Zebu
example (No. 370) is marked ¢, and is in the paler bluish-grey attire.”
I feel satisficd, after examining the specimens in the British Muscum and
in my own collection, that the difference in coloration is one due to age,
for in young birds, the plumage is lighter than in the adult state. Dr.
Meyer’s observation that the dark mantle reaches, in Timor-laut skins
only, just to the root of the tail, while in A. leucogaster it overlaps by
about a centimetre, is, in as far as the series referred to enables an opinion
to be formed, one not sufficiently constant to support specific separation.
In several Timor-laut specimens examined, the dark plumage overlaps the
tail more than 1 centimetre, and even more than in others from different
parts of the Archipelago which have been hitherto recognised as 4.
leucogaster. In skins of -4, leucogaster from Mysol and Macassar, the
mantle is just conterminous with the root of the tail. Really, however,
the absolute constancy of these measurements can be determined only with
accuracy in the flesh, for the way in which the skin is manipulated will
increase or diminish them by several centimetres. The same holds with
regard to another character given as differential—the greater amount, in
Timor-laut specimens, of whiteon the rump and upper tail-coverts. In
my own specimens tke white on the rump varies from 22-31 millim.
in length, while in eight other skins from different regions of the
Archipelago the range is from 26-32 millim., giving in the latter indeed
a wider zone than in those from Timor-laut. In the long series of
British Museum skins, the white tips of all but the two middle tail-feathers,
another of Dr. Meycr’s differential characters, is quite inconstant. In
several Timor-laut skins not only these two tail feathers, but several
others of the remiges, are without a white band, while in some examples
it is even less than in undisputed A. leucogaster. In young birds the white
tips are very pronounced, not on ihe remiges only, but on the primaries
and secondaries of the wing also. The Philippine (Zebu) birds, already
362 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
referred to, have the tips of the remiges quite as broad as in those from
Timor-laut. In a Lombock specimen (“ex Stevens”) the tips of ad? the
feathers are white; a Batanta and a New-Holland specimen have no white
tips at all; one from, Halmaheira and one from Buru (both from Mr.
Wallace’s collection) except in one feather, have no white on the remiges ;
yet all of them have been determined to be, and are undoubtedly A.
leucogaster (Val.) [H. O. F-.]
31. Dicrvropsis Bracteatvs, Gould.
82. PACHYCEPHALA ARCTITORQUIS, Sclater, loc. cit, Pl. XIII.
P. kebirensis, Meyer, op. sup. cit.
P. riedelii, Meyer, op. sup. cit.
Supra cinerea, alis caudaque nigris cinereo limbatis, pileo nucha et capitis
lateribus nigris ; subtus alba, torque jugulari angusto nigro ; subalaribus
et remigum marginibus interioribus albis ; rostro et pedibus nigris : long.
tota 5°5, ale, 3°0, caudz 2°2. Fem. Supra fusca, in pileo rufescens ;
alis nigris extus rufo limbatis ; subtus alba, obsolete nigro striata.
Hab. Larat, ins. Tenimberensem.
Dr. Meyer, in the paper referred to, has described two new species of
Pachycephala, whose names are given above as synonyms. If he is correct
in his determinations we have the curious fact that, notwithstanding my
more thorough examination of a wider field, which included the region
whence he obtained his birds, the whole serics obtained by me contained
no females of P. arctitorquis and no males of P. riedelii (were Dr. Meyer’s
specimens sexed ?); while those who made the collection examined by
Dr. Meyer, obtained in Babbar (an island at no great distance to the
W. of Yamdena) females of P. arctitorquis, and evidently no males (so
recognised by Dr. Meyer), and females of P. kebirensis (Meyer), with-
out one of its males. I dai'y saw the collections made in Timor-laut by
the Amboinese hunters making this collection, and I feel confident that
no species of Pachycephala—one of the groups I am particularly in-
terested in—was cbtained by them which was not also in my collection.
After comparing Dr. Meyer's descriptions with the long series I have
of this bird, nearly all of which Dr. Sclater had before him when writing
his original description, and which contains birds in almost every stage
of plumage, from the young bird to the fully adult, I have little hesita-
tion in affirming that P. arctitorquis, (¢ Meyer), from Timor-laut and
Babbar, is but the immature male, and P. kebirensis (Meyer) the nearly
fully adult female of P. arctitorquis, in which the colour of the bird when
fully adult is black; while P. riedelii is a still younger female of the
same species. From this it would seem clear to me that P. arctitorguis,
Scl., occurs in Babbar also, for the examples before Dr. Meyer from that
island were young males and immature females, while from Timor-laut
he had adult males, immature males (9, Meyer), and still younger
females (riedelit, Meyer). [H. O. F.]
33. P. rusco-FLAVA, Sclater, loc. cit., Pl. XX VIL. ; Forbes, P. Z. S., 1883,
pl. 588, Pl. LITT.
Obs. Similis P. leucogastro, sed torque angusto distinguenda.
The pair of these species were obtained in Larat, in the first week of
August 1882. The iris is marked “reddish brown” in the male, and
“dark brown” in the female; the feet “blue-black” in the male, and
“ lavender-pink ” in the female.
84. Dicmum FULGIDUM, Sclater.
(Figured in Gould’s ‘ Birds of New Guinea,’ part 16.)
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 363
Supra nitide purpurascenti-nigrum; subtus album coccineo perfusum ;
hypochondriis olivaceo mixtis; subalaribus et remiqgum pogoniis internis
albis; rostro et pedibus nigris: long. tota 3°6, ale 2°0, caude 1:1.
Hab, Larat et Lutur.
Obs. Similis D. keiensi et D. ignicolli, sed ventre toto coccineo perfuso
distinctum.
‘Ihere are two “ male” examples of this Dicewm in the present collection
—one from Larat (1.8.82) and one from Lutur (19.9.82). Both are
labelled, “ Irides dark brown; legs and feet black.”
35. MyZoMELA ANNABELLZ, Sclater ; fiig. in Gould, ‘ B. N. Guin.,’ Pt. 16.
Nigra ; capite cum gutture toto undique et dorso postico coccineis ; ventre
medio et remigum marginibus externis strictissimis olivaceis ; subalaribus
et remigum pogonriis internis albis; rostro et pedibus nigris: long. tota
3°5, ale 2:0, caude 1:3.
Hab. Lutur, Timor-laut.
Ubs. Sp. ad M. erythrocephalam et species huic affincs adjungenda,
corpore coloris nigro et crassitie minore insignis.
The single specimen was obtained September 22nd at Lutu. It is
marked “Male: irides dark brown: bill black; legs and feet dirty green.”
I have named it by, request of the discoverer, after his wife, who
accompanied him in his perilous travels.
36. STIGMATOPS SALVADORIT, Meyer, op. cit.
Stigmatops squamata, Salvad. Sclater, P. Z. 8., 1883, p. 198.
Nectarinia sp. inc. Sclater, P. Z. 8., 1883, p. 51.
One of the most frequently met with birds. Feeds at the cocoanut flowers.
The [first instalment of the] collection contained two skins in bad condition
(marked “ ?”) which I thought might probably be referable to a female of
some species of Nectarinia. The [second instalment] comprehends nine
specimens of the same bird of both sexes. It is evidently a Melipliagine
bird of the genus Stigmatops, and, so far as I can tell, without actual
comparison with the types, inseparable from S. sguamata of Salvadori.
'This species was discovered by Rosenberg on Khor Island between the
Ké group and Ceram-laut, and may therefore probably also occur in the
enimber group from which Khor lies not very far north.
37. PHILEMON TIMORLAOENSIS, Meyer.
P. plumigenis, Sclater, P. Z. 8., 1883, p. 199.
Philemon timorlaoensis is the name proposed by Dr. Meyer for the
species designated P. plumigenis by Sclater (P. Z. S., 1883, pp. 51 & 195).
The Timor-laut bird certainly differs from that from Ké, but the
differences are scarcely to be formulated in words. The Tenimber bird
seems intermediate between the Buru and Ké birds. Dr. Gadow, in the
9th vol. of the Cat. of Birds, has not separated the species, nor has Mr.
Sharpe, in the 16th part of Gould’s “ Birds of New Guinea,” though he
has expressed doubts as to their identity. [H. 0. F.]
38. ZOSTEROTS GRISEIVENTRIS, Sclater.
Supra lete viridis, annulo periophthalmico distinclo albo ; alis cuudaque
nigricantibus viridi limbatis; subtus pallide grisea, in ventre medio
albicantior, gula et crisso flavis; subalaribus et remigum marginibus
internis albis, campterio flavido ; rostro pallide corneo, pedibus pallide
Suscis ; long. tota 4°7, ale 2°5, caude 1°7.
Hab. Larat, Lutur, et Molu insulas Tenimberenses.
There are sixteen specimens of this apparently new Zosterops in the
364 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
present collection, obtained at various dates in the localities above
mentioned. The irides are noted as “ reddish brown.”
The species belongs to the group of Z. albiventris ; but appears to be
distinguishable by its greyish abdomen, which is only whiter in the
middle line.
39. GERYGONE DORSALIS, Sclater.
Supra brunnescenti-castanea, alis caudaque nigris dorsi colore limbatis,
pileo et’nucha murino-brunneis ; subtus alba, hypochondriis rufescenti
lavatis ; subalaribus albis; caude rectricibus subtus in pogontis
interioribus nigricantibus macula versus apicem alba preeditis ; rostro et
pedibus nigris: long. tota 4-0, ale 2-1, caude 1°6, tarsi 0'8.
Mari similis.
Hab. Larat, Lutur et Molu, insulas Tenimberenses.
I was rather uncertain as to the correct position of this little bird,
which is quite distinct from anything that I am acquainted with; but
Count Salvadori, to whom I have sent a skin for examination, kindly tells
me it isa Gerygone. The-bill is rather compressed, and the tarsi are long
and slender. The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth primaries are nearly
equal and longest. The irides are noted as black.
40. OnioLus prcrpicys, Sclater.
Memeta decipiens, Sel. P. Z. 8., 1883.
Fuscus fere, unicolor, superciliis albidis, pileo nigricanti striolato ; subtus
paulo dilutior, gutture et cervice antica albis, preecipue ad latera nigro
guttulatis; pectoris summi plumis quibusdam nigricanti. striolatis ;
regione auriculart nigricante; rostro et pedibus nigris: long. tota 11:8,
alee 6°5, caudee 5:0. :
Hab. Larat, insulam Tenimberensem.
Obs. Similis M. bouroensi, sed gula albida nigro transversim guttulata
et pectoris summi plumis nigricanti striolatis distinguendus.
Two specimens of this Mimeta, marked “ irides dark brown,” are in the
collection. They so closely resemble Philemon plumigenis in general
appearance, that I had at first marked them as of that species. Cj.
Wallace, P. Z. S., 1863, p. 26, on a similar case of mimicry in another
species of this genus.
41, GrocicHLa MAcHIKI, H. O. Forbes.
Geocichla sp. inc., Sclater, P. Z. 8., 1883, los. sup. cit.
The species of Geocichla is an adult male, intermediate between Geocichla
rubiginosa from Timor and G. erythronota from Celebes. The general
colour of the upper parts is olive-brown, shading into slaty brown on the
head and into chestnut on the rump and upper tail-coverts; lores white,
car-coverts mottled white and slaty-brown; wings brown; lesser wing-
coverts olive-brown,- broadly tipped with white; innermost secondaries
russet-brown, obscurely tipped with white; tail-feathers russet-brown,
the outer feathers on each side broadly tipped with dull white; chin,
throat, and breast buffish white, the rest of the under parts white, the
feathers on the flanks broadly tipned with crescentic spots of black;
axillaries—basal half white, terminal half black; under wing-coverts—
basal half brown, terminal half white; basal halt’ of inner web of
secondaries and basal portion of many of the primaries white; upper
mandible sooty grey, lower yellow; irides ash-brown ; legs, feet, and claws
pale flesh-colour. Wing, 43 inches, tail 3:2, culmen 1-05, tarsus 14. (No.
in: collection 583 g.)
I propose that this new species should bear the name G. machiki, as a
small mark of remembrance of Dr. Julius Machik, of Buda Pesth, Surgeon-
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 365
Captain in the Dutch Army, and of appreciation of his extreme kindness
and hospitality, and of the greatest possible assistance rendered by him
to me in Sumatra, and more especially in Amboina to my wife and myself,
both before'and atter our return from the Tenimber Islands. Dr. Machik
is well known in the Archipelago for his extensive collections of Molusca
fishes, snakes, and insects, [H. O. F.]
42. GEocICcHLA scHISTACEA, Meyer, op. cit.
43. Pivra vicorsir, Ged. fide Meyer.
44, Munia moxucca, L.
45. EryYTHRURA TRICHROA, Kittl.
46. CaLornis cuuaris, G. R. Gr.
C. metallica, Sclater, P. Z. 8. loc. sup. cit.
C. circumscripta, Meyer, op. sup. cit.
The species of Calornis from the Tenimber Islands has been distin-
guished from (’. metallica as a new species, C. circwmscripta by Dr. Meyer.
1 have a large series of skins in my collection, and that they belong toa
species distinct from C. metallica is undoubted, and, as Dr. Meyer observes,
they can, when mixed up with any number of species of Calornis, be un-
hesitatingly picked out by the coloration of the throat. The throat-plumes
in C. metallica are prominently longer and more mucronate than those in
the Timor-laut specimens. The violet of the mantle, however, contrary
to the note of Dr. Meyer, has the blue-green reflexions observable in C’.
metallica quite distinct in most of my specimens, if the eye be “ placed
between the bird and the light” in position A, as described by Dr. Gadow
(P. Z. 8. 1852, p. 409), that is with “the eye and the light almost in a
level with the planes to be examined.” A species of Calornis discovered
by Mr. Wallace in Mysol (of which the type is in the British Museum)
was named C. guluris by G. R. Gray; but was considered by Count
Salvadori (the label bearing the name in his handwriting) as C. metallica,
while it remained unique. After comparison of this skin with Timor-
lant specimens, the two are unquestionably identical. C. circumscripta
(Meyer) must, therefore, be considered henceforth a synonym of C. gularis,
G. R. Gr., which must now be removed from being a synonym of C.
metallica to specific rank, confirming the opinion expressed in 1876 (‘ Ibis,’
p. 46) by Mr. Bowdler Sharpe, who says: “I must pronounce this,
contrary to Lord Walden’s opinion, a very good species, distinguished by
its purple throat and small Lill, the cnlmen only measuring °65 inch, as
against ‘85 in C. viridescens.” This meastiement is not the only one by
which the species can be distinguished, for the plumage in every specimen
is so constant that the skins cannot casily be confounded with any other.
C. gularis is slightly less, and more brightly metallic—a more beautiful
hird, in my opinion, even than the true C. metallica; the purple of the
throat, which is more chastely and delicately feathered than in C.
metallica, is separated from the purple of the back and upper breast by a
narrow and very bright green band. ‘the total length of the bird in 14
specimens ranged from 210-250 millim. Count Salvadori (P. Z. 8., 1878,
p. 89) remarks: “Some specimens (of C. metallica) have the throat more
purplish than others, one from Mysol (C. gularis, Gray) cannot be
separated from others from Halmaheira and Cape York.” I have not seen
any Halmaheira specimens; but the Cape-York bird undoubtedly differs
hy the purple on the breast, which is green in C. gularis ; the green neck-
band is much broader, and the throat is more markedly green and with-
out purple. It has, I believe, been separated as C. purpurascens, Salv.
The Admmiralty-Island Calornis is somewhat timilar to C. gularis, but is at
25
366 A NATURALIST'’S WANDERINGS
once distinguishable by the absence of purple on the back; the head is
purple; and itis known as C. purpureiceps. [H. 0. F.]
47. CALornis crassa, Sclater.
Obscure cineracea-viridis nitore chalybeo ; subtus, preecipue in ventre, paulo
magis cineracea ; alis caudaque nigris extus dorsi colore lavatis ; remigum
marginibus interioribus fuliginosis; rostro et pedibus nigris; cauda
fere cequali aut paulum rotundata: long. tota 7:3, ale 4-1, caude 2°8.
Fem. Supra cineracea, striis scaparum nigris variegata ; alis caudaque
Fusco nigris ; subtus alba nigro flammulata ; crassitie fere eadem.
Hab. Larat, ins. Tenimberensem.
Ubs. Species cauda fere zequali, corpore crasso, rostro rebusto ct colore
maris uniformi notabilis. :
Both male (August Ist) and female (August 8th) are marked “ Irides
dark brown ; bill, legs, and feet black.” :
48. Corvus Latrirostris, Meyer, op. sup. cit.
Corvus validissimus, Sclater, loc. cit.
49. Evrystomts paciFicus, Lath. fide Meycr, op. sup. cit.
50. CarrimuLeus macrourus. Horsf.
51. Hirvnpo savanica, Sparrm.
V. CoLUMBz.
52. Prinopus WALLACTI, Gs.
53. D. LeTTrensts, Schl. fide Meyer.
54. P. xanrwocastrr, Wagl.
P. flavovirescens, Meyer, op. sup. cit.
The designation Ptilopus flavovirescens has been proposed by Dr. Meyer
for the Timor-laut Pigeon determined by Dr. Sclater as /’. xanthogaster
(Wagl.). The difference lies, he notes, in the “ Gelbgrinlichgraue” of the
head and neck. From a careful comparison of my own skins with those
in the British Museum, I feel confident that the differences observed by
Dr. Meyer will be found to be those due to age only. Very young birds
have a grey band over the forehead, and the rest of the head with the
neck and back nearly of the same shade of green; with advancing age we
find every shade of green and yellowish-green to Dr. Meyer's “ Gelbgriin-
lichgrane.” The head of the fully adult bird is purplish-grey, each
feather having a pale yellow submarginal crescent across it.
Some of the skins obtained by me differ as to head and neck in no
respect from specimens brought by Mr. Wallace from Banda; others have
the head and neck of a grey colour tinctured with every shade through
green-blue to yellow, differing according to the age of the birds. I cannot
detect in the specimens I have, any difference in breadth of the “ Gelb der
Kehle” as compared with Mr. Wailace’s specimens ; nor is the breast shield
constantly of one shade in all the specimens I have examined. In the
Banda example (of Wallace) it is darker than any Timor-laut specimen
before me. In agreement with all those in the British Museum, my
Timor-laut specimens have the outer margin of the primaries and
secondaries as in Salvadori’s description, “ flavo-marginatis.” [H. 0. F.]
55. CARPoPHAGA coxcinna, Wall.
56. C. rosacka, Temm.
57. MynisTicIvora BICOLOR, Scop.
58. Macropyeia TIMORLAOENSIS, Meyer, op. sup. cit.
Macropygia keiensis, Salv.
Macropygia sp. ine., Sclater, P. Z. 8. 1883, los. sup. cit.
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 367
59. SPILOPELIA TIGRINA, T. fide Meyer, op. sup. cit.
60. GEOPELIA MAUGEI, Temm.
61. CHaLcoPHars CHRYSOCHLORA, Wag].
VI. GALLINE.
62. MEGAYPODIUS TENIMBERENSIS, Selater.
Supra brunnescenti-olivaceus, in cervice magis cinereus, in dorso postico
magis brunnescens; pileo subcristato interscapulio concolore; subtus
cineraceus olivaceo tinctus; capitis literalis et gule pelle rubra plumis
paucis obsita ; subalaribus ventre concoloribu; ; rostro flavo ; tarsis antice
nigris postice rubris, digitis nigris ; long. tota 11:5 ale 9°6, caude 35,
tarsi 2°8.
Hab. Firinun et Lutur, ins. Tenimberensem.
Cbs. Species pedum colore ad IM. geelvinkianum corporis pictura magis
ad M. tumulum appropinquans.
There are two specimens of this apparently new Megapode in the collec-
tion. One from Lutur, Timor-laut, obtained September 22nd, is marked
“ Trides dark brown ; bill pale yellow; legs in front black, but front of
knees red, back of legs red; feet black.” The other, from Kirimun, is
labelled “Iris brown; bill pale yellow; legs and feet red.” But the.
colours of these last-named parts, so far as can be told from the dry skins,
do not materially differ from those of the first specimen; and the two
birds agree in plumage, except that the specimen from the islet of Kirimun
is rather more reddish on the face.
VII. GRALLATORES.
63. ORTHORHAMPHUS MAGNILOSTRIS, Geoff.
64. OEDICNEMUS GRALLARIUS, Lath.
65. CHARADRIUS FULVUS, Gm.
66. A{GIALITIS GEOFFROYI, Wagl.
67. LoBIVANELLUS MILES, Bodd.
68. ToTaNus INCANOS, Cm.
69. NUMENIUS VARIEGATUS, Scop.
70. ARDEA SUMATRANA, Raffles.
71. A..NOVH-HOLLANDI&, Loth.
72. HerRopras ALBA, L.
73. DEMIGRETTA SACRA, Gm.
74, NycrIcoRax CALEDONICUS, Gm.
75. PoRPHYRIO MELANOPTERVS, Temm.
VIII. Natatores.
76. NETTAPUS PULCHELLUS, Gould.
77. DENDROCYGNA GUTTATA, Miill.
78. TADORNA RADJAH, Garn.
79. STERNA MELANAUCHEN, T.
£0. ONYCHOPRION ANESTHETUS, Scop.
Dr. Sclater concludes his paper with the following remarks, which I
reproduce, as the recent discoveries of Mr. Riedel’s collectors have not
materially modified the conclusions arrived at by the writer in 1884:
“J will say a few words concerning the geveral character of the avifauna
of the Tenimber Islands go far as it is indicated by this collection. It
is quite evident that the prevailing facies of this ornis is, as might have
been expected, predominantly Papuan. Of the species included in the
above-given list, 81 are mentioned in Salvadori’s work. Of the 24 new
368 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
species discovered by Mr. Forbes all are of Papuan genera, and nearly
allied to known Papuan species except the Strix, which appears to bé a
diminutive form of an Australian type, and the Myagra, which is nearest
joa Timor form; the Geocichla machiki is most nearly allied to a Timor
bird. There is also in the collection one other Timor bird, Erythrura
tricolor, which is not found in New Guinea or the Moluccas.. I think,
therefore, we may fairly say that the Tenimberese Avifauna is pre-
eminently Papuan, varied only by a slight element from Timor (repie-
sented by Erythrura tricolor, Myiagra fulviventris, and the Geocichla), and
by an Australian tinge shown by the Strix, and perhaps by Monarcha
nitidus being present (as in the Aru Islands) instead of MZ. chalybeo-
cephalus,
E AUSTRALIA i
SKLTCII-MAP OF THE REGION, SHOWING THE GEOGRAPINICAL RELATIONS OF TEE
TENIMBER GROUP.
(WITH THE KIND PEKMISSION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL
INSTITUTE.)
That the Tenimber group would possess a certain number of peculiar
endemic forms was also to be expected, from their isolated situation, and
the deep channel around them. Altogether these are 29 [now 30] in
number, namely the 27 ‘an species -above described as new, and two
Parrots (Los reticulata and Lclectus riedeli) previously known.” [H. O. F.]
IV.—On the Collection of REPTILES and BAtRAcutans from the Timor-laut
Islands, formed by Mr. H. O. Forses. By G. A. BouLenGEn, F.ZS.
(From Proe. Zool. Soc. London, June 5,1883. Pl. XLI., XLII.)
. The Reptiles and Batrachians collected by Mr. Forbes in the Timor-
laut Islands, and presented to the British Museum by the British As-
sociation, belong to seventcen species, which, with the exception of two
new to science, were already well known from different parts of the
Anstro-Malayan sub-region. The two new species are a Lizard of the
Australian genus Lophognathus, Gray, and a Snake of the Indian genus:
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 3é9
Simotes, D. & B. The latter is the most remarkable discovery, a8 no
species of this genus was known to occur eastwards of Java,
The foliowing is a list of the species collected :—
REPTILIA.
LACERTILIA,
. GECKO VERTICILLATUS, Laur.
. PERIPIA MUTILATA (Wiegm.).
- VaRANUs InDIcus (Daud.).
ABLEPHARUS BOUTONII (Dasj.) [.4. pectlopleurus, Wiegm.].
EUpREPES RUFESCENS (Shaw).
EUPREPES CYANURUS (Less.).
. LyGoOsoMA SMARAGDINUM (Less ).
. BRoNCHOCELA MOLUCCANA (Less.).
. LOPHOGNATHUS MACULILABRIS, Boul., sp. n.; P. Z. 8. loc. sup. cit.,
Pi. XLI.
Snout obtuse, as long as the distance between the orbit and the pos-
terior border of the ear. Nostril equally distant from the orbit and the
tip of the snout. Upper surface of head covered with very strongly
keeled scales. Dorsal scales small, the upper largest, strongly keeled,
all obliquely directed upwards, Gular and ventral scales strongly keeled,
the latter larger than the largest dorsal scales. No femoral or praanal
pores. Upper surfaces olive, with blackish transverse markings across
the back, tail, and limbs; upper surface of head with three obsolete
blackish transverse bands, separated by light lines; a broad blackish
band from orbit to tympanum, bordered inferiorly by a light band ex-
tending to above the fore limb; lips light-coloured, variegated with
blackish ; lower surfaces whitish, dotted all over with blackish.
Two specimens; the largest measures :—
$2 90.1 E> OCH G9 BO
millim
Totallength . : < 5 - 2 ‘ 388
From tip of snout to vent . - . - “es . 98
35 ie forelimb . . ‘ - g . 43
Length of head (to occiput) : : . é - 22
Width of head . . ‘ . . : = 7 . 17
Fore limb : : : 5 ‘ . : . . 46
Hind limb - : . ; . : ‘ » OF
Tail 9 3 . . 299
OPHIDIA.
10. PyrHon reTIcULATUS (Schn.).
11. Lrasis ameTHYsTINUS (Schn.).
12. Enye@rus carinatus (Schn.).
13. SimotTEs ForBEsI, Bouleng, nu. sp.; P. Z. 8. loc. sup. cit. Pl. XLII.
Length of snout measuring twice the diameter of the eyc. Nasal
divided; loreal slightly higher than broad; one pre- and two post-
‘oculars; temporals 1 +2; seven upper labials, the third and. fourth
entering the orbit; four inferior Jabials in contact with anterior chin-
shields; latter, hinder part three-fifths the length of anterior pair. The
portion of the rostral seen from above is as long as the suture between
the internasals and the prefrontals; latter considerably. higher than
internasals. Frontal longer than its distance from the tip of the snout,
as long as parietals. Scales in 17 rows. Ventrals slightly keeled on the
sides, 155 or 165; anal entire; subcaudals 45. Upper surfaces greyish
s
370 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
brown, the borders of the scales darker; héad with the ordinary sym-
metrical dark markings; the inner border of the seventh longitudinal
series of scales, counted on each side from the gastrosteges, darker, thus
forming two fine vertebral lines separated from each other by three rows
of scales; belly yellowish, each ventral shield with a brown spot near
the lateral edge, these spots more or less confluent into a dark streak,
separated from the dorsal brown colour by a pure yellowish streak of
equal width; in one of the two specimens the ventrals become gradually
entirely brown towards the posterior part of the body, except the lateral
outer streak, which remains pure yellowish. Head and body 303 centim.;
tail 58 millim.
14. DENDROPHIS PUNCTULATUS (Gray).
15. CHRYSOPELEA RHODOPLEURON (Reinw.).
: ATRACHIA.
16. Rana Parva, Less,
V.—On the ConroptERovs Insrots collected by Mz. H. 0. Forses in the
Timor-laut Islands. By Cuas. O. WATERHOUSE, F.Z.S.
(From Proce. Zool. Soc. London, April 1884, p. 218, Pl. XVI.
The number of species of Coleoptera collected by Mr. Forbes in the
Timor-laut Islands is twenty-nine. Of these the following deserve
special notice on account of their geographical distribution :—
Ist. Diapheetes rugosus, 2 new genus and species of Staphylinide, which
Mr. David Sharpe informs me he possesses from Java.
Qnd. Cyphogastra angulicollis (from Larat), a species of Buprestide, only
previously known from Banda. : ; :
8rd. Cyphogastra splendens (from Maru), a new species closely allied to
the preceding. :
4th. Archetypus rugosus, a new species. This genus of Longicorns, of
which there was only one species previously known, occurs in Waigiou,
Dorey, and Aru.
5th. Pelargoderus rugosus. Another new Longicorn closely allied to P.
arouensis. *
6th. Nemophas forbesii. A third new Longicorn nearly allied to N. grayt
from Amboina.
CARABIDZE.
CaTAscopus aManuvs, Chaud.
Two specimens which may perhaps be merely varieties of this species.
They are, however, darker in colour than any in the British-Museum
collection, being of an obscure olive-eeneous, shading into dark purple at
the sides of the elytra.
Hab. Maru.
STAPHYLINIDA.
DiaPHetes, Waterhouse.
General characters of Staphylinus, but with the smaller than is usual in
that genus, Labial palpi robust, with three visible joints; the first and
second short, the apical one very large and cup-shaped. The maxille
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 3871
are very broad, the inner lobe a little longer than broad and densely
covered with hair; the outer lobe produced a little beyond the inner one,
the apex with dense matted hair, with four or five stiff bristles on the
outer side. Basal joint of the maxillary palpi short; the second and third
stout, about twice as long as broad, narrowed at te base: the apical
joint narrower than the preceding, acuminate at the apex. Tbe labrum
about twice as long as broad, membranous, the middle of the front
margin very deeply incised, fringed with stiff hair, and with some long
stiff bristles arising from behind the margin. The anterior angles of the
thorax are very much directed downwards and are rather obtuse, and are
not visible when viewing the insect from above, in which position tho
thorax has a nearly circular outline. The under reflexed shining margins
parallel as far as the front angles. Intermediate coxe slightly separated.
‘Tarsi rather slender.
oo aa rnugosus, Waterhouse. PP. Z. §. loc. sup. cit. Pl. XVI.
ig. L.
Nearly black: sparingly clothed with pubescence, which is chiefly
brown, but on the shoulders of the elytra, the basal segment of the
abdomen, and the margin of the penultimate segment, and on the tibie is
golden. Head, thorax, and elytra densely and very strongly punctured,
the punctures on the disk of the thorax having a tendency to run
together longitudinally. The punctuation of the abdomen is much less
strong and less close. Head a little broader than long, about two thirds
the width of the thorax; the cheek behind each eye is much less than the
length of the eye, the posterior angle rounded. Thorax rounded at the
sides and behind ; in the middle of the base there is a short smooth spot.
Elytra as long as the thorax, but distinctly broader, with an indication
of a sutural stria. Legs pubescent, the middle tibie beset with small
blackish spines on the outer side. Length 6 lines.
Hab. Larat.
PASSALIDZ.
LEPTAULAX TIMORIENSIS, Perch.
The specimens in the British Musenm Collection are from India,
Philippine Is., Java, Amboina, Celebes, &c.
Hab. Larat.
DyNASTIDE.
OrycTEs RHINOCEROS, Linn.
Found in all the neighbouring islands.
fab. Maru.
Horonotus DEILoPHts, Sharp.
This species was described from the Philippine Islands, The speci-
mens found by Mr. Forbes are small males, but do not differ materially
from the Philippine examples.
Hab. Maru and Larat.
BUPRESTIDE.
CYPHOGASTRA ANGULICOLLIS, Deyr.
This species was described from Banda. The specimen before me from
Larat agrees well with examples from Banda, but the copper colour on
the suture of the elytia does not extend quite to the scutellum.
CYPHOGASTRA SPLENDENS, Watcrhouse. P. Z. 8. loc. sup. cit. Pl. XVI.
Fig. 2.
Very close to C. angulicollis, and of the came form, but with a different
372 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
distribution of colour. The thorax is bright coppery, with more or less
golden green on the disk. The elytra have the dorsal region very dark
steel-blue (appearing almost black); this blue colour making an elongate
triangular patch (common to both elytra), broadest at the base, and
narrowing posteriorly terminates at about one-third from the apex; next
there is on each clytron a broad oblique coppery red stripe (margined on
its inner side by golden green), commencing on the shoulder, extending
to near the apex (where it touches the suture), but then turned suddenly
to the lateral margin of the elytron; the side of the elytron (frem below
the shoulder to where it meets the turn of the coppery stripe) is dark
blue: the extreme apex is blue black. Length 172 lines. °
Hab. Maru.
ELATERIDE.
ADELOCERA crncTa, Candéze.
The specimen before me agrees well with the description given (C. R.
Soc. Ent. Belg. 1878, p. lii) of tais species from Sumatra. The allied
species has a wide ranze.
Hab, Maru,
BOstTRICHIDE.
BostRicHUs QUALIS, Waterhouse. P. Z. 8. loc. sup. cit. Pl. XVI.
Fig. 3.
Elongate, parallel, convex, shining; black, with the elytra and legs
obscure pitchy, antcnne paler. Head densely and finely granular; the
epistoma less opaque, closely and finely punctured. Thorax with the
basal half parallel, very convex; the front half obliquely narrowed
anteriorly, sloping down, with six teeth on each margin, two anterior pair
slightly porrect, the space between them emarginate. The surface pos-
teriorly 1s marked with moderately large, deep punctures, which are
irregularly placed, the intervals irregularly and extremely finely and
rather sparingly punctured ; all the front part is asperate. The posterior
angles very slightly conically produced and diverging. Elytra of the
same width a3 the thorax, scarcely broader posteriorly, very abruptly
deflexed at the apex; deeply and strongly punctured, the punctures
rather close together, placed irregularly near the suture, but having
towards the sides a tendency to form lines; the interspaces smooth and
shining, less than the diameter of the punctures (except here and there in
the longitudinal direction, when the intervals are equal to the diameter
of the punctures) ; at rather remote intervals very minute punctures may
be scen. At the upper part of the posterior declivity, on each elytron,
are two short, scarcely noticeable cost; the extreme apex is slightly
reflexed, dull. The first joint of the club of the antennez is a little longer
than broad, the second as long as broad, the third elongate-ovate. The
anterior angles of the metasternum, and the metasternal epipleura are
densely and very finely granular. The abdomen is closely and fine punc-
tured, and very delicately pubescent. The tarsi are not very long as
compared with some of the species of this genus. Length 5 lines.
Hab. Maru.
TENEBRIONIDZ.
OPATRUM, sp.
A species closely resembling the African O. micans, Germ., and perhaps
identical and introduced.
Hab, Maru.
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 373
BRADYMERUS, sp.
A species of this difficult genus, which I am unable to determine,
Hab. Maru.
ToxICUM GAZELLA, Fabr.
The examples agree well with specimens of this species in the British
Museum from Malacca.
Hab. Maru.
ToOXICUM QUADRICORNE, Fabr.
The specimcns in the British Museum are from Penang, Java,
Philippine Is., and Borneo.
Hab. Maru.
AMARYGMUS, Sp.
A single species of this very difficult genus, which I cannot determine.
Hab. Maru.
Peprris susopacus, Waterhouse. P. Z. 8. loc. sup. cit.
Closely allied to P. (Nyctobates) sulciger, Boisd., but Iess shining
Entirely black; the head much more closely and rather more strongly
punctured than in P. suleiger, especially on the vertex. Thorax slightly
shining only in the middle: the impression on cach side of the middle
much less marked than in P. sulciger, the punctuation more distinct.
Elytra somewhat dull; the striz nearest to the suture very lightly im-
pressed (except.at the extreme apex); the lateral ones deeper, but much
less so than in P. sulciger ; the first three interstices flat, the lateral ones
very slightly arched, much less than in P. sulcéger.
Length 16 lines.
Hab. Maru.
CURCULIONID&E.
ORTHORRHINUS L&TUS, Saund. & Jekel.
The type of this species is from New Hebrides.
Hab. Maru.
SPHENOIHORUS OBSCURUS, Boisd.
A widely distributed species.
Hab. Larat.
PRIONIDE.
ARCHETYPUS CASTANEUS, Waterhouse. P. Z. 8. loc. sup. cit. Pl. XVI.
Fig. 4.
Dark chestnut-brown, the head and mandibles inclined to black; the
legs and abdomen pitchy yellow. Mandibles nearly as long as the head,
very robust, convex, strongly punctured; on the inner side, and the
cpistoma clothed with fulvous hair. Head shining above, dull at the
sides, with a longitudinal impressed lino in the middle; with some
strong punctures above, rugose at the sides. Thorax wider than the
head; as its broadest part (just before the anterior angles) a little more
than twice as broad as long, narrowed posteriorly, shining; the disk flat,
moderately strongly but not closely punctured, with a smooth spot in the
middle; the sides sloping down; the shining surface of the disk
continued down the side in a triangular shape to near the margin; the
rest of the side impressed, dull and densely punctured. Scutellum
smooth. Elytra at the base a little broader than the base of the thorax,
gradually widened posteriorly for two-thirds their length, and then again
narrowed, the apex broad and obtusely rounded; shining, strongly and
moderately closely punctured, except near the scutellum, where the
punctuation is very delicate, Each elytron has a fine, slightly oblique
raised line about the middle, commencing within the shoulder and not
374 il NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
extending to the apex. Submentum very closely and very coarsely
rugose.
Length 163 lines.
Hab, Maru.
CERAMBYCIDZ.
PACcHYDISSUS HOLOSERICEUS, Fabr.
Occurs in many of the neighbouring islands.
Hab. Maru.
DIATOMOCEPHALA BACHYMERUM, Pascoe.
The specimens of this species in the British Museum are from Celebes
and Waigiou.
Hab. Larat.
LaMIIpz.
TMESISTERNUS GLAUCUS, Pascoe ?
T am not sure of the identity of Mr. Forbes’s specimen with the species
described by Mr. Pascoe. It has more yellow colour on the abdomen.
Hab, Maru.
PELARGODERUS .RUGOSUS, Waterhouse. P. Z. 8. loc. sup. cit.
Nearly black; head coarsely rugosc, with sandy yellow rubescence
yound and beneath the eyes. Basal joint of the antennez very rugose,
not much narrowed at its base. Thorax rvgose, rather dull, with
scarcely any trace of lateral spine, sparingly pubescent: the pubescence
forming a narrow sandy line on each side of the middle. Elytra with
the basal half rather strongly punctured, those at the base generally
marked by a shining granule; the posterior half is more closely and
more rugosely punctured. ‘lhe basal half and ihe sides are rather
closely marked with irregular small spots of sandy pubescence, but at
about one quarter from the base there is near the suture an oblique bare
patch. A little behind the middle there is a 1ather large oblique bare
patch, which extends from the side to the suture ; and behind this there
is a patch of pale sandy pubescence, not quite touching the side, but
reaching the suture and the apex. The apex of each elytron is obliquely
‘truncate, the outer angle obtuse.
Lergth 18 lines.
Hab, Larat.
This species is very close to P. arouensis, Th., but is more robust, much
more rugoscly sculptured on the head and thorax ; and the basal joint of
the antenna is less narrowed at the base and more rugose.
NEmMorHaAS FoRBESI, Waterhouse. P. Z. S. loc. sup. cit. Pl. XVI.
Fig. 5.
Black, with the elytra bright steel-blue; the thorax entireiy clothed
with sandy yellow pile; the elytra with numerous more or less inter-
rupted bands of reddish ochreous pubescence.
Length 17-20 lines.
This species is close to M. grayii, Pascoe, but has no trace of blue
colour in the head and antenne. ‘The thorax is entirely covered with the
yellow pile, with no black at the base. The bands of the elytra are
more numerous, generally about seven, and these are more irregular.
And lastly, the sterna, epimera, and the basal segments of the abdomen
are more or less clothed with reddish pubescence. :
Hab. Maru and Larat.
BatTocEra RuBvS, Fabr., var. ?
The specimen from Larat is a little larger than B. rubus usually is,
and has the scutellum clothed with fulvous instead of white pubescence.
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 375
Corrors Fusca, Oliv. ?
A single specimen from Maru which I cannot separate from tho
African C'. fusca and which is therefore doubtless introduced.
SYMPHYLETES PEDICORNIS, Fabr.
An Australian species introduced.
Hab. Maru.
PRAONETHA PLEURICAUSTA, Pascoe.
I can see no difference between the specimen brought by Mr. Forbes
and that described by Mr. Pascoe from Port Albany, N. Australia.
Hab, Maru.
CHRYSOMELIDZE.
PHYLLOCHARIS CYANIPES, Fabr.
This species occurs in Australia, New Guinea, Buru, &e.
Hab. Maru.
V.— Ox the LEPIDOPTERA collected by Mr. H. O. Forses in the Dslands of
Timor-laut. By Artuur G. BuTuer F.LS., F.ZS., &e.
(From Proc. Zool. Soc. London, June 1883, Pl. XXXVIIL.)
Twenty-three species of Lepidoptera were obtained by Mr. Forbes in his
expedition to Timor-laut; one of these, however, is apparently a Micro-
Lepidopteron, so much rubbed and broken as to be unrecogisable ; all
the Moths, in fact, are in very poor condition, forming a marked contrast
in this respect to the Butterflies, which are well preserved.
The following Table will give an idea of the geographical relations of
the named species in this collection :—
Species of Timor-laut, Nearest allied species. Ty tie bevel of
Chanapa sacerdos, Chanapa lewinii. North Australia.
Calliplcea visenda. Calliploea hyems. Timor.
Salatura laratensis. Salatura artenice, Java.
Hypolimnas forbesii Hypolimnas polymena. Aru.
Precis expansa, Precis timorensis. Timor,
Catochrysops patala. Catochrysops patala. Massuri.
Lampides clianus, Lampides eelianus, East India.
Delias timorensis. Delias timorensis. Timor.
‘Terias maroensis, Terias excavata. Kangra,
Terias laratensis. Terias lifuana, Lifu.
Appias albina., Appias albina. Amboina.
Appias clementina. Appias clementina, Amboina.
Belenois consanguis. Belenois pitys. Timor.
Papilio aberrany, Papilio liris, Timor. ;
Papilio inopinatus. Papilio adrastus, Banda, New Guinea.
Diludia casuarive ? Diludia casuarine. Sydney.
Ercheia dubia. Ercheia dubia. Rockhampton.
Lagoptera honesta, Lagoptera honesta. East Indies,
Lyssidia goldiei. Lyssidia goldiei. New Guinea,
Pinacia molybdeenalis. Pinacia molybdenalis, Batavia.
Hymenia fascialis. Hymeuia fascialis. Japan.
376 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
From the sbove, however, we may deduct the wide-ranging species
Catochrysops patala, Lampides celianus, Lagoptera honesta, and Hymenia
fascialis, which leaves us 5 Timor types, 3 Australian, 2 Amboina, 2 New
Guinea, 1 Aru, 1 Lifu, 2 Javan, 1 Indian. ‘I'he last of these, however, is
equally characteristic of the Malayan fauna, as also is that from Poly-
nesia; these two forms, therefore, may be regarded as doubtful, which
will leave the relative proportions of the species as fo!lows :—Indo-
Malayan 2, Austro-Malayan 10, Australian 8. The only surprising
fuct in this distribution is the preponderance of Timor over Aru or
New-Guinea forms, the species characteristic of that island being only
equalled by those from Aru, New-Guinea and Amboina combined. .
RHOPALOCERA.
NYMPHALIDZ.
EUPL@INe.
1. Cuanapa sacERDos, Butler; Joc. sup. cit. Pl. XX XVIII. Fig. 7.
Nearly allied to C. lewinti of Australia; the wings much blacker,
the primaries of the male velvet-black, the white spots on the primaries
decidedly larger, the sericeous brand on the male of twice the length:
secondaries with the discal series of white spots more regular, nearer
to outer margin, and not notched as in C. lewinii; the submarginal
spots clearer and arranged more regularly. Expanse of wings, $78 mm.,
9 71 mm.
Larat.
2. CALLIPLG@A VISENDA, Butler; lo2. sup. cit. Pl. XX XVIII. Fig. 1.
Allied to C. hyems (arisbe, Fld.) from Timor, but much darker; the
primaries are of the male velvet-black ; the white spots on the primaries
larger, especially the two last in the series, the last of all being the
largest spot in the series; submarginal dots wanting on the upper surface
of primaries, but present on the secondaries, which are not bordered
with pearl-white but with greyish brown; the discal spots forming a
sinuous white band well separated from the margin, somewhat as in the
preceding species; the usual whitish costa and crexm-coloured sexual
patch. Expanse of wings, 64 mm.
Maru Island.
This is one of the prettiest species in the genus, and is doubtless a
copy of the preceding species. ;
3. SALATURA LARATENSIS, Butler; Joc. sup. cit. Pl. XX XVIII. Fig. 5.
Allied to S. artenice, Cramer of Java; but the subapical white fascia
decidedly broader; no central white markings on the secondaries; the.
veins on the under surface of these wings less distinctly bordered with
white. Expanse of wings 70-74.
Larat.
NyMPHALINZ.
4, Hypotmmnas ForBEsI, Butler; loc. sup. cit. Pl. XX XVIII. Fig. 4.
Q. Allied to H. polymena from Aru: velvet-black shot with purple;
primaries with the pattern of H. relleda 9, but darker, and with all the
‘white spots of double the size; the secondaries differ from H. polymena
in having a series of hastate brown dashes along the internervular folds
from just beyond the middle of the broad cream-coloured external area,
,
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 377
through the centre of which a series of white spots can be dimly seen.
Expanso of wings 80 mm.
Larat.
This is one of the most beautiful species in the genus; it bears a vague
resemblance to H. albula of Timor, which, however, belongs to the
H, anomala group.
5, Precis Expansa, Butler.
6. Allied to P. timorensis of Wallace, from which, however, it differs
in its clearer fulvous colouring above, the blackish colouring of the external
area being confined to the apex, the paler coloration of the under surface,
its broader and less produced primaries, and the less pronounced caudal
angle to the secondaries. Wings above tawny, with black markings and
bivish-centred ocelli, as in P. erigone of Java (Cramer, Pap. Exot. i. pl.
62. E, F), but the white markings of that species replaced by a slightly
paler tint of tawny than the ground colour; under surface as in P. erigone.
Expanse of wiugs 52-54 mm.
Larat.
Why the P. erigone group has been referred to Junonia and the
searcely differing P. natalica to Precis it would, I think, be hard to
explain. 1’. antigone and J’. natalica seem very closely allied species.
LYCENIDE.
6. CaTOCHRYSOPS PATALA.
Lyceena patala, Kollar, Hiigel’s Kaschmir, iv. 2, p. 419 (1848).
g. Maru Island.
Does not differ from Indian spec:mens excepting in the slightly whiter
tiut of the under surface.
7. LAMPIDES ZLIANUS.
Hesperia elianus, Fabricius, Ent. Syst. iii. 1, p. 260. n. 79 (1793)
Larat.
Does not differ from Indian specimens excepting in its slightly infcrior
expanse of wings; in colouring and pattern it perfectly agrees.
PaPpILIONIDa.
PIERINE.
8. Drtias TIMORENSIS, Boisduval; loc. sup. cit. Pl. XX XVIII. Fig. 6.
Pieris timorensis, Boisduval, Sp. Gén. Lép. i. p. 459. n. €0 (1836).
Larat.
Most nearly allied to D. vishnu of Moore from Java (with which species
it was associated by Wallace). It differs in its superior size, the
narrower black area of the upper surface, the deeply sinuated inner edge
of the black area on the primaries, the apical series of spots much
smaller, the fifth, as Boisduval says, “ trés petite et ponctiforme,” whereas
in D. vishnu this is the case with a sixth spot not present in D. timorensis :
primaries below with the basal pale area cuneiform (not angular), pure
lemon-yeilow within and just below the cell, otherwise pearl-white (“la
base gris-blanchdtre saupoudrée de jaune pur,” Boisd.): secondaries with
only the basi-abdominal third* brilliant golden yellow; suffused at
* The carelessness of Boisduval’s description at this point probably misled
Wallace; he says:—“La moitié antérieure d’un beau jaune de chrome,” On
the other hand, the yellow of D. cishnu has a decidedly dull creamy appear-
ance.
378 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
its inferior extremity with bright orange; the inncr edge of this arca
straight, not angulated as in D. vishnu; the submarginal red lunules
narrower, of a more carmine tint, the terminal one not expanded, further
from the outer margin, yet not touching the yellow area: there arc in
fact, as Boisduval says, “sept lunules,”. and not six lunules and two
spots as in D, vishn.
9. TrRtas MAROENSIS, Butler; loz. sup. cit. Pl. XX XVIII. Tig. 2.
Q. Nearly allied to 7. excavata of Moore, from India, but of a decidedly
deeper yellow (bright sulphur) than the female of that species: the inner
edge of the external border decidedly arched, convex, not concave, towards
the costa, the -sinuation upon the median interspaces not so deep and
more oblique (as in 7. sari); the discal markings on the under surface of
secondaries, less defined and arranged in a much less irregular series.
Expanse of wings 42 mm.
Maru Island.
10. Tertas LARATENSIS, Butler ; loc. sup. cit. Pl. XXXVIILI. Fig. 3.
&. Nearly allied to YZ. lifuana; above most like my “ Japancso
‘rias,” fig. 10 (Trans. Ent. Soc. 1880, pl. vi.), but with Jess-pointed
primaries and narrower apical border; it, however, belongs to the Z.~
esiope group, the primaries below being marked with a curved series of
three subapical rel-brown spots; other markings much as usual, all well
defined ; the discal series of secondaries forming a nearly straight lino
between the first subcostal and second median branches. Expanse of
wings 39 mm.
Larat.
11. ‘APPIAS ALBINA.
Pieris albina, Boisduval, Sp. Gén. Lép. i. p. 480, n. 62 (1836).
¢. Maru Island.
A small example; the species was originally described as from
Amboina.
12. APPIAS CLEMENTINA, Feld.
Pieris clementina, Felder, Sitzungsb. Ak. Wiss. Wicn, math.-nat. Cl. x].
p. 448 (1860); Reise der Nov., Lep. i‘. p. 162, n. 133, pl. 25. Fig. 6
(L867).
g. Maru Island.
Originally described as from Amboina.
13. BELENOIS CoNSANGUIS, Butler, loc. sup. cit.
Nearly allied to B. pitys from Timor, but a little smaller; the external
border of primaries with more oblique inner edge, much broader towards
the costa and without any trace of a subapical white spot: primaries
below white, suffused with sulphur-yellow at the bare only; external
area black internally, but of a reddish clay-colour towards apex; its
inner edge much less irregular than in B. pitys, being sinuated only on
the lower radial and lower (or first) median interspaces: secondaries
saffron-yellow, the external border with purplish-black internal, and
reddish clay-coloured external half. Expanse of wings 48 mm.
Larat. ;
PAPILIONINE.
14, Papruio ABERRANS, Butler, loc. sup. cit.
Pattern and form of Papilio lirts of Timor, which it greatly resembles
on the upper surface, but the pale arca on the primaries is whiter, and
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 379
the submarginal spots on the secondaries sandy brown, instead of duli
ved; the sides of the abdomen, front of head, anus, and lateral pectoral
strips are ochreous instead of deep rose-red, and the submarginal spots
on the under surface of the secondaries are ochreous buff instead of rose-
red. Expanse of wings 108 mm
$ Q. Larat.
‘there were several examples of this species in Mr. Forbes’s collection,
clearly showing that the differences of coloration are constant.
15, PAPILIo INOPINATUS, Butler, loc. sup. cit.
Allied to P. adrastus of Felder, from Ceram and N. Guinea; but the
male with a broad oblique subapical white belt, which does not quite
reach the outer margin and is cut by the black nervures; the fascia on
the secondaries narrower, formed more nearly as in the Australian
P. cegeus, with zigzag outer edge, but of more uniform width throughout
than in that species, and of a sordid cream-colour; a scarlet spot near
the anal angle, well separated from the central fascia. The female differs
in the whiter and oblique belt across the primarics, the inner edge of
which is not so deeply zigzag, and therefore is rot angulated as in the
allied specics, and the outer half towards apex suffused with grey so as
greatly to reduce its width; secondaries with no trace of the central
white patch, the submarginal scarlet spot large, oblong, and notched in
front. Expanse of wings, ¢ 144mm., ¢ 153 mm.
é var. Wings shorter; the inner edge of the white band of primaries
impinged upon by the discoidal cell, which also encloses a spot of tho
same colour as the band; the band of the secondaries bioader, cutting
across the end of the cell. Expanse of wings 132 mm.
Maru Island.
HETEROCERA.
SPHINGIDZ.
16. Ditupra casvaRinz& ? Walk.
Macrosila casuarine, Walker, Lep. Het. viii. p. 210, n. 19 (1856).
Larat. Taken in Sagueir (palm-wine) bamboos.
The specimen is so much rubbed that it is impossible to be sure that
it is the same as the Australian species.
CATEPHIID.
17. Ercuera pusra, Butler.
Catephia dubia, Butler, Cist. Ent. i. p. 292 (1874).
Larat. : :
Onc worn example of this Australian species was obtained.
OPHIUSIDE.
18. LAGoprera HONESTA, Hiib.
Thyas honesta, Htitbner, Samml. exot. Schmett. ii. Lep. iv., Noct. iii.
Semigeomcetre v., Meropides A. Festive 1, figs. 1,2 (1805). >
9. Larat.
URANHDE,
19. LyssipIA GOLDIEI, Druce.
Lyssidia goldiei, Druce, P. Z. 8. 1882, p. 781.
» Larat.
380 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Hypanipm.
20. PINACIA MOLYBDENALIS, Hiib.
Pinacia molybdenalis, Wiibner. Samml. exot. Schmett., Zutr. p. 18,
n. 218, figs. 435, 486.
Larat.
Previously known from Java and Borneo.
ASOPIIDE.
21. HyMENIA FAECIALIS, Cram. .
Phalena-Pyralis fascialis, Cramer, Pap. Exot. iv. pl. 398. O (1782).
Larat.
A fragment of this wide-ranging species was obtaived.
Botipipz.
22. Borys, sp.
A broken example of a species allied to B. gastralis, which it resembles
in size and coloration; the pattern, however, agrees better with B.
rosinalis,
Ritabel, Larat.
The specimen is not sufficiently perfect to name; it is chiefly intercst-
ing for its resemblance ta New-World types.
The only other Lepidopteron is unrecognisable, as previously men-
fioned; the veining of the wings reminds one of rome Micro-Lepi-
dopteron.
VII.— On the Collecticn of HyMENoPTERA and Diptera from the Timor-laut
Islands, formed by Mn. H. O. Forzes. By W. F. Kirpy, Assistant in
the Zoological Department, British Museum.
(rom the Proc. Zool. Soc. London, May, 1883, p. 348 et seqq.)
‘The small collection before me, consisting of only five species of
Ilymenoptera (all new) aud three of Diptera, was formed in two of the
rmaller islands of the 'Timor-laut group, viz. Larat and Maru. I will now
proceed to describe the Hymenoptera and to notice the Diptera, merely
remarking that they exhibit strong affinities to those of the surrounding
groups of islands, as would naturally be anticipated beforehand. The
specimens are numbcred; and I have noted these numbers throughout.
HYMENOPTERA ACULEATA.
ATID.
CrocIsaA CHRULEIFRONS, Kirby., loc. cit.
Long. corp. 5 lin.
Female. Black, face and orbits (very broadly above) blue; prothorax
with a short stripe behind on each side above, and a very large spot on
the sides; mesothorax with seven blue spots—two small ones on the front
border, adjoining those on the prothorax, a longitudinal one between,
then two slightly oval ones near the middle, and a large irregular spot
behind on each side, projecting a branch forward within the very large
black tegule; scuttellum black, strongly excavated in the middle:
abdomen with the first segment blue, a narrow longitudinal line, the
greater part of the hind border, aud a long transverse spot contiguous to
IN TIMOR-LAUT. 381
it black, the remaining segments of the abdomen are black, with a wide
blue stripe sloping slightly upwards on each side; legs black, all the
tibize with a wide blue stripe on the outside ; wings dark purplish brown.
(2128, Maru.)
Allied to C. nitidula, Fabr., a species common in Amboina, Australia,
&c., but apparently distinct.
XyLocopa ForBEsU, Kirby, loc. cit.
Long. corp. 10 lin.
Male, Thickly clothed above with olive-green pubescence, as in the
male of X. estwans, Linn., or of X. bryorum, Fabr.; antenne black above
and fulvous beneath, the hairs on the middle of the under surface of the
body, especially towards the tip, those on the lower part of the face, and
the very long hairs on the tarsi shading into fulvo-ferruginous: wings -
brownish hyaline, with a slight violet shade, and marked on all the cells
along the hind margin with numerous black dots, as in the allied specics :
proboscis black, probably reddish within and at the base when extended.
(1988, Larat.)
female. Black, thickly clothed with black hairs, and very thickly and
finely punctured, except on the middle of the mesothorax, which is
smooth and shining, and has a short longitudinal furrow in front; head
clothed with bright yellow pubescence, that on the face thinner and
paler; wings with a bright green iridescence, purplish along the veins
towards the base; apical half of the antennze pale beneath; proboscis
mostly reddish; under surface of body thickly punctured, but with
some bare spaces along the middle line. (1958, Larat; 2019, Maru.)
Closely allied to X. coronata, Smith, from Kaioa; but in the female of
that species (which doubtless has a male similar to that of X. forbesiz) the
wings have a bright violet instead of a green iridescence.
VESPIDE.
PoLisTES EXTRANEUS, Kirby, loc. cit.
Long. corp. 5 lin.
Female. Head and thorax bright chestnut, clypeus pentagonal, bright
yellow; mandibles with a yellow mark on each side: antenne dull
yellow; the scape, second joint, and upper part of the third reddish;
prothorax narrowly edged with yellow in front and behind: scutellum
with a transverse yellow line; metathorax edged with yellow on the
sides; abdomen with the first joint yellow, with a broad red stripe,
bordered behind with black, extending for two-thirds of its length above,
second and third segments blackish brown, the third bordered with
yellow behind, the fourth yellow bordered with blackish brown in front
and behind, and the fifth and sixth dull reddish; wings brownish
hyaline, with reddish-brown nervures, yellow stigma, and brown borders.
(2025, Maru.)
Closely allied to P. stigma, Fabr. from India, Ceram, and Celebes.
ScoLimpz.
DIELIS LARATENSIS, Kirby, loc. cit.
Long. corp. 103 lin.
Female. Black ; sides of thorax and abdomen, and legs clothed with
black hair; face black; clypeus very finely punctured above, and more
coarsely on its lower edge, and bordered at the sides and below with
yellow pubescence; mandibles pitchy; thorax and abdomen finely
punctured, much more densely than elsewhere on the sides of the abdo-
26
382 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
men and on the four terminal segments, both above and below: thorax
and abdomen with strong stecl-blue reflexions, especially on the basal
DIELIS LARATENSIS. (With the permission of the council of tho
Zoological Society.)
half of the abdomen above; wings deep violet-brown, second recurrent
nervure incomplete, diverging from the first at the base and on the left
wing ; the nervule connecting the recurrent nervures above the middle
is also obsolete. (1957, Larat.)
Much resembles the Australian Z'rielis anthracina, Burm., in appear-
ance.
° CHRYSIDIDR.
CHRYSIS MELANOPS, Kirby, loc. sup. cit.
Long. corp. 5 lin.
Male. Bright green, with a coppery reflection on the head and thorax
(very bright coppery red wherever abraded); punctures large, close
together, but not confluent; ocelli black, the space between and immedi-
ately around also blackish; apex’ of abdomen (and summit, when viewed
sideways) with a strong blue reflection; under surface of antenne, the
greater part of the hind legs, and the tips and under surface of the
middle tibize and middle tarsi brown; abdomen sexdentate, with equal
and rather pointed teeth of moderate size; wings brown. (2049,
Maru.)
Probably allied to C. parallela, Brullé, from Timor; but that species
is varied with blue on the head and thorax, instead of with copper.
DIPTERA.
The only Diptera in the collection were Plecia fulvicollis, Wied., and
Laphria gloriosa, Walk., both of which are common species in the Eastern
Archipelago, and a Tabanus, possibly new, but in too bad condition to
describe.
NS
VIII.—List of the Crustacea collected in the Timor-laut Islands by
Mr. H. O. Forses. Determined by E. J. Mrgrs, F.Z.8.
Pilumnus vespertilio, Fabr. ad. 9.
Neptunus pelagicus, Linn.
Thalamita crenata, Riippell, ad. 9,
IN TIMOR-LAUT.
383
Ocypoda ceratophthalma, Pallas, ad. ¢.
Gelasmius vocans, Linn. ad. ¢.
95 tetragonon, Herbst, ad.
45 annulipes, M. Edw. ad. 3.
Macrophthalmus pacificus, Dana, var.
Grapsus strigosus, Heibst, ad. ¢.
Pachygrapsus oceanicus, var.
Cardisoma carnifex, Herbst, a
Myctiris longicarpus, Latr., ad. %.
Ccenobita rugosa, M. Edwards, ad. %.
Stenopus hispidus, Olivier, ad.
Tseudosquilla ciliata, Fabr. ad.
eens Stimpson.
IX.— Vocabulary of Words used in the Ké Islands and in Ritabel, Larat,
Timor-laut Islands.
Compiled by the AuTHor.
Vocabulary. Ké Islands, Timor-laut (Larat).
Anchor Vatu.
Anchor, cord Warat.
Anklets .. 33 eis Riti.
Ant #3 we Kirkim
Arm o ae Arumud Vetit,wholearm,Alaad.
Arn, fore .. 4 Tanuvur.
Armlet of shell 7 Sistoh.
Armlet of ivory . 295 i wy Lela,
Ashes we 26 ae . | Keatun ;
Bad 35 a . | Sisian Sian.
Bamboo . | Temar i Temar.
Banana .. ae . | Miiu.. wa Mou.
Bat.. 4 ais : Yabar.
Batatas (sweet potato) 3 is : Ena.
Bathe ae . | Suruk 4 Titluruita; Faliru.
Beads : a , Marumut,
Bed . | Rin .. : Taita.
Belly .. | Eboon s Evoon.
Belt, of sheath of Borassus : he ata Calco gnaman,
Belt, woman’s a i . Calco.
Beautiful (view) .. .. | Labuang
Bird 2 Manoot
Black .. | Metmétan Ngtoan ; akuda.
Blood .. | Lara.. Lara.
Blood-vessel de o Urat-vali.
Blue Pe .. | Timtum Niflali.
Boat és Fe .. | Habo ae Ra; hor.
Body * .. | Uling aa
Bone .. | Lurin a Lorin.
Bow .. | Temar
Box .. | Sungoh ie
Boy .. | Koot-Koot ... Kosoku.
Breast, male and female .. . | Bubur: Scos Bubu: Susu.
Bring EP zi ae zi aie of Mleba.
Butterfly Pe ‘i ais a -Aikuan.
Cage i Rahankau.
Calabash, for eating out of Phenga.
A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Vocabulary,
Ké Islands.
Timor-laut (Larat).
Chain, girdle worn by women
» cord part of it
» button for fastening
Chalk ae a
Child, male; female
Chief (of the people)
Chia ne ee
Chopper ..
Clouds
Coat j
oe
Cocoa-nut ; young Q); old (2) *
Cold
Comb ia .
» decorated ..
Come 6 us a8
Cradle
Dance
Dance song de
Daughter .. Pr a
Day oe ag oe
Doll oh oe -
Ear a
Earrings (of
gold; earrings
Earth si és
Eclipse ie aie
Eggs a cs .
Evening .. af aS
Exchange .. ae
Eye ” ae BS
Eyebrows .. oe ne
Face
Far te
Father... ise
Fathom
Feather
Female ie ee
Finished .. ce és
Fire za te a8
Fish (1), to fish (2)
Flesh ie oe ae
Flower. .
Fly. . .
Foot
Forget . .
Fowl
Friend*
Fruit . ;
Give ee ne
of
Yanad : ‘
Guir -
Gnoor,
Tabrinin
Modo
Wel-wel
Yanad vat vat
Hamar
Dooad
Fid ..
Aroon
Taian :
Tetivaok
Matadroon i
Mahad
Yamam
Ref ..
Manvoon
Hin .. ie
Raboor :
Oobloofang :
Manoot es
Ningyan
Booal
Eboor.
Erit.
Erit-matan.
Yafoor.
Kosoku-vata ; yanad.
Tamatmela.
Demid.
Mutan.
Ravit.
Gnoor ; gnoor-vua (1);
gnoor-ka (2).
Ridiria.
Ooal.
Ooal lela,
Siwela.
Tabar; amtabar,
Tiikelele.
Yana ma vata.
Dooadilah.
Taran,
Inooan.
Arood.
Lor-lora; welwelak (of
Hal:core tooth).
Elanoo.
Timor; mololan.
Mame; Tufnan.
Karasok faria.
Mata-téloor.
Lerivava.
Heloo.
Mata.
Mata-toovin.
Wahad.
Roro.
Yaman.
Eréfa.
Vata.
Roki dok.
Yafo..
Woowoot (1), Ian (1), ’
dawa woot (2).
Wawoo.
Ofuoon.
Lang.
Kablufan.
Manoot.
Kidang.
Malabokoo-ria,
* In Yamgena (mainland) friend is Kes.
Kantia lo.
“Friend, 1 am going,”—‘“ Kes
IN
TIMOR-LAUT.
885
Vocabulary
Keé Islands,
Timor-laut (Lurat).
Go.. 7 i
Gold 3 ne
Good 7
Great
Gum “if
Hair v4 oe
Half a it
Hand :
Hard aa
Harpoon
Head
Hear
Heel
Here
Honey
Hams (of house)
Hot
House
How many
Husband ..
Indian corn
Iron
Island
Knee é
Knife (1) sheath @)
Know don’t ‘
Kris
Large
Leat
Leg
Lightning...
Little
Loincloth ..
Long
Lorie
Louse
Male a8
Man or a6
Man, young F
y» married
Manioc
Many +
Marry
Mat
Monkey
Moon
Morning
Mosquito ..
Mother
Mouth
Mail
oe
Elbooa 5
Mas .. .
Bock
Mooroot
Limad
Oosin
Ooi |.
Mdenar
Odani
Wenan
Naneh = : 4
Rahan
Hongakbe .. oa
Brinran
Tman i
Nuhoo yanet
Ead toor
Gnib
Roan | va
E’ing (man's own
eh’ cam soma st
Riot...
Bloot
Oot -
Tomata
Abed
Tafan
Dar ..
Buoo
Ooan
Emimoos
Nen ..
Guen Be
Kvukud ie
Mas.
Lolin.
Dawon.
Natal.
Wuoot.
Tera.
Limad tanan.
Nangyebat.
Tear.
Oolood-watool.
Ratawoo.
Haworokia.
| Kora.
Nanganeh.
Rahan.
Efira.
Hawan.
Sclaroo.
Toorad.
Enké, akooda.
Wolemgka.
Sariba.
Dawon.
Eid.
Fitik.
bine and white,
Pa maran.
a, ue, Hemen
Ro-ok antoan.
white, Hemen
| buru.
Blawat.
Leloor.
Trana.
Tomata.
Ververun.
Etrana.
Tooal.
Leher.
Sefa.
Voolan.
Ververra.
Tili.
Soomar.
386
A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Vocabulary.
Keé Islands.
Timor-laut (Larat)
Nail, finger
Navel
Neck a
Needle... 3% ee
Night 2 aig
No, simple negative
No, refusal of @ anything ..
North -
Rain (1); it rains (2)
Rat..
Rattan
Red
Remember. @;
2
Resin P
Reticulum (of palin)
Rice ye
River
Road (path)
Root ‘
Sagueir (palm wine) é
3 Bamboo for holding
Sand ; :
Say ; what do you say? ae
Sea.. : :
See.. ie’
Sell 5
Send Pe
Sew :
Shell .
Shell, gre: it clam (Tridaena)
Shield eh
Silver
Siri (1); basket for siri @)
Skin
Sky
Sleep
Sleeping-mat
Small i ar ws
Smoke
Snake
Son a ts te
Sour ve a oa
South as
Speak
Spear sig se we
Spoon or a a
remember well
Kukud
Boolin
Dedan
Waid
Nai...
Madmar
Niroon
Gno..
Babi
Fler ..
Doét (1)
Karoo
Oo .. .
Voolvooli
Oofang nanglken
Kokat
Hoat
Ood ..
Waar
Tooat
Masin
Gnwoor
Onalaka
Laut
Miik
Oomfed
Mhoar
Ltr
Rubi
Maneran
Ulid ..
Tatoob
Yafmahum i
Rubai
Kahir
Tranan
Tangrihi
Nangah
Fooart.
Relad.
Walafa; wah.
Nafena.
Lera si lola.:
Mormar.
Niroot.
Wookoo.
Bab.
Loolooni.
Elain.
Dobt (1); debt oofiri-
roo (2).
Manhowan.
Oo.
Noovooli.
Ninana (1); masilolin
(2).
Natal.
Nafit.
Wanan.
Noar.
Tooak.
Ravivit.
Sirak.
Gntoor.
Meti; tahat; haletan.
Misilik.
Fedi.
Nigaain ngnoo.
Mahan.
Mahan.
Salawakoon (ong).
Gnelia (short).
Mas ninoor.
Nain (1); looyoo .
Lanit.
Tooba.
Elari bangkoko.
Koko.
Yafuman.
Nifa.
Yana ma, brana
Kabi.
Trana.
Tangrili (guttural).
Boonoot. :
Ooroo.
IN TIMOR-LAUT.
387
Vocabulary. Ké Islands. Timor-laut (Larat).
Star Se Nar .. Narra.
Suckle i < Toi masoosoo
Sugar-cane Tevoo.
Sun i Lera.
Sweet 4 Kaslooir .. | Minaminat.
‘Tattooing .. .. | Belbela.
Teeth % Nifat; nifu rida.
‘Testicles .. | Kamad.
There (to).. +» | Tatin-heri.
Thatch -. | Rafat.
Thread, thread of which native
sarongs are made Kar . Avat; aloan.
Thumb a Limad keteh.
Thunder Nafdud Dodong.
Tibia, tuberosity of ais i Gnangoi.
‘Ties, made of sugar-palm Fira.
Toe, great F Eid tanan keteh.
Toe, second a); little toe (2) .. Ead tanan frooan (1);
frooan kewaren (2).
Toe-nail oa Eid uoon.
Toe ring ‘ Sitanea.
‘To-day is sh .. | Lervava.
To-morrow Meran ‘ .. | Vera-vera.
Tongue oo ne Eard.
‘Trousers .. sa .. | (@) Kada.
Understand Okai .. ¢ Fanowak.
Very ; very beautiful “6 Roak ; lolin rowk.
Wake Batai
Wash es Burik (?) Wangir.
Wash, hands Tiflaru trame.
Wash, teeth Tonumur.
Water : Webr . Ooér.
Waves (1); ‘large waves (2) Voo-vooat (1) Saksahan (1); lalawa
(2).
Wax a sa is Lilin
Weep , Mroon Fakar.
West ae de Warat mololan.
White Nangear Nangear.
Wife on Hood
Wind Nioot Néet ; lar.
Window sis Yanella.
Wing . ap i . | Haledin Halain.
Wire ae oa ws .. | Bilbal .. | Ververi.
Wish is . | Rangen.. .» | Inan roh.
Woman Vat-vat Vata; mnilat.
Wood Ai .. a Saifa.
Work se a) Tootwafa.
Yellow Toomtoom ..
Numerals :—
1 = esa. 8 = ewaloo. 50 = ootlima.
2 = eroo. 9 = esi. 60 = ootnean.
3 = eteloo. 10 = csapuloo. 70 = ootfitoo.
4 = efat 20 = ootrooa. 80 = ootwaloo.
5 = elima. 30 = eteteloo. 90 = ootsi.
6 = enean. 40 = ootfaat. 100 = ratoo.
7 = efitoo.
PART V.
IN THE ISLAND OF BURU.
CHAPTER I.
FROM KAJELI TO THE LAKE.
From Amboina to Buru—Xajeli—Trade of Kajeli—Birds—River Apu—Wai
Bléi village—Village of Wai Gelan—The Matakau—Forced encampments
—Wai Klaba—A Pomalied mountain—Wasilale—Hospitable reception
—Houses—Musical performance—Pomali signs—Arrive at Laha.
Havine packed up and despatched my Timor-laut collections
to Europe, I left Amboina on the afternoon of the 7th of
November (A remaining behind with our kind hosts) for
Buru, an island a short distance to the west, with the inten-
tion of reaching the central region round the rarely visited
Lake of Wakolo. Next morning at daybreak we were steam-
ing under the shade of the “ Mothez and Daughter ” mountains
of the Dutch maps, whose picturesquely rugged peaks, stand-
ing out against the sky like giant minster towers, mark the
eastern promontory of the Bay of Kajeli, in whose southern
bend lies the town of the same name, where I landed in the
forenoon, and was kindly offered a room in the house of Post-
holder Bergmann.
The town is situated on a low morassy plain, which, during
the rainy season, is often wholly inundated, and has the
reputation of being very unhealthy, the people being afflicted
with malarial and rheumatic fevers, and I am told also with
sterility. Its most conspicuous edifice is the Fort, enclosed in
massive embrasured walls erected in 1778 by the Dutch close
to the shore, to protect the Bay from the pirate hordes who
used to make Buru their special slave-kidnapping ground.
There is now, however, a‘distance of from seven hundred to
eight hundred yards of a tall grass covered sandy flat separat-
ing it from the margin of the water, which has been gained
from the sea in little over 100 years.
Its great items of export are fish (which, during the latter
months of the year are driven into the Bay in enormous
392 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
quantities), sago, and the famous Kajuput oil,* distilled by
the natives from the leaves of the gum trees (Melaleuca
Kajuputi) which form a large part of the vegetation of the
shores of the Bay. In the year previous to my visit 96,000
bottles, worth £9,200, were shipped for Macassar, Singapore,
and China. From Masaretti, one of the villages in the south
coast, a large trade is done with Amboina in Katjang beans
(Arachis hypogxa), in Hotjong (Eleusine coracana), and in
pigs, in exchange for copper gongs, in whose music the natives
greatly delight. These pigs, brought from the mountainous
parts of the interior, having been fed on sago, which gives
their flesh a specially fine flavour, fetch a higher price in the
market than any other.
The island is divided into rajah-ships, whose rajahs reside
in Kajeli and spend most of their time under the influence of
opium.
One of the chief points of interest to me in Buru, was the
fact that it has been considered—not on any very certain data
—as the starting-point of the final dispersion of the autoch-
thenes of the archipelago, the Mahori (or Polynesian) races,f
eastward to their Pacific homes. As between the coast tribes
and the Aléfurus of the interior, who, according to their own
superstitions “durst not approach the sea so near as to hear
it breaking on the shore without being struck with dire sick-
ness,” there has never been much inter-communication, I was
very anxious to see these little contaminated people of the
interior.
I was disappointed, however, to find that my official letters
for aid were useless without “instructions” from the Resident
(I had applied officially for them to Mr. Riedel, but he
abstained from taking any notice of my letter), the Post-holder
was not at liberty to assist me in obtaining porters or other
transport to the lake; but as he was himself very soon to go
there officially, he would be very pleased, he said, if I would
accompany him. As it was impossible for me to obtain the
necessary transport except through the rajahs at the instance
of the Post-holder, I was glad on any terms of the chance
* This is the Dutch spelling of the Malay Kayu=wood or tree, puti
= white, from the colour of the bark of the tree.
+ Consult Stanford’s Compendium of Geography, Australasia, app., p. 612:
IN BURU. 393
of penetrating into this interesting island. Meanwhile I
employed myself in collecting round Kajeli, where I obtained
many of the species of birds discovered there by Mr. Wallace,
and described by him in the “ Proceedings of the Zoological
Society” for 1863, among them the interesting oriole (Oriclus
burwensis) and the honey bird (Philemon moluccens’s) which
it mimics, both closely resembling the corresponding species
shot in Larat, as well as the pretty Kajeli kingfisher (Ceya cajeli),
the Aprosmictus buruensis, and the rare Eclectus intermedius.
On the 14th we started for our first stage towards the Lake,
the village of Wai Bldi (where we were to find our transport
men waiting us), accompanied by the Rajah of Kajeli, in
whose district the Lake lies, and the Pati of Lisela through a
portion of whose territory we had to pass. The way to Wai
(river) Bléi, the first village beyond the morass land fringing
the shore, lay up the river Wai Apu, which debouches in
the centre of the Kajeli Bay, an hour’s sail from the town.
The river near its embouchure splits into many arms among
the mangrove swamps, then winds for hours through low
morass between banks green with fern-hedges dipping their
fronds into the sluggish water under the shade of tall slender
trees. Higher up these gave place to Pandan thickets out of
which rose tall Lontar-, Pinang-, and wild sago- (Metroaylon
filare) palms, and graceful tree ferns. Where the banks were
less submerged the jungle became very dense behind a thick
barrier of Mangabrabu in profuse flower (Cerbera odallam and
C. lactaria) Apocynaceous shrubs, which lined the river sides
for miles, and dotted the water with their white blossoms.
Out of this thicket an occasional black cuckoo (Hudynamis
ransomt) flew out as we passed, while on the taller trees whosc
heads shot up above the jungle sat many white Nutmeg-
pigeons (Myr?sticivora melanura) and here and there a red-
necked hawk (Aceipiter rubricollis).
After four hours of hard rowing, the blue hills shot up
right ahead and broke the gloom of the monotonous vege-
tation which had bounded our view, and between which,
throughout the rest of the hot afternoon, our prau was now
slowly dragged through frequent rapids, now laboriously
poled upwards against the swiftening stream. Baked in our
cramped position in the narrow boat, the journey would
394 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
have been almost unbearable, but for the frequent flash of
insect—bright Papilios and Ornithopteras—and of bird—the
orange Pachycephalas; the yellow White-eyes (Zosterops), lazily
flapping Herons, and the blue-plumaged scarlet-billed Water-
hens (Porphyrio melanopterus)—which darted to and fro across
the stream.
At dark, in the midst of a heavy rain, we reach the con-
fluence of the Wai Bléi, about 200 feet above the sea, where
several Aléfurus—the name by which all the natives of the
interior I met call themselves—were waiting to carry us on
suspended chairs to the village about a mile distant. The
Aléfurus can scarcely be said to inhabit villages; they live
more frequently in isolated houses on the patch of land they
cultivate or in small communities. Those, however, within
certain regions denominated Soas seem to have claims on cach
other of consanguinity or friendship ; as if the members of a
large village had dispersed, and, while living separately, still
recognised all the former ties in times of difficulty or war.
Each Soa has its chief, and Merinyo or under chief, who is
responsible to Porterus, officials who receive in the name of
the rajah the tribute of their gardens and fields as well as
compel them to give their produce, in exchange for coast goods
at an exorbitant profit.
Next day we took a westward course through fields of tall
Kussu grass dotted with Kayu-puti trees, and through swamps
full of sago palms. At early forenoon we rested for a little at the
village cluster of the River Gelan, one of the tributaries of the
River Apu. Overarching the path was an open shed with
benches along each side on which we reclined, serving possibly
as a general meeting room or rest-house for passers correspond-
ing to the Balai of Sumatra, or the Baluaz of Amboina.
When we arrived we found a sleeping child tied in a blanket
swaying to and fro at the end of a rope hung from the rafters.
It had been thus left to be rocked and nursed by the wind, till
its mother returned from the fields! As soon as a traveller
arrived I noticed that he was at once waited on by the women
of the village who brought sivi, betel and chalk, and a hot
ember to light his cigarette. The women seemed to live in
great subjection to the men, who never did anything for them-
selves if a woman was within call.
IN BURU. 395
Their houses were of the most miserable description, fairly
well-roofed but without any furniture or conveniences, with the
exception of a narrow platform raised a few feet above the
earthen floor for sleeping on. Behind each house I observed
asmall thatched structure which
they called the Matakau, the
sacred place of the Aléfuru
wherein, by burning dammar, (eo-the d
he propitiates the Great Spirit if rath eee:
Allah Stalla. The Matakau is i Hl i ‘ i
a small platform erected on a iit hy I
short pole and roofed over with | } | aati
|
Hi
H]
SS
palm-leaf thatch from whose
eaves all round hangs down a AN | |
long fringe of split-up palm | i
leaflets. Inside are preserved a NE ly |
knife, a spear, a Kaw turin or | |
thick walking-stick constantly
carried by the natives on their = -~~s== |M
journeys (with these they are —-—-—~—=>]/]j =
adepts at quarter-staff; I was a iene Cages
much amused by seeing two
MATAKAU,
children practising with singu-
lar skill their cuts and guards, quite unconscious of being
watched), a dish containing siri, betel and chalk, and a piece of
scarlet cloth. Before sowing any of their fields, some of the
seed is always placed inside the Matakau, dammar is burned,
and their ritual performed in order to secure its fructification.
Their most dreaded and respected oath is made, holding the
sharp top of a sago palm leaf in the hand, on the sacred knife
and spear taken from the Matakau ; for they believe in the power
of these pomali-weapons to harm them at any unguarded
moment. Another form of adjuration is in drinking after
making their declaration, water in which had been placed salt
(that they may melt away), a blade of Kussu-grass (that they
may be scarred as by its edges), a lance and a knife (that
their bodies be pierced, cut and run through) if they have
sworn falsely.
Proceeding on our way, we camped for the night in the
forest under a canopy made of the long leaves of the sago-
396 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
palm cut down and arranged for us by the Aléfurus, Un-
fortunately for the quick progress of our march, my German
companion, unaccustomed to travel, was easily fatigued, and
both the native chiefs were devotees of the opium pipe, and
were constantly finding all manner of excuses for a halt too
readily acquiesced in by Mr. Bergmann. No sooner was the
order given than their blankets were at once spread on the
ground, and the soothing narcotic produced.
Next day we journeyed through Kussv-grass fields, with
scarcely a vestige of forest, and only sparse belts or low scrub
of Melaleuca and Melastoma, without having the satisfaction of
seeing a single bird or insect. The country now began to rise
in successive steps, first over a height of 5U0 feet, down 400
feet, to rise again 600 feet.
On the third day we were compelled to camp at noon on the
banks of the Klaba, on another of those excuses—that no
other stream could be reached within the day’s march—which
the Rajah of Kajeli, who had never gone the road in his life,
was constantly making to enable him to resume his soporific
smoke. The Klaba, like all the other streams we had crossed,
was making for the Apu. The valley was set with more clumps
of trees and cycads than any of those we had yet traversed.
A short way behind I had observed. tall bamboo spikes
bristling thickly among the grass, for the purpose evidently of
catching deer and pig driven towards them by firing the grass
in a wide semicircle around them. After our huts—made of
the bark of Commersonia echinata, a very abundant tree
there—were erected, I started with my hunters and some of
the Aléfurus as beaters, in hopes of securing a haunch of
venison for our larder. We were fortunate in meeting within
an hour with two little herds, from the second of which I secured
a fine young stag. While it was being prepared, I scoured the
bed of a dry stream behind the camp, and caught numerous
fine Tiger Beetles (Cecindelidx) and many species of a Tenaris,
a butterfly closely resembling the Tenaris urania of Amboina,
but being much paler, I have separated it by the name
T. buruensis.
Next day another very short march was made, a halt being
called on the pretext that a ridge of the mountain in front of
us was Kiting or tabooed. As we could not pass over it before
IN BURU. 397
sundown, and might not be camped on it, we had to pass the
night again in the forest in a dense rain, on the slope above our
former camp, 1500 feet above the sea, At break of next day
we continued the ascent of Mount Makka to about 2000 feet
above the sea, passing through low sparse jungle full of Dipteris
horsfieldii ferns and thickets of the bracken (which so often
accompanies it), till we came on the Kiiing region which had
been a great forest, but had only recently been burned down
leaving many of the lifeless stems standing, and from the
falling of whose dead limbs the Aléfurus seemed to stand in
great dread. No one dared to speak to his neighbour during
our passage; I was besought not to shoot, and above all no
one might use certain proscribed words for fear of disaster.
No Buruese of the interior, it is said, can dare to approach
the sea so near as to hear the beating of the surf without
falling ill. Whether the superstition has arisen from the fact
that the sea could be seen from the high elevation we were:
on, or whether it was because it might be the residing place of
hostile spirits, I do not know. All along the way I could hear
them repeating some sort of invocation, and on quitting the
noxious region, one of the men stopped behind to erect another
of those little white stakes three to five feet high, which we
had seen at various places along the tabooed region—a branch
carefully stripped of all its bark, its extremity wrapped round
with a piece of scarlet cloth, and sharpened, to be tipped with a
morsel of pinang nut. I imagine these pillars to be thanks-
giving offerings to the spirit of the place for a safe passage.
Descending to the river Wohangan, which we crossed at
about 1000 feet above the sea, we halted for lunch, the
Aléfurus rubbing their limbs and bodies till they were quite
blistered, with the lcaves of a yery sharp stinging nettle,
Urtica cvalifolia, “to take away their fatigue.” We had at
last entered a more wooded country, and I noted on the damp
shade many fine Zingiberace# never seen before in flower, and
a Didymocarpus with a white corolla margined with deep
indigo. Along the banks of the stream I observed also quite
a number of butterflies I had not seen elsewhere, and were
I to return to Buru I should certainly make a prolonged stay
near this river.
Rain compelled us again to camp in the forest. After a
27
398 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
comfortless night we ascended the steep side of the Woresa,
this time to 3000 feet, camping on its farther slope in another
deluge of rain, in which we were thoroughly drenched. The
Aléfurus extemporised for themselves elegant shelters by
piling a thatch of extra branches on the tied-together tops
of neighbouring bushy shrubs. These, dotted about round
our larger bark-made huts, formed, when lit up by our large
central fire, quite a picturesque camp, which we were too wet to
be in a humour to enjoy much.
We proceeded next day in a very unfit state from the chill
of the previous night, but we had not gone far when some
anxiety was caused by finding the ground set with bamboo
spikes. Not knowing whether this was a sign of hostility
towards us or against some former enemy we kept the baggage
back a little and went on ourselves ahead, with loaded arms;
but finding no other traces we descended without further
thought of ill to thé Wai Gelan, another large river, making,
as all the streams we had yet crossed, to join with tributaries
of the tributaries of the Apu. Except at.a few spots, the
paucity of birds, insects, and also snakes for which Buru has
a bad reputation but of which we had not seen a single
specimen, surprised me very much. Froni the Wai Gelan the
ascent—each height exceeded the one before it all the way to
the coast—was very steep and slippery, which the Aléfurus,
inciting each cther with cries of Gossa, gossa (good, good),
required all their strength to get our baggage up. At 2400
feet, coming on a few houses called Wasilalé in the middle of
a forest garden, the first signs of life we had seen since leaving
the river Bléi, we decided to halt for the night, and press
forward to the lake next day.
We took up our quarters in a rest- house of the most abject
description, but quite in keeping with their own miserable
dwellings. Three or four men, who had shortly after our
arrival started off evidently to their gardens, returned carrying
between them a large pig which they had killed to mark the
rare event of European visitors in their midst. The women and
girls hurried about bringing blocks of stone, with which they
formed a large paved area to serve as an oven, whereon they
piled a roaring fire till the stones began to burst from the heat
in loud reports. As soon as the stones were heated to the
THE HUT-CLUSTER, WASILALE, ON THE SLOPE OF THE GUNUNG DUPA.
IN BURU, 399
heart, hastily clearing off the fire they threw the pig body-bulk
on the glowing stones, closely covering it up with fresh green
banana leaves. In little over an hour we had served up to us
a piece of pork baked to perfection, the most deliciously
flavoured I have ever tasted. When we had rested some time
after our meal their jubilation was further marked by a musical
performance given in one of their huts, and, as we were invited
to attend, I had an opportunity of seeing the interior arrange-
ment of their houses. .
They were constructed of uneven strips of tree bark, roughly
set up side by side on the unlevelled ground, held in place by
narrow rinds of bamboo on each side, tightly tied together by
thongs at the gaps between each strip of bark. By these wide
chinks the pigs and dogs made the dwelling as much theirs
as the owner’s. The roof was of palm thatch and badly put
on patches of bark. At both gables was a quadrangular hole
to serve as doorway and window, closed by a squarish piece of
bark hung by a thong through a hole in the wall above it.
Between these openings there ran a central passage, full (as I
saw it) of pools of water. The space on each side of this
passage was divided off by low bark partitions into three or
four narrow stalls (across the top of which was piled their
store of wood logs) such as might be found in the worst
possible cowhouse; while against the wall where one would
look for a manger was a small platform raised two or
three feet from the ground, to serve for seat or bed. The
fire was made anywhere which was for the moment most
convenient—in the passage, or in one of the stalls—the smoke
oozing through the numerous chinks and by a small patch
raised in one of the rows of thatch. ‘There was not in the
whole dwelling a single article of furniture or any decorative
artifice or a single device for affording convenience or comfort.
To accommodate me with a seat to listen to the musical
“function,” a large stone had to be brought in. The per-
formers, who were of both sexes, disposed themselves in the
passage on stones and logs. The men sang an improvised
song to their own vigorous accompaniment on the native tifa,
or drum, to which the women, sitting on their heels, languidly
supporting their heads on their arms, which rested on their
knees, contributed an unchanging refrain at the end of every
400 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
few words of the song. The men seemed to enjoy themselves,
often laughing heartily at their own improvised conceits, but
the women might have been absolute automata; for not a
single expression of pleasure, interest, or enjoyment ever
passed over their impassive features. Tho exhibition was
one of the saddest possible pictures of the miserable position
among the Aléfurus of the woman, who, though not treated
with cruelty or harshness, lives in abject uncomplaining
slavery—as if for the man alone all things, woman especially,
were created.
Next morning, starting early, we continued our ascent
through dense forest, full of Ternstroemaceous trees to
3600 feet above the sea, the highest point reached in our
journey. Just at the summit I came on a curious Pomali sign
set up in the forest to protect probably some part of it from
depradation. Its exact meaning I could not find out. It
consisted of a low house shaped structure, somewhat like the
Matakau seen at Wai Bloi village, and fixed in the ground,
protected from harm by large wide couples of wood.. Under
its cover six little pillars were set in the ground; on the top
of one was a peg a few inches high whose tip was set into a
cross-piece of sago-palm pith forming a T device, while into
this cross-piece were inserted two small nails of wood, each
bearing a pellet, the root of the Halia (? the officinal ginger) ;
on two others, whose tops were encircled by a rattan girdle,
within which several wooden wedges were driven, sharp
bamboo spikes (such as are stuck in the ground to wound
unwary travellers) were suspended ky a cord; the fourth had
its summit split for some length by two or three wedges of
wood ; the fifth, girdled with a rattan ring, had a piece of hala
inserted below a chip of wood and transfixed to the summit
with a peg, while the sixth was a bamboo full of water. The
Aléfurus accompanying me said, that each pillar indicated
a species of retribution that would overtake the trespasser.
Commencing our descent we reached a stream running in
a westerly direction, which conducted us to a few houses on the
margin of the Lake, which had been visited by white men but
three or four times in as many hundred years.
IN BURU. 401
CHAPTER II.
AT LAKE WAKOLO.
The Lake—The people there—Garments—Cultivation—Arms and accoutre-
ments—Marriage—Death rites—Superstitions about the lake—Explana-
tion of its position and of the absence of fish in it—New birds—Great
disappointment—Return to Kajeli—Thence to Amboina—Compelled to
leave the Moluccas—A kind farewell—Leave for Timor.
Mr. Beremann, the Post-holder, had hoped, he said, to find
some 2000 people living round the lake, and to stay for at
least a week or ten days; but we found only some seven or
eight houses as poor as the few we had already passed, and he
decided on the afternoon of our arrival to start back in a couple
of days to the coast. This was a grievous disappointment to
me after so difficult and arduous a journey. As he would not
be induced to stay, and without the presence of the Rajahs who
would accompany him I could obtain nothing, either in the
way of food or of porterage, I could only make the most,
therefore, of the few hours at my disposal. I devoted the
remainder. of the first day to seeing something of the people,
and in sketching their featnres.
The lake mountaineers, living so far removed from all coast
interference, and rarely, if ever, visiting the shore, should be
better representatives of the Buruese than the low country
tribes who are now quite tinctured in manners and customs, as
well as in race, by an infinite variety of influences—and where
indeed is the race now to be found not so contaminated by
extraneous forces? The ideas as well as the manufactures of
western Jands are beginning to be felt and seen in the huts
of the rudest tribes, and among the people the most distant
from civilisation. It is therefore more incumbent than ever
on all travellers to record with the utmost fidelity every
minutie of the customs and ideas of the rude peoples they
encounter; for with the disappearance of their untainted
402 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
legends, words and thoughts, will die out a chapter ot far-
past history that can never be recovered again on the globes
The men are of medium height—averaging about 5 feet
2 inches—and a little taller than the women. They are a
weak, emaciated, ill-conditioned, and somewhat effeminate-
looking race. Many of them suffer from the fungoid skin
disease so often met with among the badly nurtured peoples
further to the east. They are not a warlike people, and are
not head-hunters like the Ceramese.
In colour they are brown, or yellowish brown, and, as far as
my observations go, none of them are black as the Aru people
are. Their hair is fairly abundant on the head, but not
profuse, in fact rather scanty on other parts of the body.
Their faces are bare, as a rule, though a few have a few long
hairs at the corners of the mouth and the upper lip. The
head-hair is not worn in the high-matted frizzled coiffyre
as seen among some of the Papuans, but it is curled in
a more or less loose manner well seen in the figure on the
opposite page. It is parted in the centre as a rule, and
allowed to hang down on both sides in loose irregular curls,
appearing through and above the kerchief which is worn
round the head. Dr. Bastian, in his ‘ Indonesien,’ states that
the Wakolo Lake Buruese have smooth hair; but this is not
absolutely the case. Nearer the coast, however, hair as straight
as in any Sundanese is met with. That form of. nose with
high dorsum and over-hanging tip which I observed conspicu-
ously in Timor-laut, and subsequently in the interior of Timor,
as seen in the concluding Part of this book, was not observed
among the Buruese ; nor yet thai tall and more athletic build
of man (and woman) which could not escape observation in
both of the islands just named. The Wakolo women had the
same meek and submissive bearing that I had noticed in those
met with nearer the coast.
Very few of them wear ornaments beyond a small stud of
silver in the ear; the children are provided with a piece of
dried intestine of the Cuscus in their ear-lobes, and round their
necks ; while both sexes wear armlets of shell, of a thong-like
corneous coralline called by the Malays akar bahar, and of the
intestine of the Cuscus,
The garments worn by the men were the usual T-bandage,
NATIVE OF WAKOLO VILLAGE, LAKE WAKOLO.
IN BURU. 403
and by the women a short sarong, or petticoat, or a lung loose
smock-like robe,
In fields cleared out of the forest—which secm to belong
to the man who has cleared them, and his heirs, as long as
they do not return to wild forest—they cultivate tobacco,
corn, and the usual sweet tubers, specics of Convolvulus and
Colocasia, which they eat to the juice of the boiled Saun
(Pandanus ceramicus) one of the most magnificent scarlet
fruits of their forests. Not much rice is grown, but it is
received in exchange from the Aléfurus of the lower country
for tobacco and tubers, tifas (or drums), and the strong woven
Cot or wallet, so univ ersally carried. I was not permitted
to go into their fields, as strangers and coast people are
tabooed, for fear of some evil befalling their poomalied seeds,
and cannot, therefore, speak of their mode of cultivation.
From the cotton (Gossypium micranthum), which tbey cultivate
themselves, they make their own thread.
The only baggage an Aléfuru carries with him besides his
kau-turin or cudgel, and a spear, is the Coz, a strong satchel
slung on his buttocks by a cord round his waist, in which he
carries his tobacco and those prized comforts of his tribe—siri
leaves, betel-nut, and chalk often contained, in aslightly orna-
mented gourd. In former times the women in every village
in Buru could weaye these cois; now, however, the lower
country tribes, having acquired increased wealth by the
development of trade in the various products they so easily
grow or rear, and with wealth laziness by their ability to supply
their wants without labouring, have quite forgotten or aban-
doned the art, and are dependent for their supply on the
mountaineers to whom the knowledge of their manufacture
is confined. The cloth, called by them iain fuhka, of which
these satchels are made is a very strong almost indestructible
canvas, which they render perfectly waterproof by rubbing
into it the juice expressed from the bark of a tree, kulit rofu,
probably one of the Artocarpex. ‘To them is also confined the
art of hollowing out of Pinang and Nangka (Artocarpus) logs,
of the tifas or drums, which are so indispensable at all their
feasts and religions ceremonies, as well as of the manufacture
of their spears and knives, the art of iron working also being
forgotten by the dwellors nearer the coast.
404. A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Marriage among them, as far as I could learn, was the simple
purchase of a woman for a large sum in all manner of trade
articles, and is celebrated by a feast. Very often she is pur-
chased when yet a child, and is reared in the house of her
master and husband, who may have as many wives as he
can afford. If the husband cannot pay the full price at once,
his family have to undertake part of the responsibility of
payment, and till then the woman is in servitude to the whole
family. On the death of the man she is reckoned as part
of his goods, and faJls with his other property to his heirs,
who may sell her again to another suitor for a price not
less than she has cost. The children of the union are the
father’s exclusive property and thereafter of his relations. If
no suitor desires to marry his widow she remains in the
cheerless lot of a menial slave and concubine of the husband’s
family. _
Their death rites are also curious and interesting as being
in some respects similar to those practised in different parts
of Australia. As soon as life is extinct the man’s body. is
brought out on a bier in front of his house and laid on the
ground, with the head in front of a stake driven into the ground.
‘The bier is struck several times and the questions put, “ Have
you died by the will of Allah Stalla?” or “Has death been
the result of the machinations of mortal man?” If the body
move forwards to strike the stake, the reply is supposed to be
in the affirmative. If the intimation is that death has not
been natural, the corpse is questioned in order to find the
delinquent through all the Rajah-ships, till the correct one is
indicated; then through all the Soas or villages, and through
all the individuals of the selected Soa, till the culprit’s name is
obtained, who is at once seized and condemned to pay a death
fine, for the backbone a certain price, for each right and left
rib, for each hand and foot, for the head and the contents of
the body, each a. fixed sum; altogether a large amount in
every species of trade article.
The Buruese are firm believers in Swangies, or spirits of
their fellows endowed with the power to go about disembodied,
working evil (generally) to their neighbours.. An individual
with this power is greatly dreaded, and derives not a few
presents, for the purpose of retaining his goodwill, as also
‘OIOMVAL JO G@MVI AHL dO MAGIA
IN BURU. 405
payment from those who desire some evil to befall an enemy
without suspicion of its originator. The Swangi is supposed
to be able to cover with misfortune whom he will without
their being aware whence the disaster comes.
Their dead are buried in the forest in some secluded spot
far from other graves, and marked often by a merang or grave
pole, and over which at certain intervals their relatives place
tobacco, cigarettes, and various offerings. When the body is
decomposed, the son or nearest relative disinters the head,
wraps a new cloth about it, and places it in the Matakau at the
back of his house, or in a little hut erected for it near the
grave. It is the representative of his forefathers whose behests
he holds in the greatest respect.
The day after our arrival was spent from break of day in
botanising, collecting birds, and in examining the lake. This
is a magnificent sheet of water, several miles in diameter and
some 40 to 50 fathoms deep, indented with many beautiful
bays, embracing the hills which abruptly rise up from it on all
sides. It was not an easy matter to get the Merinyo of the
place to give us a boat and rowers to make an examination of its
margins, and only after a long invocation to the spirit of the
Lake would he consent to accompany us. It is only with
the utmost awe and dread that they trust themselves on its
surface. They have many strange legends concerning it. One
of these is that at certain periods a Lagundi tree (Vitex sp.)
suddenly grows up the centre of the Lake, its appearance
being accompanied by fearful storms of wind and waves, and
the terrified cries of the birds that crowd its margins. On
the subsiding of the storm the Lagundi is found to have dis-
appeared. Another superstition is, that on the firing of a gun
a thunderstorm is liable to break out, sent by the angered
spirits. Every chief, therefore, on. his arrival at the Lake
plants a white stick in the ground as a signal of peace. The
Wakolo men who rowed me kept up an invocation the whole
time we were out, and they positively refused to take me
out into the middle or even very far from the shore. A
crocodile—one of the animals sacred in the mythology of Buru
—is also supposed to reside in the lake, whence once. a year
it pays a visit to the shore.
It is singular that no fish except eels live in -its waters.
406 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Lying in the very centre of the island, at a height of some
1900 feet above the sea, and surrounded by high hills—except
at one point, where, it is said, though I could not detect any-
thing to assure me of the truth of the statement, that the
Wai Nipe runs out of it—it has much the appearance of
a lake filling up the crater of an old volcano, to which their
legend of its periodical troubling may have some reference.
The margins of the water were set with flags and shrubby
pandans, which gave shelter to thousands and thousands of
ducks (Dendrocygna guttata)—of which I secured a large
number—little Grebes (Podiceps), and Cormorants (Phalocra-
coraz), and several species of Water-hen (Porphyrio).. The
whole day was spent in skinning these birds, and putting up
the plants in drying paper.
On the following day some of the women returning from
their fields brought me a specimen of a Myzomela, which they
had taken with the gum of an Artocarpus tree, which delighted
me immensely, as no species of this genus was then known to
extend so far to the west. It turned out on examination to be
an undescribed species, which I have named Myzomela wako-
loénsis. I asked them to show me where the specimen had
been obtained; but as it was in their gardens which are
tabooed to coast people, I would not persuade them to admit
me. On offering, however, a large reward for additional speci-
mens, several women set off back to their fields, whence in the
afternoon they returned with a quite number all fluttering on
a string; most of them bad lost their tails and were entirely
smeared with gum, a few only being at all presentable.
Among these true scarlet Myzomelas was an immature Nec-
tarine bird in a wretched condition, with the basal portion of
its beak greenish-yellow and the rest black, which is pro-
bably also another and unknown species of Myzomela. By
working continuously right through the night till sunrise,
the whole of the skins were ready for span, as well as
nearly a hundred species of plants.
When the coolies were mustered to shoulder the baggage
only two or three put in an appearance, the rest had de-
serted, and only after impressing into our service some of
the women did we manage to start with the food necessary for
the journey. ‘It was not with the most amiable feelings towards
IN BURU. 407
the Authority at Amboina that I was forced to leave behind
me the herbarium I had taken such pains to collect. The
skins I carried myself, leaving my own men free to assist with
the food supply. Reaching, with our overburdened porters,
the little hamlet of Wasilalé, where we had spent a night
on our coming, my companion who was suffering from fever,
wished to remain till the attack had passed ; we agreed, there-
fore, that, as I was anxious to reach Kajeli betore the arrival
of the Amboina steamer, I should press on in advance with
my own servants and baggage, and on arrival at the Bléi
riyer send him the necessary additional porters. On the fore-
noon of the fifth day from the Lake I reached the Wai Bloi
village, whence I despatched assistance to my companion, and
reached Kajeli the same evening.
I had hoped to be able to get across to the region in the
S.E. of the Bay of Kajeli, where alone in Buru the singular
Hog-deer (the Babirusa), which is known elsewhere only in
Celebes, was to be found; but again I was disappointed for
want of porters and rowers. This singular animal uses its
curious upturned and hooked teeth, the natives told me, to
hold to the bottom of ponds by, when hard pressed by hunters.
So disappointed was I with my trip to Buru, from which
I had hoped much, and might have accomplished much but
for a display of absurd and petty jealousy, that I was glad
when the steamer of the 12th arrived from Batjian to carry me
back to Amboina, which was reached the same evening.
Finding that Mr. Riedel’s attitude towards us was such as to
make it quite useless to attempt to carry on any investiga-
tions in the islands of the Moluccas under his sway, I determined
to leave for a time to attempt a journey in the interior of
the little known region of Timor under the Portuguese crown.
It is only fair to state that the conduct of the Resident was
utterly repudiated by the Dutch Government in Java, and
on my arrival in Batavia, six months afterwards, I received
from them the kindest and most ample apologies.
The steamer, from which I had just disembarked, having
to remain two days in Amboina, we hastily packed up our
belongings and continued our voyage in the same vessel. The
friends through whom this last sojourn in Amboina had been
made so full of enjoyment, Mr. Justice and Madame Van
408 A NATURALISI’S WANDERINGS
Deventer, the Commander of the troops Colonel Demini, now
H.E. the Governor of Acheen—to whom I am indebted for
the gift of a large and valuable collection of ethnological
objects from Ceram—Major Van der Weide, the Chief of
the Medical Staff, and Dr. and Madame Machik, our most
kind hosts to whom we owe our introduction to so many
delightful friends, paid us the compliment of accompanying
us on board to say farewell.
IN BURU. 409
APPENDIX TO PART VY.
es,
I. List of the Brrps or Buru, compiled from papers by Mr. A. R.
Watuace in P. Z. S. 1863, p. 18-36, by Count T. Sanvapori in Ann.
del Mus. Civico di Stor, Nat. di Genova, VIII. the Author’s own
Collection, and other sources,
. Haliastur leucosternus, Gould.
Baza rheinwardti, Sch. Timor. Moluccas.
. Accipiter rubricollis, Wal. Ceram. Gilolo.
Acvipter cruentus, Gould. Timor.
Athene hantu, Wallace.
Scops buruensis, Sharpe.
. Geottioyus rhodops, G. R. Gr. Amboina. Ceram. Goram.
. Eclectus cardinalis, Bedd. Moluccas. New Guinea.
. Tanygnathus affinis, Wal. Amboina. Ceram.
gramineus, Gm.
. Aprosmictus buruensis, Salv.
. Trichoglossns cyanogrammus, Wagl. Ceram. Papuan Islands.
. Eos rubra, Gm. Amboina. Ceram. Matabello Islands.
. Camimulgns macrurus, Horsf. Whole Archipelago.
15. Dendrochelidon mys aceus, Less. Moluccas. New Guinea.
16. Cacomantis virescens, Briigg.
17. Eudynamis orientalis, Linn. Ceram.
18. Centropus medius, Bp. Ceram. Gilolo.
19. Scythrops nove-hollandie. Lath. Timor.
20, Sauropatis chloris, Bod. Whole Archipelago.
21. Halcyon sancta, Vig. & Horsf. Eastward Islands.
22. Alcedo ispidoides, Less. Celebes. Gilolo.
23. Tanysiptera acis, Wall.
24. Ceyx Cajeli, Wail.
25. Merops ornatus, Lath.
26. Eurystomus pacificus, Lath. Eastward Islands.
27. Pitta rubrinucha, Wall.
28. Budytes viridis, Gus.
29. Acrocephalus australis, Gould.
30. Cisticola rustica, Wall.
81. Phyllopneuste javanica, Bp.
82. Oriolus buruensis, Quoy & Gains.
33. Criniger mysticalis, Wall.
34. Artamus leucogaster, Val.
35. Myiagra galeata, G. R. Gr.
36. Monarcha loricata, Wail.
7. Rhipidura tricolor, Vieidl. Moluccas. New Guinea.
Pd feel poet bet fad
HWN EH SODOIMS SO Pop
38. buruensis, Wal.
39. : .
40. Pachycephala clio, Wall.
41. lineolata, Wall.
42. rufescens, Wall.
43. Dicrurus amboinensis, G. R. Gr. Auiboina. Ceram.
410 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
44, Edoliisoma marginatum, Wall.
45. Philemon moluccensis, Gm.
46. Diceeum erythrothorax, Less.
47. Zosterops chloris, Bp.
48. Myzometa Waxotoinsis, H. 0. Forbes. P.Z. 8. 1883, p. 116. (Fig. Gould,
B. New Guinea, part 18.)
The full-dress bird is entirely scarlet, the bases of the feathers being
black; the wings, the tail, and the preocular spot are black; the upper
wing-coverts are black with a scarlet band on the outer webs nearly in
the middle, but not extending to the extremity of the feather; the inner
margins of the remiges are white; the irides are rich brown; the edges of
the lower maxilla yellow; tongue yellow; legs and feet yellowish green ;
soles yellow.
The young male is at first almost entirely greyish brown; the throat is
pale grey; but quite below the maxilla and under the eyes the orange-red
colour indicates the coming scarlet; the back is greyish-brown, but of a
decper colour in the uropygial region ; the wings and the tail are brown-
ish grey; the breast and under tail-coverts greenish fulvous; the margins
of the upper wing-coverts pale fawn colour with, in some lights, reflections
of red; the margins of the remiges are olive-grey; the throat, the front
of the head, the breast, and the uropygial region are the first to assume
the scarlet colour of the adult; the angle of the wing has a dirty-white
spot, which, with the olive-grey margins of the remiges, are the last to
change to black.
49. Nectarinia proserpina, . Wall.
50. Cyrtostomus zenobia, Less. Amboina. Ceram. Ké.
51. Calornis obscura, Bp. Moluccas.
52. Munia molucca, Moluccas. Timor-laut.
53. Osmotreron aromatica, Gm. Amboina. Ceram.
54. Myristicivora melanura, G. Rt. Gr. Moluccas.
55. Carpophaga perspicillata, Temm. Batjian. Gilolo. Waigiou.
56. Ptilopus rivolii, Prev.
57. viridis, Amboina. Ceram. Goram.
58. Macropygia amboineusis.
59. Chalcophaps indica.
G0. Megapodius forsteni, Temm.
61. wallacii. G. R. Gr.
62. Glareola grallaria, Temm. - Australia.
63, Charadrius fulvus, Gm.
G4. magnirostiis, Lath. Celcbes. New Guinea. Timor-laut.
G5. Numenius uropygialis, Gould.
66. Strepsilas interpres, Linn.
G7. Herodias egretta, Gmel.
68. Butorides javanica, Horsf.
69. Bubulcus coromandus, Bodd.
70. Ardetta flavicollis, Lath.
71. Nycticorax caledonicus, Gmel. Australia to the Keeling Islands, in the
Indian Ocean.
72. Porphyrio melanopterus, Temm.
73. Erythra leucomelena, S. Mill.
74. Gallinula frontata, Wall.
75 Ortygometra cinerea.
76. Hypotenidia philippensis, Linn.
77. Dendrocygna guttulata, Temm. Ceram. Celebes.
78. Tadorna radja, Less. Moluccas, New Guinea. Timor-laut.
79. Podiceps tricolor, G. 2. Gr. Moluccas.
80. Phalocracorax melanoleucus, Vieil.
81. Sterna melanauchen, Temm.
IN BURU. 411
II.—Description of a New Species of TEN Anis.
Tenaris buruensis, Mihi, sp. nov.
Allied to 7° catops ; differs in having the fore-wings of a less oval form
and more broadly marked with brown at the apex, the hind-wings not
suffused with ochreous at the base, and the occllus much larger, with a
well-defined pupil, as in 7. diana, Butl.; on the underside it differs in
having the apical brown band of the fore-wings broader, and the ocelli on
the hind-wings much larger and more broadly bordered with brown; the
ground colour of both wings is of a sordid, instead of pure white as in
catops. Buru, 16. Nov., 1882, No. 2879.
III. Some Buruese Words.
alive deneve | hot hinduin
banana fuat hungry lappa
boat waga head ulun
bird manut hair ulun-fulun
butterfly lahin leaf karumun
come komahi manu gaba-mana
deep dowd night detok
deaf daprengemoh rattan uah
dead damata river wai
Deity Alla-stalla road tuhun
eat makah stone vatu
ear anting-anting star gai
evening modan slowly mara-mara
tire bana speak sarah
finger fahan wangan taboo kéing
flower sawin tree kaun
father nama tongue main
far breman womau fina
fish ikan wind anin
foot kadan wood kau
fruit fuan north Giwa rete
great bagu south » lawe
give huké east Hangat kehia
good gossa west » —- Sebo.
hand fahan sun Hangat
hasto naik-naik moon Fulan
hold pesse
PART VI.
IN TIMOR.
CHAPTER I.
SOJOURN AT FATUNABA.
Arrival at Dilly—Dreadful effects of fever—Search for a site for a house—
The town of Dilly an ethnographical studio—Fatunaba—Our residence—
The enchanting view thence—Interesting birds and plants—Difficulty
with servants—Preparations for departure into the interior—Dialects.
Sartine on the 15th of Deeember from Amboina, we spent a
couple of days in our favourite strolling-ground of Banda, and
sighted Timor early on the 19th, anchoring at noon in the
harbour of Dilly, where we were heartily welcomed by our
old friends the Governor, Major da Franca, and his family.
We were above measure saddened to see their terribly
emaciated countenances, which proclaimed more forcibly than
words, the pestiferous nature of the climate. One of their
number—the youngest—already slept under the shade of the
Santa Cruz; in all of them the notorious Dilly fever had
‘killed down the cheerful vivacity, buoyancy of spirit and
bright eye with which they had stepped ashore in the month
of May. With the utmost kindness commodious apartments
were offered us in the Palace, but it was perfectly evident
that if I wished to accomplish any successful work in Timor,
it could not be from Dilly as a centre, constantly exposed to
the pestilence that nightly rises from the marshes surrounding
the town.
On proposing to make our residence somewhere on the hills,
the Governor suggested to me the neighbourhood of the
convent of Lahani, situated a few miles behind the town in a
picturesque valley. Though more salubrious than any part of
the town itself, the locality was still too much within the
fever zone to tempt us to court a renewed attack of the
malaria, whose dire effects we had sufficiently experienced in
Timor-laut.
416 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Early on the following morning, therefore, on horses kindly
provided by the Government Secretary, Mr. Bento da Franca,
and accompanied by Senhor Albino—one of the most genial
spirits and most influential officials in Dilly, who in his own
person was Master of the Port, Director of Public Works, and
Colonel of the native troops—we rode up the hills in quest of a
location. A damp mist hung about the town as we started,
but when we had ridden a few miles southward and ascended
some 300 feet, the sun rose and displayed before us a land-
scape whose great beauty I was utterly unprepared for, dis-
heartened somewhat as I was by the hot sandy town and the
depressing effect of the fever-stricken condition of the
Europeans. Before we had reached 500 feet above the sea, I
felt as if in a new atmosphere, so fresh and exhilirating was
the air. Now winding round the flanks of deep glens, the
watercourses dug out by the rain (for there was neither path
nor road otherwise), now ascending slopes so steep as to make
it impossible to sit on horseback without clutching grimly
to the mane, now by the edge of sheer precipices, the path
brought us, at 1700 feet, to a coffee-garden whose shrubs
growing under deep shade, exhibited the richest display of
fragrant blossom that I have ever seen. Close by on a pro-
jecting shoulder, over which the summit of the mountain rose
1000 feet higher, was a grassy plateau of a few yards in width
commanding a view of unexampled beauty, and convenient to
a quiet nook, where under the shade of a grove of Kanary
trees a sparkling stream fell with a noisy purl over a rocky
projection into a shallow pool. A few feet in front of the
plateau the ground dropped suddenly into the wooded sides of
a precipitous valley, widening out as it descended, till its
enclosing spurs broke off abruptly in the green seaward plain,
beyond which the white spire of the church, the Governor’s
Palace, the grey dwellings of the natives, and the guard-ship
lying in the bay, glinted through the palms. Due north full
in our face, rose abruptly out of the sea the high blue peaks of
Pulo Kambing, while half hidden by the arms of the valley
down which our view extended, on the left the lofty eastern
buttresses of Allor, and on the right the serrated ridges of
Wetter, touched the sky, boundaries within which the blue
sea lay calm as an inland lake. No second thoughts were
IN TIMOR. 417
necessary to decide that our dwelling should stand there, and I
carried back with me to A—— a sweet-scented rose plucked
from a bush growing near the spot as a hopeful token of the
goodness of the site. During our descent a largish beetle
banged itself against my hat, which I found to my delight
to be a specimen of the rare rose-chaffer (Lomaptera timoren-
sis), the only known specimen of which, if I mistake not,
taken some twenty years before by Mr. Wallace in this very
island, has remained unique ever since. On my arrival at the
Palace, breakfast was proceeding, and I placed my prize under
a glass shade in the room I occupied till my return from the
table. Alas, during my absence a servant had cleared away
the noxious bicho, and I never afterwards saw another speci-
men!
While arrangements, in response to the kind mandate of
the Secretary to the native Rajah of Motaél in whose territory
tke Fatunaba hills lay, were being made for the erection of a
bamboo hut for me, we spent some very interesting days in
Dilly. The town, though vastly improved since Mr. Wallace’s
visit, was still disappointing in many respects, and its Hibiscus-
lined streets looked poor and uninviting. The lack of money
to carry out efficiently the necessary municipal arrangements
was painfully evident. No more enlightened or energetic
régime could be desired than that under the officers at the
head of affairs during our sojourn in Dilly, through whomn—
and I use no mere terms of compliment—had the necessary
resources been at their disposal, Portuguese Timor might have
caught the tide of prosperity she has long waited for.
In going into the various offices and shops I was struck to
find all business conducted, not, as in the Dutch possessions,
in the lingua franca of the Archipelago, Malay, but in Portu-
guese. It has been a feature of all the countries cccupied for
any length of time by the Portuguese that they have so
indelibly impressed their own speech on the rude tribes they
have conquered, that its words have remained a part of their
language centuries after their rule has passed away. On the
other hand, in the Netherlands colonies comparatively few
Dutch words have been thus kindly naturalised. In the
different quarters of the town native police posted in little
encampments are always on guard, and during the still nights
418 A NATURALIST’S. WANDERINGS
it was curious to hear from Timorese throats the Alerto sta! at
the stroke of every hour. Besides the official staff very few
Europeans live in Dilly; the entire trade of the island being
conducted by Arabs and (chiefly) by Chinamen.
The streets of Dilly itself offer to the traveller a fine studio
for ethnological investigation, for a curious mixture of nationa-
lities other than European rub shoulders with each other in
the town’s narrow limits. Ata single glance one sees that this
crowd has few elements in common with that seen at Cupang,
in the west. Tall, erect indigenes mingle with Negroes from
the Portuguese possessions of Mozambique and the coasts of
Africa, most of them here in the capacity of soldiers or. con-
demned criminals; tall, lithe East Indians from Goa and its
neighbourhood ; Chinese and Bugis of Macassar, with Arabs
and Malays and natives from Allor, Savu, Roti, and Flores ;
besides a crowd in whose veins the degree of comminglement
of blood of all these races would defy the acutest computation.
It was interesting to study the character of each in their
unconscious ways one among each other. The Hindu, with
a stately bearing, carried himself with a natural yet not
offensive, air of superiority ; the non-dominating, provident,
industrious, unobtrusive Mongolian wended his way, obtain-
ing rather than asserting the next place, and was looked. on
with respect and good-neighbourly consideration; the sturdy
Africano rollicked about, noisy (generally drunk), careless,
improvident, hated and feared by the indigenes, who. frater-
nising with none of the interlopers in their land, and keeping
themselves quite to themselves, sat about in small companies
under the trees or on the shore, or moved about in their erect,
haughty, somewhat sullen and suspicious way, but not at
all shunning. the town like the West-Timor people. The
Arab led his secluded life among his own race, energetic,
taking many hard rebuffs with few words, while the Malays,
semi-Malays and trading peoples fraternised pretty freely
with each other on the shore and over the sides of their
praus.
The shop of Ah Ting, Major of the Chinese, was my
favourite study-room while in Dilly, for there during the
whole day came and went an endless succession of these
nationalities for the purpose of barter or simply to lounge.
IN TIMOR. 419
The most marked characteristic of the Timorese is their in-
dependence and self-assurance. With the utmost sang froid
they would occupy all the chairs reserved for the use of
Europeans, without for a moment, even on the entrance of an
official of the Government, thinking of offering to give place,
although on being asked they would remove with perfect good
will, as if it had been a simple omission on their part not to
have done so before. It is innate in him to feel that he is as
good as any one else. Towards their own rajahs, however,
they show much deference and respect, if not servility. One
regrets the difficulty that exists in portraying in written words
the life and vigour of these scenes.
It was interesting to observe the wide contrast between
the character of the Mongolian and that of the Timorese.
The former with extreme patience and perfect good humour,
over and over again taking down, exhibiting, putting up,
discussing the price of the same piece of goods with the’
same individual, who, regardless of time, with him the most
inexhaustible element in nature, would break off without a
word, to examine a score of different things that might
chance to catch his eye, or to join in some discussion carried
on by his friends away in the street perhaps, by-and-bye
to return to only to break off again from his bargaining,
which cannot possibly be concluded till one after another of
his companions has in whispered consultation given his idea
of the transaction under consideration. When at last he has
made up his mind to purchase or exchange his produce for,
say, cloth of so many arm-stretches, if he is not of more than
ordinary stature, he brings the very tallest man of his ac-
quaintance to be his standard of measurement, who considers
it a duty to his friend to adopt every possible device to
expand his chest and arms. Placing the end of the web at
the tip of the longest finger of his left hand, and making a
gigantic inhalation, he runs his right arm out to the fullest
extremity of his finger-tips, invariably succeeding in getting
an inch or two more than he ought as he picks up the mark,
from which he will on no account, even though his eyes be
never taken off the spot, remove his finger till the cloth has
been cut. Should by chance he move his finger the slightest
degree, the whole measurement must be done over again, and
420 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
even after the portion he has purchased has been severed it
must be measured several times over both by himself and his
friends. ‘The suspicious Timorese has wasted his (to him)
valueless time, and has satisfied for the moment his fancy ;
the Mongolian has a profit both on the produce he barters for,
as well as on the commodity he disposes of, and by degrees
amasses riches which the other can never attain to.
On Christmas Day, 1882, with two natives of Goa as
servants, the only men who could be persuaded to venture
among the hills with me, I removed to Fatunaba to super-
intend the erection of my bungalow, making my temporary
quarters in a native shed in the coffee-gardens.
As the royal salute of twenty-one guns boomed from the
fort below me on New Year’s Day, I was reminded that I ought
to be having a holiday; but had I left the men, even for a few
hours, not one of them would have been found on my return,
and days would have been required to hunt them up. On the
3rd, A. joined me, and by the 6th the house was completed
——though the grass roof did not look at all rain-proof—rather
to the astonishment of the Timorese, who perhaps had never
done so continuous a piece of work in their lives before.
When the work was quite finished they demanded a pig to
celebrate the event, in accordance with custom; but as I had
neither flocks nor herds they had to forage in the neighbour-
hood, whence one of them returned shortly with a nice fat
specimen on the point of his spear, which, despite our most
urgent protestations and threats, they cut up and divided in
their own savage way on our new and deliciously clean
verandah. By a-bribe of kanipa (gin) all round we were
relieved of the pleasure of seeing them cook and devour it.
By next day, all our baggage and the implements of our
trade and profession having been dragged up the cliff-like face
ot these “ Tiling-rocks,” as “ Fatunaba ” signifies, our house
was set in order. Notwithstanding its want of elegance, and
an ominous lean that it had to one side, our pile dwelling
with its three rooms opening in a line on to the verandah,
was very comfortable and very convenient. An extra apart-
ment was fitted up to serve for a bath-room in bad weather,
when the delicious natural shower-bath in the stream below
our door couldn’t be used.
IN TIMOR. 421
We were now ready for work; but before beginning in
earnest, we decided to take one undisturbed day of rest. It
was a delightful holiday of inactivity. We were both
enchanted with the outlook from our verandah, whence a
single turn of the eyes commanded a wide and varied scene.
It would be as useless to attempt as impossible to describe
the beauty and our intense enjoyment, of the hourly effects
from dawn to twilight, the myriad combinations of the sun-
light on the near hills, on the surface of the sea, and on the
island peaks of Allor, Kambing, Wetter, whose ridges and
crests rising at varying distances caught the sunlight at
every angle and in every degree of intensity. We felt that
it was well worth not a few privations to live day after day in
the face of a scene of such surpassing loveliness.
My Goa men were both able to shoot, but as neither of them
could skin at all well, my ornithological collections got on
very slowly, for I myself gave the most of my time to the
gathering of plants, which had not been at all carefully collected
in Timor, while of the ornithology of the island, Mr. Wallace
had already given us the chief features. Though no new
birds were shot, those obtained were of great interest to us,
especially the kakuak (Philemon timorensis), whose curious
bawling cry in the gum-trees was invariably the first to
awaken the silence of the dawn and the last to break off at
night, and which had the exact habits of its relative which I
discovered at Larat (P. timorlaoensis). As there, so here also,
a species of Oriole, mimicking it in colour and in form so
closely as to be almost indistinguishable when both birds are
in the hand, was constantly seen feeding in the same tree with
it. That in each of these different islands of the Austro-
Malayan region an Oriole should seek protection under the
egis of the habits and strength of this one genus of birds
and of no other equally powerful or fleet group, and that in
the islands of the neighbouring region, where true Orioles
abound, it has not been found to occur, is one of the most
curious and remarkable facts in the whole of Natural History.
Neopsittacus euteles, a gorgeous little green-and-scarlet parrot,
and the fine white cockatoo (Cacatua sulphwrea)—the males
with black, and the females with red eyes—abounded round
our dwelling, and gave us daily great. pleasure by their
422 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
liveliness and by the snowiness of their plumage. One very
bold visitor we could not bring ourselves to destroy even to.
add to our collection, the lovely scarlet Myzomela vulnerata,
which, when we were quiet, often hopped down even on the
rail of our verandah from its favourite perch on the top of
a gum-tree close by. A Mussenda frondosa bush, and the tall
grass-stems on the other side of the path from our hut were
constantly resorted to by several species of Finch, the pigmy
Amadina insularis, the Munia pallida, and the Estrelda
flavidiventris.
My own hunting grounds were the slopes above our hut,
where the vegetation was very different from that which I had
hitherto been accustomed to in the richly-clad western islands
or in the humid Moluccas. I can scarcely say that we had.
any true forest, for the trees rarely entwined their crowns over-
head, and the ground was covered with sparse grass sufficient
to give it a park-like look. ‘The precipitous ravines afforded
the only really dense vegetation that existed where out I laid
the foundation of a promising herbarium. My means of dry-
ing the specimens, however, were very limited, as I could not
manage at that time to requisition more labour to erect a
drying-house ; and unless in these regions plants are dried
by fire heat, they become mouldy in a very short time even
with the most careful attention, and are then a terrible heart-
break to the collector. I was specially gratified in gathering
on the bare hot clayey face of the mountain a lovely little
sun-dew (Drosera lunata) growing luxuriantly in extensive
patches. Accustomed to gather its kin at home in boggy
heaths, I was surprised to find it fiourishing in so dry an
exposure; but on digging it up I found it held a store of
moisture against hard times in the tuberous roots with which
it was provided. This was a characteristic of not a few of the
herbaceous plants growing on these arid slopes. Another
plant, also of a home-family, one of the Vacciniacex afforded
us a rare pleasure, like a breath from home every time we
ascended to 2000 feet. This shrub, of an undescribed species
I am delighted to find, grew in the ravines in the form of a
tall bush, and has an open tross of rich scarlet waxy bells. Its
low habitat in so hot a region is somewhat surprising; but
the amount of “grey beard” lichen with which, like the rest
IN TIMOR. 423
of the vegetation about it, it was loaded, told how cool and
moist an atmosphere it was living in.
Among the tall grass fields one of the commonest orchids
was the white sweet-scented Habenaria susannex, remarkable
for the great length of its nectaries. Diurnal lepidoptera were
noticeably very few at Fatunaba; but at night more moths
(belonging only to a few species) than at any other station
where I had lived, crowded to my lamp. Among them the
most abundant were two moderate-sized Noctusx, a new species
of Ophiodes and Remigia virbia, and a largish species of
Humming-bird moth (Protoparce orientalis). I made it a
point daily to watch the fertilisation of these Habenarias.
They were invariably cross-fertilised during the night by a
moth which, as it always left a few of its hairs on the stigma,
I feel certain is the same as one and perhaps both of the
Noctu# just mentioned, but the tongue of both species is
far too short ever to reach more than half-way down towards
the minute drop of sweetness concealed at the very tip
of the nectary. The large pollinia in many cases had been
carried only as far as one of the petals or to a neighbouring
leaf, as if the moth, finding the burden too great for it, had
rested there, and succeeded in freeing itself of them.
Collecting was carried on till the end of February with all
the vigour possible, my herbarium especially rapidly increasing
in size; but I had fully expected to have been by then far in
the interior. The weather, however, had been very disastrous
for us, and we had had much difficulty with our servants. It
was a weary tramp up to Fatunaba from Dilly, and as all our
provisions had to be carried by our own men, they very soon
tired of the exertion that this entailed, and of living so far
from the kanipa stores of the town. One of the Goa men
was an inveterate toper, and had very soon to be discharged.
His place was taken by a younger brother, who proved a good
and willing servant; but he could not stand the cold nights of
the mountains, so when he left in ill-health, followed soon
after by his brother dismissed for larceny, their place was
filled by an Allor youth, who knew a little Malay. Goma
was a servant faithful as a dog, strong and willing to work,
but having not the slightest idea of European ways, which he
had never seen, he afforded us much amusement, if not much
424 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
profit, by his willing attempts to serve us. As he was only
delaying in Dilly, for a favourable wind to go home by, we
soon lost him, and for a whole fortnight—days of privation
anything but slight—we had to rely on ourselves for the
performance of all our domestic duties, till our kind helper,
Senhor Albino, sent us a Timorese, the son of a chief in one of
the kingdoms of the interior, who had been for some time a
prisoner in Dilly, but whose freedom was restored to him on
the sole condition of his serving us faithfully as long as we
wanted him.
The results of the haste with which our thatched roof was
finished off soon became evident enough. At times not a single
spot in the hut—except where our bed, roofed over with a
waterproof sheet, stood—was dry. Everything of value, there-
fore, that we possessed, food, books, plants, gunpowder, clothes,
had to be stored on or under this piece of furniture, so that we
derived little rest or comfort from it. The repeated gales bent
the hut itself so far that it would have been carried down the
valley but for a couple of gum-trees which I had to fell and
prop it up with. Our food supply was wretchedly poor and
very scanty, often necessitating a purchasing expedition to
Dilly to replenish our stores—visits which in our solitary life
were red-letter days from the few hours of European inter-
course with our kind friends at thé palace which they brought
us, for which we invariably paid dearly, however, in fever
attacks—in A.’s case of a very violent kind—a few days after
our return. Notwithstanding all these drawbacks, we had no
lack of enjoyment of a most serene description in this rough
and ricketty abode—if in nothing else, certainly in the inex-
pressibly delightful scene ever before us under the morning
and evening sun, and in the bright moonlight nights.
With the natives we had a good deal of intercourse, as they
came often past our but on their way to Dilly wth their
produce—chiefly Indian corn and European potatoes. Their
character did not gain favourably on us. If their demands for
kanipa were not complied with, they took themselves off in a
very offensive and threatening way, muttering curses as they
went. If not watched closely, they were apt to think that
various useful or attractive objects of ours were belongings of
theirs. Among them some had frizzy, some had straight hair,
IN TIMOR. 425
some tall, others again short and stumpy—while in other
characteristics they varied so much that it is impossible to
believe them to belong to a pure race.
The weather by the middle of March having showed signs of
clearing, the Governor with great kindness gave orders for an
escort to be ready to accompany me into the interior as soon as
travelling could be considered safe.
March 29th.—To-morrow, at last, I shall be able to start, my
transport ponies having arrived this evening. To my dismay,
however, only half as many as are necessary for my baggage.
On inquiring of the Hindu officer in charge, I find that it
would require a week to collect the extra number I wish.
The only thing now possible is taking only a portion of the
botanical drying-paper which is bulky and heavy, to advance
at once to Bibicucu and send back for the rest. The saddle
for the pony I am to ride has been forgotten also. The
escort consists of the Hindu officer, who is to act as my guide,
interpreter and adviser, and is charged with full authority
over the rajahs in whose kingdoms I may stay, a Hindu
corporal, and an official of the Rajah of Motael’s kingdom
through which we first pass, who is to be relieved by a like
officer from each kingdom in which I may sojourn. He
must attend from his own Rajah’s headquarters to the head-
quarters of the next Rajah, and is responsible for every item,
not of my baggage only, but of my person also, till relieved by
his fellow in the neighbouring kingdom. My own authority
is a friendly and most plenary document addressed to all the
Rajahs that I may meet in the interior.
‘The whole of East Timor is apportioned out under certain
chiefs called Leorecs, each of whom is independent and abso-
lute in his own kingdom. At present there are forty-seven of
these; but many of them possess far greater influence than,
and exercise a sort of vassalage over, the others. Hach Reno,
or kingdom, is divided into districts each of which is called a
Suku, ruled over by a Dato, who receives his orders from
the Leorei by a special officer appointed for that purpose.
The Dato has under him two other officials, a Cabo and a
Tenente * who assist him in the regulation of the Suku.
Nearly every kingdom has its own dialect. Crawford says
* These terms are probably adopted from the Portuguese.
426 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
that in Timor there are forty different Janguages. I am not
in a position to say whether they are dialects or languages ;
but I observed that in some districts the people did not
understand the speech of their neighbours.
I feel quite anxious at leaving A. here alone. Female
servants are impossible to be found in Dilly; but. the old
woman who looks after the coffee-gardens near us, has agreed
to sleep in the hut within her call, and to assist her in her
few domestic duties. She herself will not hear of any one
else, and scouts the idea of danger from the natives, and is
quite brave over it. Our friends at the palace desire her to
make her home with them, but the fever risks of Dilly are too
great. Ido not like the neighbours over much, and am far
from comfortable in the idea of leaving her so unprotected.
IN TIMOR. 427
CHAPTER II.
ON THE ROAD TO BIBICUQU.
Start for the interior—Vegetation on the way—Roads—Camp on Erlura—
Mt. ‘lehula—Kelehoko and its flora—Pass a night under the eaves of a
native dwelling—Huts in trees—Bed of the River Komai—Pass a night
on Ligidoik Mountain—Character of country—Valley of the Waimatang
Kaimauk—Singular scene—Unburied relatives—Burial rites—Grave-
sticks—Rites attending a king’s death—Swangies—Lose our way—
Flora on Turskain mountain—Rajah of Turskain’s—Botanical excur-
sions—The rites of the sacred Luli and the choosing of warriors—The
Rajah.
AFTER many hours spent in arranging the burdens of the
different ponies and men, I despatched the cavalcade at eleven
o'clock (March 30th). The officer expressed the greatest asto-
nishment at all absence of timidity on A.’s part on being
left alone; but, on being reminded that she was an “ English
Senhora,” he appeared satisfied that the fact was sufficient to
explain the phenomenon. He encouraged her with assurances
that there was nothing to fear for my safety, swearing to her on
the cross-hilt of his sword that if anything befell me it would
be over his body, and solemnly charged also the little old
woman who was to be her factotum, that if she failed in her duty
she might expect, on my return, all the calamities that her
superstition could picture to her. Having constructed for
myself a saddle and stirrups out of my. Ulster coat and a
rope looped at both ends, and given A. a last assuring word,
I followed the cavalcade, ascending the well-known path
above our hut to 2500 feet, where, turning eastward along
the summit of the ridge, we travelled parallel to the coast, on
our way, in the first instance, to the Rajah of Turskain’s.
The vegetation was almost exclusively Melastomucee, with
acacias, tamarinds, and gum-trees, while in the narrowest and
most inaccessible gorges tall graceful tree-ferns abounded
among thick shrubbery, whose components I could not
428 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
identify, and in many places broad areas of Setaria and Pas-
palum grass took the place of all other vegetation.
No such thing as a road exists anywhere in Timor. All
the paths follow “the knife ridges of the hills, or skirt along
the face of precipitous slopes, invariably in deep ditch-like
trenches, out of which a stumble would fatally land either
horse or man hundreds of feet below. The Timor horses are
wonderfully sure-footed, and seem quite accustomed to these
difficult ways.
Having started late in the forenoon, it was found impossible
to reach, before sunset, the hut where we had intended to
camp. As we had no food with us for the men, we were com-
pelled to practise the highwayman’s art on the numerous
natives’ loaded with maize, whom we met going towards
Dilly. From each of them, the rajah’s officer—an official of
their own king—demanded a few heads, which after some
display of authority, were generally given up. After several
acts of this kind, I was surprised to see that those meeting
us even an hour later, on catching sight of us a long distance
off, darted aside down the first declivity out of our way, and,
laden though they were, generally managed to escape. The
intelligence of our coming had been conveyed to them from
the nearest hill-top the first mulcted people had reached.
It is astonishing with what ease and accuracy the Timorese
can convey intelligence from one mountain crest to another.
Nearly every man carries in his wallet (which he never
travels without) a short wooden pipe, by whose curious notes
he can.conyey signal sounds to a long distance; but by the
unaided voice they are able, in a series of what seem only
demoniacal howls, to hold long dialogues from peak to peak
across wide valleys. It was in this way doubtless that our
men were nearly done out of their supper, which according to
the laws of their kingdom the officer was within his right in
demanding.
Reaching about five o’clock a little plateau, known as
Erlura, at 3500 feet above the sea, where we found .a well and
several tall gum-trees with their stems hollowed out by fire,
we camped for the night. After seeing the baggage stowed
inside the trees, I occupied the time till dark in assiduously
collecting the herbaceous plants which dotted the ground. The
IN TIMOR. 429
district being notorious for robbers, we picketed the horses
at dark within a quadrangle of fires—aot an unnecessary pre-
caution ; for in the middle of the night we heard very sus-
picious low whistle-calls several times repeated, which gave
SIGNALLING PIPE,
2
vigour to the “ Alerto!” of our guard. The Timorese are very
clever horse-stealers, I understand, and, by abducting them
off from the very side of. their owners, the astuter thieves
among them have obtained the reputation of being Swangies,
who have the power of making their bodies invisible.
29
430 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Next morning at sunrise, after I had taken a round of
bearings, we started in a south-easterly direction, continually
climbing as on the previous day, along hog’s-back ridges and
round precipitous gorges. On the bare red clay of Mount
Tehula, at 4200 feet, I gathered, with great delight, a new
species of Epacridacez a heath-like plant, which formed inter-
rupted shrubberies all over its summit. From Tchula by a
shallow saddle, we reached Kelehoko, 4600 feet, where un-
horsing to rest for an hour, I made a most interesting collec-
tion of plants, many of them belonging to European families
and genera, violets (V. patrini), geraniums, bright azure
Campanulacez on the bare red soil, oxalis, and a new species
of Orchids, Diuris Sryana of Ridley ; and near it, among the
grass, a new bright species of the Scrophulariacex, belonging
to the genus Buchnera, Hence winding down the valley of
the Komai, on foot, as the path was very steep and unsafe, we
reached about half-way the house-cluster of a native known
to my guide, who had been over all this country during
various revolts.
As it was beginning to rain, we decided to camp here for
the night, and asked to occupy a part of the man’s house.
To this he replied that his dwelling was at our disposal, but
for our own sakes he had rather we did not go inside, as a
child of his had been buried only the day before, and he was
ashamed of the smell left by the dead body; but we might, if
we liked, occupy the platform below the eaves. We accord-
ingly spent the night in this rather cramped situation, com-
pletely protected from rain, and in the morning discovered
that the whole story of the child’s death was a myth; but I
have no doubt that we were more comfortable outside, if the
wreaths of smoke that oozed through the wicker-work sides of
the house gave us any idea of the purity of the atmosphere
within.
The Timorese, differing from the peoples of the Indo-
Malayan region or of the Tenimber Islands, do not live in
villages, but more like the Buruese, in a cluster of family
residences, or in isolated habitations often far distant from
any other dwelling. This Fatete homestead, a single family
abode of one or two houses, was placed in the centre of an
enclosure strongly fenced in by high palings made of longi-
IN TIMOR. 431
tudinal planks and logs of trees intertwined with growing
bamboos and thorny shrubs. The gateway was closed by a
door of a broad solid slab of wood, swung on its lintels by the
two pivots left projecting at the upper and lower corners,
and secured by a bar of-a slender tree. Just inside the gate
stood a little shed, occupied every night by a sentinel on
guard, and where I observed a “dummy” head on the top of
a pole as a warning to thieves and robbers of the reception
that awaited them. Within the enclosure were stockaded
wallowing-pools for the owner’s buffaloes, and stalls for his
goats and ponies in times of alarm, while the ubiquitous pig,
his most treasured possession, had its usual quarters beneath
the dwelling. The houses were of bamboo, the walls—in
which there were no windows—being of several layers of
wicker-work matting, raised several feet off the ground on
strong pillars. The floor projected some feet beyond the walls
all round, forming the platform under the eaves, on which we
camped. Their dwellings are not divided into apartments,
but there are stall-like divisions, which can be closed by
curtains, and are used for sleeping in. A spot is always railed
off for the sacred (lulz) spear, knife and gun, before which
the head of the house makes a propitiatory offering to speed
his particular undertakings. Outside the enclosure, in the
tops of the taller of the gum-trees, were curious miniature
huts, which I at first thought, from the absence of any
ladder, might be pigeon-houses; but they turned out to be
their granaries—reached by climbing the trees—and the
depositories of the more valuable portion of their house-
hold effects, such as plates, bowls of European make, and
cloths. They are invariably placed in high trees whose
trunk was divided into four divaricating arms, on which
two diagonal planks can be fixed to support a firm floor.
They are said to be little subject to the depredations of
rats; but they seemed most tempting objects to every prowl-
ing thief. It may be, however, that they are protected by the
sanctity of the taboo—or, in their own language, are lulz.
Next day, descending by the usual ditch-like paths and
zig-zagging down land-slipped gorges we reached, at 3000
feet above the sea, the bed of the river Komai, a wide channel
several hundred yards in breadth, paved with soft blue-black
432 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
pebbles and ‘sand, through which instead of one large river
numerous small: independent streamlets, some of them pure
and sparkling, but most of them of a blue inky hue, were
meandering their course. A few of these slaty stones were
of red or yellowish colour; I myself observed no granite,
but my boy brought me a porphyritic nodule. Our way lay
down the river-bed, the only good road we had yet traversed,
between banks, from 100 to 150 feet in height of perfectly
horizontal stratified pebbles, laid down in the bed of some
former lake or estuary through which the river, by the slow
elevation of the land is now cutting its way. Tall casuarinas,
loaded with staghorn-ferns, grew at the bases of these pebbly
cliffs and dotted the dry portions of the river-bed:
When we had reached a point 2000 feet above the sea, we
left the river, turning to the right up the long steep slope of
the Ligidoik Mountain, on whose top at 3400 feet we unhorsed
to lunch close to the barricaded dwelling of a sub-chief of the
Motaél kingdom in which we still were. Notwithstanding
the threats of the official ‘of their own kingdom in attendance
on me, we could not succeed in purchasing anything of an
eatable kind except some Indian corn for the men, and had to
be content with the meagre provisions I had myself brought.
Just as we were about to resume our march rain commenced to
fall in torrents, compelling us to demand shelter, which was
ungraciously conceded to us, as on the previous night: below
the eaves of a most wretched hovel.
From our elevated position the whole country within the
sweep of the eye was of a most singular conformation, being
entirely composed of knife-edges, peaks, and precipitous slopes
of deep valleys. It surprised me to observe that it was the
most inaccessible peaks and isolated crags that were crowned
by dwellings, hidden from sight generally among’ groves of
trees. It was easy to see that I was travelling in a lawless
land where every man’s hand was against his neighbour, and -
where therefore every man was constantly and restlessly on the
outlook.
On the following morning (April 2), after I had taken a
series of bearings to all the prominent peaks, we continued
our journey south-eastward, descending 450 feet to the Vekélé
stream, only to wend our way up again 550 feet to the crest of.
IN TIMOR. 433
Lebetutu, over a bleak, stony, almost grassless country. No
sooner had we reached the crest than we began to descend
once more—but less abruptly—into the wide valley of the
Wai-Matang-Kaimauk. The change to a new set of muscles
was at first very agreeable, but ere long I found myself wish-
ing that we were going up, the very reverse of what I was
praying for just before we came over the ridge above us.
There was no improvement in the road, which as hitherto
wound along in an interminable drain, barely wide enough
for single file, worn in some places so deep and narrow
as‘to admit only with difficulty our baggage-laden ponies,
which, startled by the grating of their burdens on the sides of
the defile, were constantly bolting—crashing along headlong,
till their panniers were left behind, or themselves jammed
fast utterly blocking the way, as the towering mass of the
mountain on the one hand, and the precipitous cliffs on the
other, or precipitous cliffs on both hands, prevented all passage
forwards or backwards. It seems to me impossible for a proper
road ever to be made across the island, for, from the moun-
tainous character of the country and the unstable nature of
the soil, the best constructed way must inevitably disappear
each rainy season. “The land of Timor is always falling,” is
the natives’ own account of the country.
Looking down into this valley, the scenery was of a most
singular and striking description. The river was itself the
most prominent feature, like a livid blue-black band drawn
athwart the landscape, clouding rather than enlivening it;
on the further side the mountains, sculptured into peaks and
crags, rose so precipitously as to seem insurmountable, while
their slopes were disfigured by perpendicular livid blue escarp-
ments thrown down by landslips into the valley ; on our own
side of the river several giant, wildly picturesque tribedral
pillars of rock, all of them of nearly equal height, reared their
crags above the level of the mountain slope for some 500 feet.
Between two of these great pillars the homestead of the Dato
of the Suku of Sauo, was most romantically and enticingly
situated, and as it was already late in the afternoon, I decided
to claim his hospitality for the night.
Before reaching his homestead_I noted at a scented lemon
shrub the first butterfly—a Papilio —I had seen since leaving
434 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Fatunaba. Indeed, life of all kinds had been exceedingly
conspicious by its absence; save a scarlet Trichoglossus or a
cockatoo flying across our path, and a few crows at Erlura, I
had seen no birds, and the vegetation since crossing the
Ligidoik river had been very poor indeed. > lunanulu
1000 ~—rihun ida
Tetu,
tassi
taka
malus
kiiki
kis
hedik
lima fuan bdot
raitarutu
aifuan kiiki
aifuan boot
hadak
be
sien diak
loro manu
sedan mara
(sematuk
hena mitin
ai
Kaladi. Lakale.
isa
rua
telu
ait
lima
ne
hitu
walu
sia
sakulu
» resin isa
ranulu ruanulu
tolulu we
atu sisa
Firaku.
u
lolai
lolitu
phar
lima
tahu
fitu
palu
siba
rutu
rudu lolai
rudu lolitu
496 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
IV.—On a new species of CoLEopTERA of the family CrToNIIDa, from
E. Timor. By OvIvER E. Jayson, M.E.S.
CLINTERIA FORBESI, sp. nov.
Above dull black with pate ochreous-yel'ow spots. Head coarsely
punctured, slightly shining at the sides, clypeus moderately emarginate
at the apex, the convex centre and elevated margins pale ochreous.
Thorax sparsely but rather coarsely punctured ; a sub-quadrate spot at
the anterior angles, an elongate one on each side behind, and two spots
on the disk. Elytra depressed, with a sutural and several discal rows
of indistinct semi-circular punctures; a large triangular patch before
the middle, a bi-lobed lateral spot, a small elongate one near the suture,
and a large marginal spot on the apex. Pygidium with coarse inter-
rupted transverse strie and a small spot.on each side. Under-side and
legs shining black, punctate, strigose and with sparse brown pubescence ;
epimera above, sides of sternum and abdomen with pale ochreous spots ;
mesosternal process long, obtuse and slightly oblique. Length, 13 mm.
Timor.
This elegant species appears to be most nearly allied to C. hageni, Rits.
V.—A List of the oncanisms found adhering to three anchors dredged up
from the Bay of Menado, Celebes. By 8. O. Ripuzy, M.A., F.LS., and
J. J. QUELCH, B.Sc., F.Z8, of the British Museum.
A. Corals.
Dendrophyliia, sp. nov.
Phyllangia papuensis, Stud. Very abundant. For a valuable paper,
by Mr. 8. O. Ripiey, On some structures liable to variation, in the
sub-fumily Astrangiacce (Madreporaria), founded on the examina-
tion of this specimen, see Journal Lin. Soe. vol. xvii. 1884, p. 359,
et seqq.; plates. (H. O. F.)
B. Sponges.
Tuba muricina, Lam.
Pachychalina sp.
Euspongia sp.
C. Polyzoa—Cheilostomatu.
AKtia anguina, D.
Microporella ciliata, Pall., var. personata, Bush.
Lepralia pertusa, Espr.
Schizoporella parsevalii, And.
Schizotheca fissa, Busk.
Smithia landsborovi, Johnst.
Cellepora larreyi, And.
sp. indeterm.
cyclostomata.
Crissia holdsworthii, Busk.
ctenostomata.
sp. (apparently new).
D. Hydrozoa—Hydroida.
Tubularia indivisa, D.
rugosa, D’Orb.
Aglaophenia philiprina, Kirch.
laxa, Allman.
IN TIMOR. 497
VI.—Propomvus Fiorz Timorensis ; compiled in the Botanical Department?
of the British Museum. :
The flora of Timor is one of great interest, but only very limited
herbaria exist of it. In preparing the following sketch of the chief
collections made in the island I am greatly indebted for assistance to
Mr. H. N. Ridley.
In 1699-1700 Damerer visited the islands; the few plants he collected
there were described by Ray.
When in 1787, the Bounty, under Captain Bligh, was conveying
bread-fruit trees from Otaheite to the West Indies, the crew mutinied,
and the captain, together with Davin Netson, botanist of the expedi-
tion, and nineteen others of the crew were cast adrift in an open boat,
near the Friendly Islands. They made their way (3600 miles) to Timor,
where Nelson died in 17¢9. The plants he collected in the island are
in the British Museum.
In October 1792, CHristorHeR Suita and JAMES WILES collected a
number of plants in Timor, on their way from Otaheite in the ship
Providence, under Captain Bligh. They took also from Timor and other
Malayan islands various useful plants to introduce together with the
bread-fruit trees, into the West Indies. The plants collected in this
expedition are also in the British Museum. .
In 1803, RrepLé, Saurier, and GuicHENoT, gardeners attached to
the expedition of the vessels Nuturaliste and Géographe, under Captain
Baudin, visited the island. The expedition started from France in
1801, and reached Timor in 1803. The plants were described by De
Caisne in the Nouvelles Annales du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, and are
preserved in the Herbarium Delessert and in the Paris, British, and Kew
Museums.
In April of the same year Ropert Brown stopped at the island for a
short time on his return from the Iter Australiense. He remained in
the neighbourhood of Coupang, West Timor, and made a collection of
considerable extent, containing many plants of extreme interest. These,
together with a manuscript list of their native names, are in the her-
barium of the British Museum, and a set is also in the Vienna herbarium
to which they were presented by Ferdinand Bauer, the companion of
Robert Brown in his travels.
In the end of 1818, Gaupicnaup visited Timor in the voyage of the
Uranie, and in the ‘ Voyage de l’Uranie,’ chapter viii., gives an account
of the island and its products.
In 1818-1819, Caprain {ine visited the island with ALLAN CuNNING-
HAM, who made a small but most interesting collection of plants, which,
with the manuscript account of his travels, are preserved im the British
Museum.
In 1822, Reiswarpt returned to Europe with his collections, which
are in the Leyden Musenm.
In September 1825, Captain Duprrney in the voyage of the Coquille
visited Coupang in West Timor.
Jn 1828, ZipeEL went in the expedition under Dr. Maklot in the Triton
and Iris, to the islands, ‘and collected a number of plants, which are
preserved in the Herbarium Delessert, Paris.
In 1831, J. B. SpanocuE, the Dutch Resident, made explorations in the
west of the island, and sent his collections to Holland. The plants were
published in Hooker’s ‘ Companion to the Botanical Miscellany,’ vol. i,
and ‘ Linnea,’ vol. xv.
498 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Early in 1840, D'UrvILLE touched at Coupang in the voyage of the
Astrolabe, and with Homsron collected: some plants.
In 1848, Carrain Sir Everarp Home collected a few plants in Timor
on his way home from China. ‘
Mr. A. R. Wattacsg, in his célebrated travels in the Archipelago,
resided in several parts of Timor, but though devoting himself almost
exclusively to the zoology of the island, he tound time to make a small
collection of grasses, which aré preserved in the Kew Herbarium.
Mr, J. E. Twysmann devoted a long life to the botanical investigation
of the islands of both the Indo- and Austro-Malayan regions. In his col-
lecting tours on behalf of the Botanical Gardens, Buitenzorg, extending
over a period of nearly half a century, from about 1830-1880, he visited
Timor on more than one occasion. His herbarium is preserved in the
Muscums of both Leyden and Buitenzorg.
Mr. J. G. F. Riepex, at one time Dutch Resident in Coupang, West
Timor, sent to the Botanical Museum in Dresden a collection of plants, of
which a small number were communicated in 1879 to the Kew Her-
barium by Dr. Meyer.
Tue AutHor’s herbarium, from which the new species enumerated
below are described, was made in the eastern portion of the island, from
December 1882 to May 1883.
The various localities where collections were made, are given kere in
the order in which they were visited. A traverse survey was kept up
throughout the journey; but, owing to the extreme inaccuracy in all
existing available maps of several of the initial points ef observation on
which the rst of the traverse depends, it has been found impossible to
lay down my route. Only when a map representing with accuracy the
various positions of the heights and capes of the neighbouring islands ot
Kambing, Wetter, and Allor, has been made, can my geographical
observations be utilised.
1. Fatunasa Hitus.—My camp was pitched at an elevation of 1700
feet on these hills, situated a few miles due south of Dilly, and collec-
tions made from Dec. 19, 1882, to March 20, 18¢8. Excursions were made
all round the neighbourhood.
2. Extura.—My camp, 30th March, 3475 feet above sea level; a long
day’s march on my way to the interior from Fatunaba, situated with the
pour oo Cape bearing N. 64° E. and the peak of Pulo Kambing
3. Farrrs.—Halting-place on the 8lst March, on the W. side of the
wide valley of the Komai.
4. Licrpo1x.—Our halting-place on the 1st April, 3350 ft. on the other
side of the valley. By prismatic compass Fatcte bore N. 45° W.; Cape
Illimanu N. 44° E. and Kabalaki peak W. 48° S. q
5. Savo.—Camp of April 2nd, in the valley of the Wai Matang Kai-
mauk, 3200 ft., Turskain peak bearing S. 18° E.
6. Tursxarn.—Camp from April 3rd to 6th, 4000 fcet above the sea.
Situation: Ligidoik bearing N. 24° W.; Pulo Kambing peak, N. 16° W.;
Kabalaki peak, 8. 47° W.
7. Bisigugu, Rajah’s of—Camp 38000 feet, from April 6th to 22nd.
Situation. Kabalaki peak bearing 8. 75° W.; Luca Cape, 8. 85° E.;
Mount Sobale, N. 40° E.
8. SALUKI, in the kingdom of Bibicugu.—3400 ft. April 22nd to 26th.
Situation: Kabalaki peak bearing S. 70° W.; Barique Mount, EB. 1° 8.
9. KarLanvg, in the kingdom of Bibicneu.—2400 ft. April 26th to 28th.
Situation: Kabalaki peak bearing W. 10° S.; Mount Sobale, N. 3° W
Mount Tabdolat, N. 78° W.
oe)
IN TIMOR. 499
10. Samoro.—April 28th to May 8rd. (a) Rajah’s of, 900 ft. Situation :
Mount Sobale bearing ‘N. 63° W.; Barique Mount, 8. 62° E. (0) Sobale
Mount, 5000 ft. to 6000 ft. Situation: Cape Illimanu hearing N. 5°
E.; Mount Barique E. 35° S.; Wetter Island summit N. 11° W.
11. Lacto.—A village not far inland from the mouth of the river of the
same name, near Cape Ilimanu. I camped here on the 5th May.
Note.— The numbers after a plant—for example: 3610, 7—indicate the
ed in my herbarium, 8610, and the station, 7, where the plant was
OUNH.
PoLyPETALa, by J. Brirren, F.L.S.
Ranunculacez.
Clematis Leschenaultiana, DC.
biternata, DC.
Magnoliacez.
Michelia Champaca, D.
+ velutina, Bl. ?
Anonacez.
Uvaria timorensis, Bl.
glabra, Span.
Mitrephora (?) diversifulia.
Anona muricata, Dun.
Artabotrys odoratissimus, Br.
Menispermacee.
Stephania hernandifolia, Walp. (8. discolor, Walp.), 3610, 7; 3815, 10 b,
Ananirta Cocculus, W. & A. (A. populifolius, Miers.)
Pachygone ovata, Miers.
Pericampylus incanus, Miers, 3626, 4045, 7,
Menispermacea, 4014 (leaves only).
Cruciferz.
Sinapis timoriana, DC. 3787, 9,
Capparidez.
Gynandropsis pentaphylla, DC. 3773, 3939, 4054, 9,
Polanisia viseosx, DC. 3747, pods adhere to everything and thus get
transported; 8.
Cadaba capparoides, DC.
Capparis subcordata, Span.
trapeziflora, Span.
Mariana, Jacq.
dealbata, DC.
pubiflora, DC.
nigricans, Span.
sepiaria, L
elliptica, Span.
sp. (bud). 4024.
Violacee.
Viola Patrinii, DC. 3491, 6.
Ionidium enneaspermum, Vent. “ Timor?”
Alsvdeia macrophylla, Dene.
Bixineex.
Xylosma fragrans, Dene.
Pittosporez.
Pittosporum timorense, Bl
500 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Polygalex.
Polygala persicarisefolia, DC. 3485,2, 88870 betwcen 1Q and 11, 3944, 6.
rufa, Span.
humilis, Span.
Caryophyllex.
Drymaria cordata, L. 3910, 6,
Portulacex.
Portulaca quadrifida, D.
Elatineex.
Flatine ammannoides, W. & A.
Guttifere.
Garcinia timorens's, Span. “ Mihi ignota,” Mig.
Mesua ferrea, L.
Malvacez.
Malva timorensis, DC.
Malvastrumn ruderale, Mig.
spicatum, A. Gr. (R. Brown.)
Sida cistiflora, Bl.
javensis, Cav.
humilis, TV.
subcordata, Span.
rhombifolia, L. 4067, 11,
paucifolia, DC.
acuta, Z. 3549, 6,
retusi, DL. 3665, 7,
Abutilon asiaticum, Don.
crispum, Don. (R. Brown.)
Guichenotianum, Dene.
timorense, Dene.
indicum, W. & A. 3886, 11,
graveolens, W.d A. 4016, 11,
Urena multifida, Cav. 3669, 7; R. Brown, Coupang.
Malachra horrida, Mig.
Pavonia cernua, Mig.
Thespesia Lampas, Dalz. 3438, 4010, 1,
populnea, Cav.
Hibiscus tiliaceus, ZL. 3617, 7,
Rosa-sinensis, L.
timorensis, DC.
virgatus, Bl.
tubulosus, Cav.
Sabdariffa, D.
vitifolius, D.
surattensis, ZL. 8817,10 b.
pungens, Roxb. 3628, 7, 3858 and 3379, 10 b.
radiatus, Cav. (fol. integr. ) 3780, 9. 3879, in part, 19 b.
ficulneus, L. (R. Brown, Coupang.)
Sterculiacez.
Helicteres Isora, D. 3426,1. Flanks of hills, 1990 ft. ‘clayey soil. 3799, 9,
Sterculia urceolata, Sm. “ Timor?”
Abroma fastuosa, Br.
Buettneria flaccida, Span.
Melochia acutangula, Span. “ Stirps dubia.’
Riedleia tilizefolia, DC.
corchorifolia, DC.
Melhania incana, W. & A.
IN TIMOR. 501
Tiliacee.
Corchorus acutangulus, Lam.
olitorius, L.
Triumfetta rotundifolia, Lam.
graveoleus, Bl. 3705, 3908, 7,
angulata, Lam.
pseudo-angulata, Bl. “Timor?”
sp. 3576, 6,
rhomboidea, Jacg. 4090.
Grewia tomentosa, Juss. “ Timor?”
multiflora, Juss. 3727, 8, 3932, 9,
inaequalis, Bl. “'Limor?”
columnaris, Sm. 3782, 9,
Elocarpus cyaneus, Linn.
parviflorus, Span.
sp. (cf. E. rivularis, Viedll.). 3677, 7,
Malpighiacee.
Ryssopterysz, sp. 3647, 7,
sp. 4086, 3758, 8,
microstema, Juss. “Timor? ’
timorensis, Bi.
Hiptage Madablota, Gaertu. 3917, 7,
Zygophyllex.
‘Tribulus terrestris, Z., var. molucc.aous. Bl.
Geraniacez.
Impatiens Balsamina, L.
hirsuta, Steud. (Span.)
minutiflora, Mig. ,,
sp. nov. Kew Herb.
platypetala, Lindl. 3503, 3922, between 5 and 6,
Geranium affine, W. & A. 3818,10 b, 3500, between 3 and 4,
Averrhoa Carambola, DL.
Bilimbi, LZ. (R. Brown.)
Oxalis corniculata, L. 3488,1, 3507, 6, 4027, 3958 a, 7,
Rutacez.
Zanthoxylon alatum, Fozb., ver. exstipulata. 3653, 7, Z. timoriense,
Span.
valin lotifolia, DC. 3620,7, 3851,10 a.
sp.n.? 3870,10h,
Micromelum pubescens. Bl. ?612,7%, 3697, 7,
Tiiphasia monophylia, DC.
trifoliata, DC.
Glycosmis pentaphylla, Colebr.
Murraya exotica, L.
heptaphylla, Span.
Cookia punctata, Retz.
Clau:ena excavata, Burm.
(2) timorensis, Roem.
Citrus Limetta, I?isso.
Simarubez.
Harrisonia Brownii, A. Juss.
Brucea glabrata, Dene.
Ochnaceez. F
Gomphia magnoliefolia, Span. i 7 , wat eles
Castle iesvieata, Sip: Adhbue incognite,” Mig.
Lurseracez.
Canarium microcarpum, W.
Garuga floribunda, Dene.
502 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Meliacezx.
Melia Candollei, Juss,
Twrea pinnata Span.
Amoora timorensis, TW. & A.
Epicharis speciosa, Juss.
(?) setosa, Span.
Xylocarpus granatum, Ken.
lacinex.
Cansjera timorensis, Dene.
Celastrinex.
Celastrus stylosa, Wall. 3829, 10 b.
Enonymous javanicus, BI. 8. timorensis.
Eleodendron ellipiticum, Dene.
Salacia patens, Dene. . 3804, 4075, 10 b.
Hippocratea pauciflora, DC. ;
? cassinoides, DC.
rigida, Span.
Rhamnee.
Zizyphus celtidifolius, DC.
timoriensis, DC.
Jujuba, Lam. 4013, 4020, 11.
Berchemia pubiflora, Mig. '
B.? sp. 3819, 3856, 10 b
Colubrina asiatica, Br.
Gouania leptostuchya, DC.? 3684, 7,
Ampelidez.
Vitis indica, L. “Timor”?
cordata, Wall. (Renth.). 3753 bis, 8,
adnata, Wall. 3459, 1.
discolor, Dalz. 3592, 7,
(Cissus timoriensis, DC.)
( , Jevigata, Bl.)
C 5 aculeata, Span.)
“(Cy coriacea, DC.)
( 5 arachnoidea, Hassk.)
(cf. Cissus mutabilis, Bl. ex descr.) 4043, 10 b
(cf. V. tomentosa, Heyne.) 3450, 3467, 1,
sp. 3739, 8,
sp. 3644, 7,
Leearubra, Bl. 3439, ], 3895, 3896.
sp. 4082.
eequata, L.
sp. 3622, 7,
sp. 3662, 7,
Sapindacee.
Pometia tomentosa, Kurz. 6. cuspidata, Bl.
Scorododendron pallens, Bl. (Erioglossum alliaceum, Span.)
Cupania mutabilis, Miq.
Ratonia sp. 3779, 9,
Spanoghea ferruginea, Bl.
Harpulia cufanioides, Roxb.
Schleichera trijuga, Jv. 4006, 1.
Erioglossum edule, Bl. 8. fraxinifolium.
Allophylus Cobbe, Bl. 3648, 7,
Cardiespermum Hualicacalum, LZ. 3682, 4087, 7,
Atalaya salicifolia, Bl.
Dodonea angustifolia, Bl.
IN TIMOR. ‘508
Anacardiacex.
Semecarpus longifolia, Bl.
Buchanania longifolla, Span.
Mangifera timorensis, Bl.
indica, L.
Spond‘as lutea, LZ.
Connaracez.
Connarus Spanoghei, Bl.
Leguminose.
Tephros'a timoriensis, DC,
ligida, Span.
Indigo‘era cordifolia, Heyn. (Wiles and Smith.)
linifolia, Retz. 35138, between § and 6; on rocky spots, ascending
to Kaimauk, 3500 ft.
viscosa, Lam.
trifoliata, Z., var. tim: rensis.
Psoralea stipulacea, Dene.
Gaudichaudiana, Dene.
Crotalaria calycina, Schrank, 3887, between 10 ani 11,
verrucosa, J. 3578.
prostrata, Rox).
juncea, L.
Jaburnifolia, L.
medicaginea, D. 3153, 4112, 1,
Sesbania grandiflura. 3752, 8,
wgyptiaca, Pers.
Aéschynomene indica, D.
patula, Pers.
(?) atro-purpurea, Span.
Stylosanthes mucronata, W.
Smithia ciliata, Royle. 3512, 6, 3909, 4063, 7,
sensitiva, L.
Zornia angustifolia, Sm.
reticulata, Sm. 8. subglandulosa.
zeylonensis, Pers. yy. gibbosa.
diphylla, Pers. 3499, 6,
Desmodium triflorum, DC. 4073, 3695 a, 7,
pulchellum, Bth. 4009.
timoriense, DC.
concinnum, DC.
latifélium, DC. 8B. Telfairii, W. & A.
gangeticum, DC. 3740, 9,
triquetrum, DC. 3421, 3449, 1; 3456, «.
latitolium, DC. 3471, 1; 3718, 8,
polycarpum, DC. 3153 (part) 1,
Scalpe, DC. 3996.
sp. 4060, 4102.
Dendrolobium umbellatum, W. & A. 4011, 4023.
cephalotes, Bth.
Uraria lagopoides, Desv. 3452, 1,
picta, Desv.
crinita, Desv.
Pseudarthria viscida, W. & A.
Lourea vespertilionis, Desv.
obcordata, Desv.
Lespedeza sericea, Mig. 3357, 8.
Abrus precatorius, L.
Duniasia villosa, DC. 3857, 3873, 10 b.
Mucuna gigantea, DC.
504 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Canavalia obtusifvlia, DC.
virosa, W. & A.
gladiata, DC.
Glycine labialis, L.
Soja hamata, Mig. “Timor? ’
Alysicarpus vaginalis, DC.
bupleurifolius. DC.
longifclius, W. & A.
styracifolius, DC.
Phylacium bractzosum, Benn. 3952, 7,
Phaseolus luuatus, DZ.
Vigna Catiang. 3672, 7,
lobata, Endl.
lanceolata, Benth. 3512, 3,
Dolichos faleatus, Klein. 3529, 3536, 3541, 6 ; 3810, 10 b.
Lablab, LZ. 3749, 8, “ Kutu’' and “Aha,” are the native namics.
Seeds eaten by natives after four times builing in fresh waters.
Cajanus indicus, Spreng.
Atylosia scarabeeoides, Benth.
Suphora glauca, Lesch.
Biachypterum timorense, Benth.
Derris uliginosa, Benth.
Spanogheana, Bl.
Pongamia glabra, Vent.
Dalbergia pubinervis, Span. ‘Species dubia, Mig.”
Flemingia strobilifera, Br.
lineata, Roxb.
Pachyrhizus angulatus, Mich. 4110.
Rhynchosia sericea, Span.
medicaginea, DC.
Candollei, DC.
: minima, DC.
Erioscma chinense, Vog. 3430, 1,
Cesalpinia Nuga, Ait.
ferruginea, Dene.
pulcherrima, Sw. ©4022.
sepiaria Rowb.? 3793, 9, Climber cove:ing great stretches cf
the forest with its bright orange flowers.
Mezoneuron glabra, Desf.
. pubescens, Des/.
Cassia mimosoides, Z. (R. Brown, Coupang). 3473, 1; 3437, 2,
Fistula, Z. 3890,10 a,
megalantha, Dene.
exaltata, Reinw. (sp. dubia.)
Absus, L. 3477, 1,
occidentalis, Z.? (R. Brown, Coupang.
Sophora, L. (R. Brown, Coupang.) 2480, 8503, 4008, 7,
Tora, L. (R. Brown, Coupang.) 3602. 7,
timorensis, Decne. (R. Brown, Coupang.) 3719, 8.
Bauhinia ampla, Span.
racemosa, Lam.
Tamarindus indicus, L. 3132,1, Native name, “Ru.”
acida, Reinw.
sp. (cf. B. glauca, Wail.) R. Brown.
Cynometra caulifiora, L.
Lijuga, Span.
Desmanthus trispermus, Span. “ Forsan Neptunia.” Mig.
Acacia Farnesiana, Willd. (R. Brown.)
tomentella, Zipp.
quadrilateralis, DC.
Allizzia procera, Benth. 3595, 7; 3770, 9,
IN TIMOR. 505
Albizzia lebbekoides, Benth.
stipularis, Boiv. 3683, 4038, 7,
Pithecolobium umbellatum, Bth., B. moniliferum.
? laxiflorum, Bth.
Inga petrocarpa, Span. (sp. dubia.)
Rosacex.
Rubus rosefolius, Sm. 8>74, 10 b; 3518, 6,
sp. 3502, 6; 3913, 4026, 6,
Sp. 3524, 6.
Grangeria borboniea, Lam.
Prunus laurifolia, Dene.
Eriobotrya japonica, Lindl.
Pygeum sp. 3680, 3905, 7,
Suxifragacex. ~
Poylosoma ilicifolia, Bl. 3848, 10 b,
Cucurbitacca.
Trichosanthes bracteata, Vo‘gt.
Momordica Charantia, Z. 6 abbreviata 3764, 9,
Luffa cylindrica, Roem.
8. insularum, Cogn.
Citrullus vulguis, Z. (Cucumis dissectus, Dene.)
Coccinia cordifolia, Cogn. (C. indica, W.& 4.) 4021, 7,
Crassulaccex.
Bryophyllum calycinum, L. 3736, @,
Rhizophorez. +
Carallia timorensis, Bl.
Droseracce.
Drosera lunata, Ham. 3420,1; on rocky spots on red clayey soil, 2500 ft.
Not common below 2000 ft. 3519, G6.
Corobretas x.
Terminalia microcarpa, Dene.
Tagunucularia lutea, Gaud.
Myrtacez.
Eucalyptus alba, Reinw. 3551, 1,
obliqua, Herit.
Jambosa alba, Rumph. 5. timorensis.
Syzygium obovatum, DC. “Timor?”
timorianum, Dene.
Eugenia Smithii, Poir. (Acmena floribunda, DC.) R. Brown.
Barringtonia timorensis, Bl.
Planchonia timoriensis, Bl, B. alata.
Psidium pomiferum, L. 3733, 8.
Deeaspermum paniculatum, Kurz. 3670, 7.
sp. 3585, 7; 3859, 3838, 10 b.
Melastomacez.
Memecylon pauciflorum, Bl. 3598, 7.
Osbeckia chinensis, Z 3550, 6; 4046, 3912, 10 b.
Melastoma malabathricum. 3506, 6; 3822, 3894, 10 b.
Lythrariez.
Suffrenia dichotoma, Mig.
Hapalocarpum indicum, W. & A
Pemphis acidula, Forst.
Lawsonia alba, Lam.
Grislea tomentosa, Roxb
Woodfordia floribunda, Salish. 8425, 1, Common on the ridges of the hills
from 1500-2500 ft.
506 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Onagrariex.
Jussiva angustifolia, Lam.
suffruticosa, L.
repens, L.
Samydacez.
Casearia hexagona, Dene.
B. gelonioides, Bi.
ramiflora, Dene.
Passiflorez.
Disemma timoriana, Mig.
Herbertiana, DC.
Modecea populifolia, Zipp.
Passiflora moluccana, Bl. 3792, 9,
Cucurbitacez.
Trichosanthes bracteata, Voigt.
Momordica chirantia, L., 8. abbreviata. 3764, 9,
Luffa cylindrica, Roem., B. insularum, Cogn.
Citrullus vulgaris, L. (Cuenmis dissectus, Dene.)
Coccinia cordifulia, Cogn. (C. indica, W. & A.) 4021, 7,
Melothria Rauwenhoffii, Cogn . (Zebneria deltoidea, Mig. ) 3457, 1,
heterophylla, Cop. 3685, 7; 3627, 7,
maderaspatana Cogn. (Bi "yonia seubrella, Ser.)
Muellerargia timorensis, Cogn.
Gynostemma? hederefolia, Cogn. (Sicyos LedcrseSolius, Dene.)
Zanonia indica, L.
Alsomitra sarcophylla, Rem. ‘s
timorana, Rem. (Zanonia, Span.) ‘ Noa satis nota.”
Begoniacex.
Mezierea salaziensis, Gaud. (Diploclinium ? timorense, Miz.)
Begonia sp. 386%, 10 b. cp. preceding.
Ficoidex.
Sesuvium (P ee polyandrum, Fenzl.
Glinus lotoides, L£
Mollugo striata, i
oppositifolia, D. 3713, '7; 4100.
Umbelliferz.
Anethum graveolens, DL.
Araliacez.
Heptapleurum verticillatum, Mig.
Arthrophyllum (Nothopanax?) pinnatum, Mig.
Delarbrea paradosa, Vieill. 3641, 4042,'7; 3662, 7; 3756, 8 ; 3899, 10 b.
GAMOLETALA, by W. Fawcert, B. Sc., F.L.S.
Caprifoliacee.
Visurnum Forsesi, Fawe. (nov. sp.). 3587, 3589 (part.), Fahaolat Mount.
5000 ft. between 6 and 7; 4040, 4189, 7, Foliis oppositis petiolatis
elliptico-lanceolatis acuminatis, basi acutis integris membranaceis glabris
in axillis venarum subtus barbatis, venis utrinque 3-4 prominulis; cymis
breviter pubescentibus fructiferis glabrescentibus corymboso-umbellatis
terminalibus foliis triplo brevioribus, bracteis et bracteolis linearibus
deciduis; floribus omnibus conformibus; calyce breviter pubescente,
dentibus 5 brevibus inequalibus integris aut irregulariter dentatis;
corolla parva campanulato-rotundata glabra, lobis 5 tubum squantibus
obtusis ; stylo brevi, stigmatibus 3-4 parum coalitis obtusis; drupa uni-
loculata compressa elliptica; semine endocarpio conformi.
Foliorum Jaminz impunctate 10-14 cm., petioli 14-23 cm. Bractes: 24-3
mm., bracteole 1-13 m.longx Corolla 2mm. longa. Drupa 7 mm. longa,
5-6 mm. lata.
IN TIMOR. 507
This species appears to be near to V. Zippelii, Miq., V. punctatum,
Ham., but differs in the leaves and the indumentum of the calyx.
Viburnum (sp., aut var. praec.?) foliis ovato-lanceolatis acuminatis basi
obtusis ; drupa obovata (flores non vidi). 3872, 10 b.
Composite.
Vernonia cinerea, Less. 4059, 1,
var. erigeroides. (R. Brown, Coupang.).
var. ¢. DC. (V. parviflora, Reinw.). (R. Brown, Coupang.)
Elepliantopus scaber, L.
Adenostemmu viscosum, Forst. ‘R. Brown, Coupang.).
Dichrocephala latifolia, DC. 3537. 4066, 6,
Microglossa volubilis, DC. 321, 7,
Bacchaiis? arborea, L.
Blumea tenella, DC. (Timor only; see note on Timor species of Blumea,
by C. B. Clarke, in ‘FI. Brit. Ind, ini. 671.)
fasciculata, DC. (excl. sp. Birman.).
timorensis, DC.
‘laciniata, DC. (B. cichoriifolia, DC.)
sessiliflora, Decne.
acutata, DC.
viminea. DC.
ee. DC. 3498, 2, and at Kilehoho, 3400-4000 ft. between
and 3,
Wightiana, DC. (Timor, Teysmann; see Martelli in ‘N. Giorn.
Bot. Ital.’ xv. 29v.)
Pluchea indica, Less.
Spheranthus africanus, Z. (S. microvephalus, DC.)
Monenteles redolens, Labill.
tomentusus, Schz. Bip. (R. Brown, Coupang.)
Gnaphalium luteo-album, D. 3943, between 2 and 3; 4025, 6.
Wedelia calendulacea, Less. (R. Brown, Coupang.) 3497, valley of
Erlihumauberek, 3500 ft. April. 3848,10 a,
Wollastonia moluccana, DC. (Wedelia, B. & H.) 3928, § (also specimen
with 3567). ©
asperrima, Decne.
glabrata, DC.
Wedelia biflora, Hook. f. (Wollastonia scabriuscula, DC.) 3567, 6,
Bidens pilosa, ZL. (R. Brown, Coupang.) 3488, 3489, 2 5 3595, 6 ; 37u4a, 7,
Tagetes patula, ZL. 3559. In abundance by the sides of stream below
furskain, 3000 ft.; distant from any habitation. (Native of Mexico.)
Chrysanthemum coronarium, L. Cultd.; native of Mediterranean regions.
Centipeda orbicularis, Lour. 3667, 7,
Erechthites quadridentata, DC.
Emilia sonchifolia, DC. 3443, 1: 3493, 3955, 6,
Senecio appendiculatus, Less. (fide Decaisne; “endemic” in Mauritius,
J. G. Baker.).
Lactuca levigata, DC. (Aracium levigutum, Mig.) 3706, 7,
Rubiacez.
Nauclea grandifolia, DC.
glandulifera, Span.
sericea, Span.
sp.; 3769, 9.
Hymenoiyction timoranum, Mig. (Cinchona timorana, Span.)
Dentella repens, Forst. (R. Brown’s list, Coupang).
Argostemma timorense, Benn. (R. Brown, Coupang.)
Oldenlandia paniculata, L. 38797; 9, _(R. Brown, Coupang.)
sp., flowers white. 3547. 6,
alata, Ken. (pterita, Miq.).
Ophiorrhiza tomentosa, Jack. 3934, 9,
Mungos, L. (8. Brown, Coupang; “ Nama.”)
508 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Musseenda frondosa, L. 3433, 1,
Randia maculata, Span.
Fernelia buxifolia, Lam. Var. timorensis, Deene. F. buxifolia occurs only in
Mauritius and Rodriguez.
Guettarda speciosa, LZ. (R. Brown’s list, Coupang.)
Timonius Rumphii, DC; 3659, 7, Var. 3436, 3906 (with 3646), 1
Knoxia corymbosa, Willd. 3523, 4028, 4069, 6,
Canthopsis pubiflora, Mig. (Endemic monotypic genus.) A.Cunningham, 514,
Txora timorensis, Decne. (Pavetta timorensis, Mig.). 3798,9, 4076, 7,
(found also in Australia).
coccinea, L. (Sir E. Home, Coupang.)
Txora Gractuis, R. Br. mss. (R. Brown and D. Nelson, Timor, Herb. Banks.) —
Stipulis basi connatis dilatatu-ovatis abrupte et longiter cuspidatis, persis-
tentibus ; foliis glabris petiolatis lanceolatis aut ovali-lanceolatis utrinque
acutis aut apice subacuminatis, 6-15 cm. Jongis, supremis seepe parvis basi
rotundatis, membranaceis, nec nigris siccatis, venis pluribus patulis
tenere venulosis; corymbis terminalibus gracilibus trichotome ramosis
laxis, 12-16 em. altis, 12 cm. latis, pedicellis brevissime pubescentibus
corolla tubo brevioribus, bracteolis parvis subulatis; calyce brevissime
pubescente, dentibus 4 brevibus triangulari-ovatis acutis ; corolla glabra,
tubo angusto 11-14 mm. longo, laciniis 4 ellipticis acutis 8 mm. longis;
staminibus 4 exsertis; stylo parum exserto,-ramis 2 brevibus acutis
reflexis ; bacca 6-7 mm. lata, pyrenis 1 aut 2. The flowersare quite unlike
those of I. niyricans, as the tube is more slender, and the limb in bud
is more than twice as broad. ;
Ixora Quinquiripa, R. Br. mss. (D. Nelson, Timor, in Herb. Banks.).—Stipu-
lis basi connatis triangularibus cuspidatis deciduis ; foliis glabris breviter
petiolatis Janceolato-oblongis acuminatis basi subobtusis subcoriaceis,
11-21 em. longis; paniculis terminalibus brachiatis, 9 cm. altis et latis,
pedicellis glabris corolle tubo brevioribus, bracteis parvis vix 2 cm.
longis ovatis acuminatis, bracteis secondariis 7 mm. longis, bracteolis
nullis aut caducis; ealycis glabri dentibus brevissimis aut obsoletis;
corolla fauce barbato, tubo 10 em. longo, laciniis 5 ellipticis acutis, 6-7
mm. longis; staminibus 5 exsertis; stylo parum exserto, ramis 2 brevibus
acutis.
Pavctta indica, Z. 3675, 7,
longipes, DC.
Myonima ovata, Deene. (Muuritius.)
Morinda citrifolia, Z.
Gynochtodes coriacea, Bl.
Psychotria montana, Bl. 39303, 3907, 3916, 10 b.
barbata, Span.
? sp. parviflora, Span. (D. Nelson in Herb. Banks).
Chasalia capitata, DO. (Mauritius; Timor, fide Decaisne.)
Geophila reniformis, G. Don. 3715, 8,
Peederia feetida, L. (R. Brown's list, Coupang, “ Tali.)
Spermacoce stricta, Linn. f. (R. Brown, Coupang.) 3666, 7,
ocymoides, Burm. (R. Brown, Coupang.)
hispida, Z. (R. Brown, Coupang.)
Bigelovia suciata, Span.
? pumila, Span.
? angustifolia, Span.
Galium rotundifolium, LZ. 3861, 19 b; 6000 feet; 4070, 6.
6; 4000 feet.
Goodenoviex.
Sceevola Lobelia, L. (R. Brown’s list, Coupang.)
.
Campanulacee.
Sphenoclea zeylanica, Gert.
Wahlenbergia gracilis, UC. On rocky exposed banks, 3511 and 4048, 3;
3914, 4065, 7,
IN TIMOR. 509
Vacciniacex.
VACCINIUM TIMORENSE, Faice. (nov. sp.),—Frutex, ramulis petiolis racemis
calycibu-que pubcscentibus; foliis brevi-petiolatis lanccolatis utrinque
acutis 22-30 mm. longis integris p!anis coriaceis glabris supra lucidis
subtus pallidis; racemis 4 em. lonzis axillaribus subsecundis, pedicellis
6-8 mm. longis; calyce 2-3 mm. longo, lobis tubi longitudine acutis ;
coroll. 4-6 mm. longa tubulari rosea; filamentis stauminum pilosis, loculis
antherarum ellipticis minutissimis spinulis tectis dorso muticis in tubulos
breves rectos apice apertes productis ; disco ep:gyno pubescente extrorsum
sinnato: bacea 5 mm. longa globos: glabrescente nigra. This species
differs from V. ellipticum especially in the flat lanceolate leaves and
glabrous fruils. “3423, straggling shrub; rose-coloured flowers; dark
ercen fruit, becoming black when ripe; 1, 3586, large shrub; flowers
scarlet; Tahaolat Mt., 5000 feet; April.”
B. denticulatum. ©3447, large bush, flowers rose coloured, on slopes of
gorges. Foliage larger than in 3423, and margins of Icaves slightly
deuticulate ; ],”
Eyacridex.
LEvcorocun opovaTts, Fue. (nov. sp.),—Frutex erectus, ramulis pubes
centibus; foliis conferiis erecto-imbricat’s sessilibus obovato-lanceolatis
acutis, mucrone rigido terminatis, planis seepe snbconcavis, 15 mm. longis,
3 mm. latis; pedunculis axillaribus brevissimis 1- aut 2-floris; bracteis
minimis; bracteolis latis obtusis, culyce dimidio brevioribus; calycis
laciniis latis obtusis mucronat:s ciliolatis 2} mm. longis; corolla calycibus
longiore, lobis acutis; staminibu; fauci affixis, antheris obtusis; ovaric
5-loculari; drupa 1- aut 2-loculari subglobosa calycibus longiore, disco
hypogyno subconvexo sublobato coronata. This species resembles L.
ruscifolius, L. moluccanum, L. lancifolius, and L. javanicus, but differs in
severil particulars, such as shape of leaves, sepals, and fruit. 3493 a.
On top of Tehkulah, 4000 fect; April; fruit green.
Ulumsaginer.
Plumbago zeylanica, L. 3778, 3778, 9, (R. Brown’s list, Coupang, * Akar
lucca.”)
Primulacee.
Lysimachia decurrens, Forst. 33501, 6, In this specimen the stamens are
not so long as the oblung corolla tubes; but this may be due to di-
morphism.
Myrsinez
Mesa indica, A. DC.; 3613, Var. Wightiana, A. DC. (leq. Spanoghe, fide
Scheffer).
Masa PuLcHELia, Fawe. (nov. sp.),—Foliis petiolatis glabris levigatis
nitidis integris aut glandulose remote serratis, lanceolatis utrinque acutis
chartaceis; racemis basi ramosis axillaribus et terminalibus folio sub-
longioribus glabris; pedicellis florem equantibus; bracteis lanceolatis
acuminatis, pedicelli triplo brevioribus; bracteolis ovato-lanceolatis
ciliolatis eilyce multo brevioribus; flor:‘bus pentameris; calycis laciniis
triangularibus ciliolatis; corolla calyce duplo longiore, laciniis ovato-
rotundatis; ovarium fere inferum.
Folia 10-13 cm. longa, 3-4 cm. Jata venis primariis utrinque 4-5, secundariis
obseuris. 3556, 3565, @ ; 3573, river Lanks, 6; 4103, 8,
Masa verrucosa, Scheff. 3763, small tree, 9,
leucocarpa, Bl. (“ Timor? prope Mallathoi, Reinwardt,” Scheffer).
Ardisia Spanoghei, Scheff. (Spanoghe).
fiangulelifolia, Scheff. Zipp. mss. ; leg. Zipp. ct Span.) i
Ebenacee.
Diospyros timoriana, Miq.
montana, Hoxb., var. cordifolia, Hiern
maritima, Bl.
510 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Oleacez:.
Jasminum Sambac, Ait. A. Cunningham.
simplicifolium, Forst. BR. Brown.
pubescens, Willd. A. Cunningham.
Chionanthus montana, Bl.
timorensis, Bl.
Noronhia emarginata, Pet. Th.
Nyctanthes arbor-tristis, Z. (R. Brown, Coupang.)
Apocynacezx.
Me topints Forsesi, Fawe. (nov. sp.),—Foliis ovato-lanceolatis basi rotun-
datis breviter petiolatis glamis supra nitidis pergamaceis; cymis termina-
libus fulio multo breviorbus multifloris coarctatis, ramis pedicellisque
incan»-subvelutinis glabrescentibus bracteatis, pedicellis calyce hi evioribus,
“ floribus albis fragrantibus,” (H:0.F.) ; lobis calycinis ovatis obtusis glabris
ciliatis; corolla extus subvelutina, tubo tereti intus supra stamina dense
velutino, limbi laciniis oblique obovato-rotundatis parce et brevissime pilosis,
fauce hispidis, squamis 10 linearibus acutis glabris superne liberis inferne
decurrentibus ; staminibus ad medium tubum inclusis, filamentis anthera
duplo brevioribus; ovario supra ba-im unicellulari, stigmatis apiculo bifido.
Folia 12-14 em. longa, 34-4 cm. lata, petioli 5-6 mm. longi. Corolle
tubus 10 mm., limbus 6 mmm. longus. 3708,7, This species comes near
to M. Cumingii, but the flowers are smaller, the stamens placed higher
up in the tube, and the apex of the stigma is bifid; the ovary is only
partially two-celled.
Melodinus terminalis, Span. (unde:cr:bed; perhaps the same as the species
described above).
Cari-sa Carandas, L.
Rauwolfia sumatrana, Juck, var. longifolia, Bl.
Alyxia Spanogheana, Mig.
'Taberneemontana orientalis, R. Br. 3781, 9.
Vallaris Pergulana, Burm.
Parsonsia spiralis, Wall.
Cerbera Odallam, Gert.
Wrightia pubescens, 2. Br.
calycina, A. DC. var. y. Mig.
tinctoria, Bl.
limorensis, Mig.
Spanogheana, Mig.
Alstonia scholaris, R. Br.
speclabilis, R. Br.
macrophylla, Wall.
sericea, Bl.
Anodendron paniculatum, A. DC.
Plumeria acutifolia, Poir. (R. Brown’s list, Coupang, “ Bonge tonke.”’)
be oe Willd. (‘In hortis,’ Spanoghe). Abundant in river beds below
Kalakuk.
Asclepiadez.
Cryptolepis laxiflora, Bl.
Secamone micrantha, Decne.
timorensis, Decne.
Calotropis gigantea, Br. (R. Brown’s list Coupang, “ Daun susu.”)
Tylophora crassifolia, Deene. (Zipp. mms.)
villosa, Bl. (fide Zippel).
cuspidata, Decne. (Zipp. mss.)
Marsdenia tenacissima, Wight & Arn.
Pergularia odoratissima, Sm.
bifida, Decne, (Zipp. mss.)
tomentosa, Span. (P. erocca, Zipp. mss.)
Dregea volubilis, Benth.
Gymnema syringwfolia, Benth.
IN TIMOR. 511
Gymnema albidum, Decne.
Dischidia orbicularis, Deene.
timorensis, Decne.
Hoya laurifulia, Decne.
CEROPEGIA OBTUSILOBA, Fawe. (nov. sp.),—Volubilis, glabra; foliis ovatis
attenuato-acuminatis basi rotundatis membranaceis ciliolatis subrepando
dentatis, lamina 5-7 cm. longa, petiolo 1-2 em. longo; pedunculis foliis
dimidio brevioribus, floribus 3-7 pedicellatis; calycis laciniis subulato-
acuminatis 2-24 mm. longis; corollis 13-2} cm. longis, tubo intus circa
stamina piloso; coronz lobis exterioribus 10 brevibus obtusis pilosis
interioribus 5 longis linearibus cubspathulatis, 3801, flowers dark reddish-
brown; 9,
Loganiacex.
Buddleia asiatica, Lour. 3723, 8,
Strychnos ligustrina, Bl.
Mitrasacme pygmea, Br. 3492, 3; 3884, 10 b.
trinervis, Span. Probably same as M. pyqmea.
Geniostoma montanum, Zol!, & Mor. 3552, 6; 3616, 3654, 3947, 7,
Boraginezx.
Tournefortia argentea, L. f. (Spanoghe, R. Brown’s list, Coupang.)
sarmentosa, Lamk. 3835, 10 b
‘ordia subcordata, Lamk. (Wiles and Smith, Coupang.)
trichostemon, DC.
subpubescens, Deene. (“ Kanoena,” Spanoghe.) +
Ebretia laurifolia, Deene.
timorensis, Decne.
buxifolia. Roxb.
Heliotropium indicum, Z. (LR. Brown’s list, Coupang, “ Daun futer.”)
Convoleulacez.
Argyreia Reinwardtiana, Miq.
Guichenotii, Chois.
Lettsomia setosa, Roxb.
Tpomcea bona-nox, L. (R. Brown’s list, Coupang.)
grandiflora, Lamk. 3773, 9,
capillata, Span.
aquatien, Forsk. (8. reptans, Poir., R. Brown's list, Coupang.)
reniformis, Chuis.
angustifolia, Jacg. 3751, 8,
chryseides, Ker.
trichocalyx, Steud. (? R. Brown, Coupang.
obscura, Ker. 4004, 1,
sepiaria, Ken.
campauulata, L.
eym. sa, Roem.
petaloidea, Chois.
pes-capre, Sw. (R. Brown’s list, Coupang.)
vitifolia, Sw.
pumila, Span.
digitata, L.
Quamoclit. DL. 3871,10 b.
repanda, Jacq. (Wiles and Smith, Coupang.)
hederacea, Jacq. 3776, 9; 4105, 1; 4108, 9, (R. Brown, Cou-
pang.)
Hewittia bicolor, Wight.
Convolvulus parviflorus, Vahl.
Porana volubilis, Burn.
racemosa, Roxb. 4104, 1,
Evolvulus alsinoides, D.
Cuscuta reflexa, Roxb.
monogyna, Vahl.
o12 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Soldnazex.
Lycopersicum esculentum, Mill. (R. Brown’s list, Coupang, “Mattoo
mattee.”’)
Solanum aviculare, Forst.
dianthophorum, Dun
horridum, Dun.
violaceum, Br.
verbascifolium, D. 3623, 7; 3898, 10 b; 4036, 7,
nigrum, EL. 38785, 9; 3826, 3881, 10 b.
indicum, Z. 3841, 10 b.
barbisetum, Nees. ? 3634,'7 ; 4008, 8 ; 4096, 10.
Melongena, L. 3786, 9; 4091, 1; flowers small, 8 lines in
diameter; fruit, 1 inch.
torvum, Sw. 3806,10 b.
denticulatum, Bl. 3164, 1,
Capsicum frutescens, L. Spanoghe.
minimum, Roxb.
Nicotiana suaveolens, Lehm. 4
Tabacum, L. H.O.F. No number.
Physalis minima, L.
Datura Metel, L
fastucsa, L. 3759, 9; 4064. 9,
Scrophularince.
Mazus levifvlius, Bi.
gratissima, B/.
Herpestis floribunda, Br.
Monniera, H.B.I.
Bonnaya brachiata, Link & Otto.
veroniceefolia, Spreng.
Buchnera arguta, Decne.
ramosissima, R. Br.
tomentosa, B/. 3805, 3811, 10b. (lM. Brown, Ccupang.)
asperata, R. Br.
BucunERaA TiMoRENSIS, Fawe. (nov. sp.),—Pubescens, caule crecto simplici
10-28 em. alto; foliis oppositis integris, radicalibus et iufimis subrosulatis
obovatis 8-16 mm. longis, caulinis oblongis et superne linearibus; spice:
interrupta ; bracteis 2-23 mm. longis, lanceolatis acuminatis pubescentibus
calyce plus din:idio brevioribus; calyce fructifero 4-5 mm. longo, 2 mm.
lato, pubescente, deutibus brevibus lanceolatis; corolla glabra 1-1} cm.
longa, tubo calyce duplo longiore; capsulis vix exsertis. ‘This species
differs from its nearest Australian allies, and also from B. arguta, in the
large ecrolla combined with small leaves and low simple stem. 34194,
floweis pink; among grass on top of Kilehoho; between 2 and 3, at 4600
feet.
BucHNERA EXSERTA, Fave. (nov. sp.).—Scabro-pubescens, caule crecto ramoso
2-9 dm. alto; foliis alternis, supe rioribus suboppositis lanccolato-oblongis
obtusis integris aut 1epando-dentatis; spica multiflora interrupts ;
bracteis ovato-lanceolatis scabris, calyce dimidio brevioribus, intimis
sepe longioibus; calyce fructitero 4-5 mm. longo, 2 mm. lato, pubescenti-
scabro, dentibus brevibus triangularibus acut's; corolla glabra calycibus
duplo longiore; capsulis longe exsertis. This species is remarkable for its
long capsule. 3811, b's. 10 b. (R. Brown, Coupang.)
Striga Spanogheana, Miq.
parviflora, Benth. (R. Brown, Coupang.) 38737; flowers bluish-
purple, 8,
multiflora, Benth. (R. Brown, Coupang.)
Torenia minuta, Bl. 3483, 1; 3950. 7,
peduncularis, Benth. 3440, 4058, 1, The flowers are somewhat
smaller than in the description in ‘F']. Brit. Ind., the lower stamens
are longer and the upper shorter than in plate 4229, Bot. Mag.
IN TIMOR 513
Scoparia dulcis, D. 4109.
Sopubia trifida, Ham. 3555, 6,
Gesneracex.
Rhyncoglossum obliquum, Bl.
Epithema Brunonis, Deene.
difforme, Span.
CyRTANDRA SERRATA, Fave. (nov. sp.), “ Arbuscula ” (H. O. F.),—Foliis serra-
tis late lanceolatis utrinque attenuatis subinaqualibus glabris, majoribus
2 din, Jongis, 45 mm. latis, nervis obscure pubescentibus primariis laterali-
bus utrinque $-]0, petiolis 15-20 mm.; pedunculis 0-5 mm.; bracteis
(? caducis) ; pedicellis 2-3, 2 cm. longis, umbellatim ortis; valyce fructifero
6-8 mm. tongo, 5-fido, campanulato, glabro, lobis + mm. longis lancevlatis
acuminatis; corolla .. .; ovario . . .; disco annulari; bacce ellipsoidea.
Apparently near to C. cuneata, but differs in being glabrous, in the szrrte
long-petioled haves, and the short peduncles. 3868, 3883, 10 b.
Bignoniacex.
Millingtonia hortensis, L. f.
Dolichaudione Rheedii, Seem.
Colea ramifiora, DC.
Pedalinezx.
Josephinia Imperatricis, Vent.
Sesamum indicum, DC. (BR. Brown, Coupang, “ Lena.”)
Murtynia diandra, Glow. 3454, and 4052, 1, (Mevico.)
Acanthacex.
Thunbergia fragrans, Roxb. (R. Brown, and Smith and Wiles, Coupang.)
fragrans, var. levis, C. B. Clarke. 3783, 9; 3852, 10 a; 4053. 1
hastata, Decne.
Nomapliila petiolatu, Deene.
Sautiera Decaisnii, Nees. (monotypic endemic genus). A. Cunningham, 320.
Ruellia '-irsuta, Nees.
Decaisniana, Nees.
prostrata, Lam., var. dejeeta, C. B. Cl.
Strobilanthes timorensis, Nees.
: aspera, Deene. A. Cunningham.
Barleria Prionitis, D.
Lepidagathis humifusa, Decne.
javanica, Bl.
repens, Decne.
Justicia Gendarussa, L. f. 3774, 9,
procumbens, L. 3986, 2; 3528, 6; 3691, 7,
Eranthemun bicolor, Schr. (R. Brown, and Smith and Wilcs, Coupang.)
Dicliptera glabra, Decne. A. Cunningham.
eriantha, Decne.
spicata, Decne.
Burmanni, Nees.
Peristrophe albiflora, Hassh.
Hypoestes rosea, Decne.
Asystasia chelonoides, Nees. (R. Brown, Coupang.)
coiomandeliana, Nees. 4083, 8; 4047,7,
DIANTHERA TERMINALIS, Fawe. (nov. sp.),—Caule debili, inferne decumbente ;
fuliis longe petiolatis, lanceolatis, utrinque acuminatis, seepe basi rotun-
dalis, supra paucissiinis pilis, infra nervis pubescentibus, majoribus cum
petiolo 15 em. longis 4 em. Jatis, superioribus subsessilibuis 23-5 cm.
longis; paniculis terminalibus pubescentibus 5-25 cm. longis, ramis
oppositis dichctomis, pediccllis brevissimis filiformibus; bracteis et brac-
teolis minutis, subulatis; calyce 5-partito, laciniis eequalibus subulatis,
breviter glanduloso-pubescente; corolla lem. longa, tubo recto; labio
superiore bifide; staminibus 2 ad medium tubum corollee allixis, non ultra
summum tubum attingentibus, filamentis filiformibus; disco annulari;
514 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
capsula oblonga apice acuta tetrasperma. 3814, 10 a; 3821, 4030, 10 b;
var. grandiflora, corolla 13 cm. longo, tubo ampliato; paniculo glanduloso-
pubescente. Zollinger, No. 2951, Java.
——
“erbenacee.
Petra ARBOREA, Kunth., Smith and Wiles—No species of this tropical
American genus has hitherto been recorded as spontaneous in the Old
World, but Mr. Forbes has also met with it in Java in an undonbtedly
wild state, and in great plenty (see p. 78). It is not at all improbable that
it will he met with in other localities. A nearly allied genus has lately
heen described by Prof. Oliver in Ic. Plant. (Pl. 1420), namely Petreovitex.
The only species of this genus known, P. Riedelii, was obtained a short
time ago by Mr. Riedel’s collectors in the island of Buru; but it is
reporte! from Amboina by Rumphius (Vol. v., p. 4, t. 3) in 1747 under the
name Funis quadrifidus, and specimens in fruit exist in Brit. Mus. Herb.,
collected by Christopher Smith in 1798 in Honimoa or Saparua, an
island near Amboina.
Vitex trifolia, L., var. unifolinta. 3726, 3,
pubescens, Vahi. 4056, 1,
Negundo, L. (R. Brown, Coupang, “ Lagoundi.”)
timoriensis, Walp. A. Cunningham.
CLERODENDRON PULCHRUM, Fawe. (nov. sp.),—Rumulis, paniculis, et petiolis
brevissime tomentosis; foliis longe petiolatis cordatis ovato-rotundatis
acuminatis integris repando-sinuatis, subtus stiigoso-hirtellis, supra paene
glabris, majoribus cum petio'o 24-30 em. longis; panicula terminali corym-
hosa; calycibus 8 mm. longis glahris, fructiferis non auctis, lobis 5 mm.
longis, lanceolatis; corollis ‘ corallinis,” (H. O. F.) glabris, tnbo 25 mm.
longo; staminibus longe exsertis; drupa globosa 4-sulcata tenuiter succosa,
pyrenibus 4 per paria cohzrentibus. This isa well-marked specics, with its
large deeply cordate leaves, the long-tubed corolla, and calyx not enlarged
in fruit. 3604, 7; 3000 ft.; April.
Clerodendron inerme, Gertn.
longifiorum, Decne.
Callicarpa cana, L. (R. Brown, Coupang; C. sp. in list, “ Cadia Bousson.”)
pedunculata, 72. Br. 3465, 1,
sumatrana, Mig.? 3€01, 7,
Premna timoriana, Decne.
corymbosa, Rottl.
sp. 3611, 3638, 3892, 4088; tree; fruit becoming black, 7,
Tectona grandis, Linn. f. (R. Biown’s list, Coupang, “ Jdatti.”)
Lippia nodiflora, Rich. (R. Brown’s list, Coupang.)
Labiate.
Ocimum Basilicum, Z. (R. Brown, Coupang.)
sanctum, L. (R. Brown, Coupang.)
Moschosma polystachyum, Benth.
Plectranthus parviflurus, Willd. (P. australis, 2. Br.’. 3888, Letween 10-11,
Coleus grandifolius, Benth.
scutellarivides, Benth. (R. Brown, Coupang, ‘ Bounga tunta.”)
secundiflorus, Benth.
Hyptis brevipes, Poit. 3563.
Calamintha moluccana, Mig.
Scutellaria heteropoda, Mig. 3429. Leaves spread out on surface of ground,
flowers deep cobalt blue. On ridges and crevices exposed to sun on rel
clayey soil; 1; 3533, 6,
Anisomeles candicans, Benth.
ovata, R. Br. (R. Brown, Coupang.)
salviifolia, R. Br.
Leucas procumbens, Desf.
decemdendata, Sm. (Gaudichaud; R. Brown, Coupang, “ Kappa
Ma.”’)
javanica, Benth. 2 chinensis, Span., Timor).
IN TIMOR. 515
Teucrium viscidum, Bl. (Fava.)
8. densiflora, Mig. (Limor,)
Cymaria acuminata, Decne.
APETAL®, by W. Fawcett, B. Sc., F.L.S.
Nyctaginex.
Mirabilis Jalupa, Z. (R. Brown’s list, “ Bounga mattari.”)
Boerhaavia repanda. W. (R. Brown, Coupang. This may be the species
denoted in his list, as B. tetran-lra, “ Lei lidi. ’)
diffusa, ZL. 4033, 9.
a. obtusiloba, Chois.
B. acutifulia, Chois. (R. Brown, Coupang.)
y- pubescens, Chois. (B. glutinosa, Vahl.)
Pisonia excelsa, Bl.
Amarantacex.
Deeringia baccata, Mog. (D. celosioides, R. Br.) 3056, 7, 4012, 1,
Cclosia cristata, Moq.
argentea, LD.
Amarantus spinosus, L. (R. Brown's list, Coupang. “ Wajang.”) 3455,
3166, 3930.
mangostanus, L.
oleraceus, DL.
polygamus, Mig. (R. Brown’s list, Coupang. A. sp., “Sayal
Badjang.”’)
Ptilotus corymbosus, R. Br. ‘Timor?
Pupalia lJappacea, Mog. (R. Brown's list, Coupang, “Bounga Makriti”
aud “Susoro.”) 3775; 9,
atropurpurea, Mogq.
B. pallida, Moz.
ZErua sanguinolenta, B’.
timorensis, Moq.
Achyranthes tomentella. Zipp. :
aspera. L. (R. Brown's list, Coupang, “ Susoro” and “ Kakai.”)
Alternanthera nodiflora, 2. Br.
Gomphrena globesa, L.
Chenopodiacex.
Arthrocnemum fruticosum, Moz.
indicum, Mog.
Salsola australis, R. Br.
brachypteris, Moq.
Polyqonacez.
Polygonum barbatum, L. 3572, 6; also with 3522.
chinense, L. 3532, between § and 6, Turksain river, 3000 ft.
flaccidum, Roxb. ’
Rumex nepalensis, Spr., var. 3539.
Aristelochiacez.
Aristolochia timorensis, Decne.
Piperacee.
Piper subpeltatum, Willd. 3901, 3657, '%, The natives eat the leaves
instead of the ordinary szré,
Betle, L.
officinarum, C. DC.
arborescens, Roxb. 3698; 7,
arcuatum, Bl., with 3854; 10 b. .
Peperomia tomentosa, A. Dietr. 3755; in clefts of rocks, 8
516 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Laurinex.
Litsea timoriana, Span. (Tetranthera discolor, Bl.)
sebifera, Pers, (Letranthera laurifolia, Jacq.) :
e. platyphylla, Bl, 2424, g, 13; 3636, 381, 4074, 9, large tree, 7,
(Cylicodaphue) diversifolia, Bl. 3605, 365 a, 3873, 4035, 7; 3815,
3853, 10 b.
Illigera dubia, Span.
Cassytha pubescens, 2. Br.
Cinnamomu:n? 3655, 7,
Thymeleacce.
Pime.ea ureviri Ba, Fuwe. (nov. sp.),—Heihacer creeta, annua (?), glabra,
semipedalis; foliis subspathulatis oppositis alternisve ; involucris gamo-
phyllis turbinatis 4-5 mm. latis, lobis 4 ovulibus obtusis 6-10 mm. longis,
tubo 2-4 mm. longo; florivus hermaphroitis albis; pedicellis brevibus
compressis ad medium tnbum affixis ; periauthiis involucii lobo brevioribus
aut longioribus, tubo 6-7 mm. longo, angusto, post anthesin supra
ovarium circumscisso, lobis obtusis 13-2 mm. longis; staminibus 13 mm.
longis, connective avgusto; cxocarpio membranaceo; seminis superficie
nigra reticulata, albumine parev ; «mbryonis cotyledonibus ovalibus, 1 1.
longs.
This species differs fiom its nearest allies in the involncre as well as,
in other respects, ¢.g., from P. cornucopix, Vahl. and P. punicea, R. By.
in the sLort peduncle and general habit ; from P. concreta, F. Muell, in the
filaments; aud from P. sanguinea, F. Muell,in the perianth. It is the only
one at present described us occurring beyond the limits of Australia and
New Zealand. There is a small specimen in the Br. Mus. Herb., collected
oa the island of Savu, near Timor, by Banks and Solander, which is
very like this species in habit, but differs in the involucre, which is more
like that of P. punicea, R. Br. 3828; flowers white; in giass. 10 b,
Wikstroemia Spanovhii, Deen. i
Drymispermum laurifolium, Decne. 4050, 9,
Eleaqnacez.
Eleagnus ferruginea, Rich.? 3570; flowers dirty white dott.d with rusty
red, 6,
Loranthacez.
Viscum orientale TV.
aiticulatum, Burm., v. timoriense, DC.
Loranthus longiflorus, Desr. 3844, flowers scarlet. 10 b,
obovatus, Bl, var. minor (R. Brown, Coupaug.)
indicus, Desr.
triflorus, Span.
pendulus, Sieb. 3548; parasitic on 3544; purple calyx, purple
anther-tipsin Lud; 6,
Euphorbiacce.
Daphniphyllum Zollingeri, Muell. Arg.? _3807, 3809, 3882, tree, 10 b.
Dodecasteinon Teysmunni, £. timorens:s, Mig.
Bridelia ovata, Decne.
Andrachne fruticosa, Deene.
Phyllanthus Casticum, Muell. Arg. var. 3642, small tree, 7; var. fasci-
culatus.
reticulatus, Poir.
B. giaber, Muell. Arg.
maderaspatensis, L.
Niruri, Z. “ Taou.’ (R. Brown’s list, Coupang.)
Urinaria, D. 38936.
distichus, Muell. Arg. ‘Sala melee.” (R. Brown’s list, Cou-
pang.)
nodiflora, Muell. Arg. ‘
IN TIMOR. 517
Phylanthus obliquus, Muell. Arg.
_ spp. 3802, 3834.
Breynia cernua, Muell. Arg.
oblongifolia, Muell. Arg. (A. Cunningham, 317.)
sp. 3652. .
Croton caudatus; a. denticulatus, Mull. Arg.
Codizum moluccanum, Deene.
Claoxylon iridicum, Hassh.
Cephualocroton discolor ; 8. virens, Mueil. Arg.
Gelonium glomerulatum, Hussi.
Mallotus molucecanus, DC. 3745, 8, (R. Brown, Coupang.)
ricinoides, Muell. Arg. 3058; young foliage, lake-scarlet, 4,
repandus, var. scabrifolius, Muell. Arg.
seandens, Muell. Arg. (Spanoghe, Coupang.)
Philippinensis, Muell. Arg. 3766, 9,
liliefolius, Muell. Arg. (R. Browu, Coupang.)
muricatus, Muell. Arq.
Macaranga Tanarius, Muell. Arq.
Acalypha integrifolia, 17. CR. Brown's list, Coupang. A. sp. “ Tataka.”)
brachystachya. Hornem. 3574, 6,
Alchornea javensis, Muell. Arg.
Cleidion javanicum, Bl.
Excecaria Agallociia, L.
Antidesma paniculatum, Bl.
Stillingia sebifera, Michz. 3650, 7,
Euphorbia levis, Poir.
serruJata, Reinw.
neriifolia, L. (R. Brown’s list, Coupang, “ Laous.”)
congenera, Bl.
thymifolia, Burm. ‘
Ricinus communis, L. (R. Brown's list, Coupang, “ Daminar Eude.’’)
Jatropha Curcas. (R. Brown's list, Coupang, “ Dammar.” )
Urticacez.
Sponia timorensis, Decne. 3720; §,
amboinuensis, Decnz. 3988, 3935, 9 ; 3723, 8,
Celtis timorensis, Span.
Fleurya cordata, Gandich.
interrupta, Gaudich. (R. brown, Coupang.)
Laportea peltata, Gaudich.
Urera acuminata, Gaudich. (Mauritius.)
Girardinia zeylanica, Decne,
Pilea lurens, Wedd.
Procr's pedunculata, Wedd.
Tatoua pilosa, Gaud. 3571, 7, CR. Brown, Coupang.)
lanceolata, Decne.
Pouzolzia laevigata, Gaud. Mauritius; Timor, fide Decaisne.
indica, L. (R. Brown, Coupang.)
Pipturus argenteus, Wedd. 3742, 8,
i incanus, Wedd. 3686, 40:8, 7,
Phyllochlamys spinosa, Ld. Bur.
Malaisia turtuosa, Blanco.
Ficus indica, Z. (QR. Brown's list, Coupang, “Tijka” ; Gaud., “ Goudas.”)
teligiosa, L. (K. Brown’s list, Coupang ; Gaudichaud, “ Goudas.”
repens, Willd. (KR. Brown’s list, Conpang.)*
Artocarpus integrifolia, Bl. 3777, 4024, 9,
incisa, Z. (R. Brown’s list, Coupang.)
* The species of Ficus collected by Mr. Forbes will be noticed by Dr. G.
King, of the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta, in his forthcoming illustrated Mono-
graph on the group.
518 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Cudrania javanensis, Trée. 3731; 8,
Bochmeria platyphylla, Don, var. 3911.
Debregeasia longifulia, Wedd. 3635; fruit bright orange, 7; 3778.
Casuarinee.
Casuarina montana, Mig. 3514, ¢, slopes of valley of Waimatang Kaimauk,
3200 ft., 3746, 8; 3836,10 a; 9,1,
Conifere.
Dacrydium sp. 3855, 10 b.
Monocoryiepones, by H. N. Riprzy, M.A., F.L.S.
Hydrocharidex.
Ottelia alismoidces, Rich. (Coupang, R. Brown.)
Orchidex.
OBERONIA GLANDULIFERA, Ridl. (sp. ncv.).—Acaulis, foliis ensiformibus equi-
tantibus acutis 4-uncialibus; scapo gracili longo multifloro; fioribus
parvis subverticillatis ; bracteis lanceolatis acutis serratis ; sepalibus ovatis
obtusis integris, petalis subsimilibus angustioribus; labello brevi lato
carnosulo obscure 5-lobo, lobis lateralibus erectis rolumnam amplecten-
tibus, lobo medio 3-lobo, lateralibus rotundatis obtusis, medio obscuro
parvo obtuso, margine Jabelli in sinubus inter lobos lateral-s et lobum
medium glanduloso; 3591, 7; flowers greenish-yellow.
Liparis disticha, Lindl. \
Liraris avurita, Ridl. (sp. nov.), 3714, 7,—“ Flowers orange and light red.”
Epiphyta, pseudobulbis parvis ovatis viridibus; foliis linearibus lanceolatis
subaculis petiolatis; caulibus erectis gracilibus: bracteis dissitis ovatis
acutis; floribus copiosis parvis; sepalibus linearibus lanceolatis; petalis
linearibus ; labello oblongo abrupte deflexo, costis duabus ad basin crassis,
lobis lateralibus brevibus erectis cornutis, lobo medio oblongo, trilobo,
Jateralibus linearibus convolutis, intermedio breviore obtuso; columna
brevi rectiuscula crassa, alis brevibus duabus; capsula pedicellata glubosa.
Dendrobium afiine, Dec.
es macrophyllum (Veitchianum.) 3761, 9,
grandifiorum. Ldl. 3820,10 b,
calophyllum, Réhb. fil.
Spathoglettis plicata, Bl. 3504; sides of stream Maukuda, ncar station, 6;
3923, near 10 ba.
Cyrtopera bicolor. (Eulophia bicolor, Bl.)
Sareanthus timoriensis, Deene.
(Erides timorianum, Mig.
Vanda tricolor, Iindl.; 3794, 9,
Tropidia curculigoides, Bl. Fowers white; 3795, 9,
Microtis parviflora, R. Br. 3563, 6, This species, of a typically Australian
genus, occurs algo in the Loyalty Islands, the Isle of Pines, New Caledonia
and New Zealand.
Spiranthes australis, R. Br. 3824, 3825, 3862, 10 b.
CaLaDENIA JAVANICcA, Benn. MS. in Herb. Brit. Mus. ; 3516 [errore 3506] 6,
“ Among grass on rocky slope, 8,”—Terrestris, caule erecto hispido ; folio
singulo lineari; bracteis brevibus ovatis lanceolatis acutis hispidis;
floribus 2 parvis; pedicellis quam bractea brevioribus; sepalis oblongis
lanceolatis brevibus acutis hispidis; petalis subequalibus; labello lato
costato purpureo, pustulis flavis ornate; columna curva purpureo-ornata,
anthera apiculata. Allied to C. carnea, R. Br.
Tuetymirna Forsestt, Ridl. (sp. nov.).—Terrestis, caule gracili, 5-unciali ;
folio singulo anguste lineari glabra 3-unciali; vaginis caulinis 2; flore
singulo; bractea ovario ferme zquante lanceolata acuta; sepalis lanceo-
latis linearibus acutis; petalis latioribus lanceolatis ; columna brevi curva
crassiuscula ciliata; labello late lanceolato punctato obtuso. Quite
distinct from T. javanica, BI.,and most nearly approaching the T. rubra of
Australia. 3509, 3; flowers purple. Bare banks.
°
IN TIMOR. 519
Divris Fryaxa, Ridl. (sp. nov.), 3508; “flowers yellow”; near 2,—Herba
terrestris; tuberibus duobus ovatis; caule ereeto gracili $-1-pedali; foliis
anguste linearibus acuminatis longis; floribus paucis 1-2 pedicellatis ;
pedicello longiusculo; bractea lanceolata longe acuminata ; sepalo postico
ovato-obtusv, basi paul'o angustato; lateralibus linearibus obtusis
porrectis parallelis ; petalis ovatis obtusis basi angustatis: labello elongato
3-lobo, lobis lateralibus obtusis crenulatis venosis crectis, medio longo
obscure 3-lobo costis tribus, duabus lateralibus ad basin, una media
ad apicem; marginibus labelli deflexis; columna brevi, alis majusculis,
basi dilatata, non denticulata. This record extends the range of the genus
Diuris, hitherto only known from Australia, to the Malayan region.
{I have taken the liberty of asking Mr. Ridley to name this intcresting
species in honour of the Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Fry, who during my travels
in the East, expressed great interest in my observations, and who has
given much attention to the Orchidea aud tuo the question of their
fertilisation. H. O. F.]
Hanenarta (PERISTYLUS) TIMORENSIS, Ridl. (sp. nov.).—Terrestris, tubere
oblongo, foliis busalibus duobus ovatis oblongis ; vaginis 4-lanceolatis longe
acuminatis; scapo subsracili vix pedale ; racemo Jaxiusculo ; fleribus circiter
11 parvis; bracteis lanceolatis acuminatis; sepalo pustico cucullato ovato
acuminato, lateralibus lanccolatis acutis; petalibus subsimilibus angus-
tioribus; Jabello obcuneato, breviter 3-lobo, basi[petalis scpalisque adnatis,
callo cainoso semicirculari, lobis lateralibus Jatis, medio brevi obtuso,
caleare scrotiformi, apiculato columna brevissima; anthera lata, loculis
parallelis, polliniis grosse granulusis, caudiculis brevibus ; stigmate breviter
bilobo. Its affinity is with H. spiralis, Wight. 3520, 6, Flowers yellow-
ish-green.
Bevenes Susanne, Benth. 3437, 1; very swect nectar at tip of the nectary ;
nectaries 53-in. in average length. Fertiliscd by a species of
Ophiodes and Remigia virbia moths.
grandis, Benth. 31442, 1, Nectaries with swect nectar; the
anthers burst of themselves and polleu falls out as minute
particles.
sp. aff. angustata, Bl.
Herminium angustifolium, Benth. In rocky spots, by side of a strcam.
3561, 6; 3521, 6; 3515, 6; 3823, 10 b.
Scitaminee.
Globba strobilifera, Zoll. Mor. (R. Brown, Coupang.)
Hedychium coronarium. Koen. 3712 a, and. 4113, 7,
Curcuma (prob. sp. nov.). 3146, 1,
Costus speciosus, L. 373!, 8.
Canna indica, ZL. 3750 and 4009, 8, (R. Brown. Coupang.)
Musa paradisiaca, L.
Hypoxidez.
Hypozis aurea, Lour. (H. Franquevillei, Miq.). '
hygrometrica, var. pratensis, 72. Br. 3564, 6, Hitherto only known
from Australia.
Anmiryllidez.
Crinum asiaticum, Roxb.
Dioscoreacez.
Dioxcorea globosa, Roxb. 3819, 10 a.
pentaphylla, Lam. 6, 3689,7 ; 3900, 10 a, °, 4080, 0. (R. Brown,
Coupang.)
Trichodesma zeylanica, R. Br. var.
Taccacez.
Tacca palmata, Bl. 3765, 9, ; Z
pinnatifida, Forst. 4017, 9; 3735, 8; nom ind. “ Telo.
520 A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS
Liliacez.
Smilax timorensis, Bl. 3741, 8, The two pairs of umbels of flowers together
serve clearly to distinguish it from S. latifolia.
anceps, Willd.—This Muscarine plant was said hy Desnisne to have
been collected in ‘Timor by Riedlé and Guichenot. De Candolle
says that the specimens on which Decaisne founded his species are
without flowers and very doubtful. It seems more probable they
belong to S. timorensis, and hardly likely that a plaut known only
from the Mascarine Islauds and Madagascar should be found also
in Timor.
FEvstTrePuus trmorensis, Ridl. (sp. nov.)—Frutex scandens, caulibus tenui-
bus; foliis glabris alternis lucidis striolatis sexcostatis lancevlatis minute
apiculatis brevi-petiolatis; petiolis tortis; bracteis deciduis parvis vagin-
antibus ovatis purpurascentibus ; inflorescentia composita éerminali cymoza,
pedicellis florum tenuibus; bacca subglobosa nigra pericarpio tenui;
pulpa parva ; seminibus 1-3 nigris levibus politis, oblongis subtriangulatis,
embryone in medio albuminis cornci parum curvo. ‘his isa very interesting
plant, of which unfortunately we have not the flowers. The only other
species in the genus, £. Brown, is a well-known Australian plant, with
pink flowers and orange berries. 3530, §,
Laxmannia sessiliflora, Decne. Uxclusively Australian genus.
Curdyline timoriensis, Bl.
Dracena timorensis, Kth. (D. reflexa, Decaisne.)
Asparagus racemosus W. (Asparagopsis Decaisnei, Kth.) “ Samodok nehau,"
native name. 3800, 9,
Gloriosa superba, Z. 3435, 1; 3827, 10 a, 3430, 1,
Pontederiacex.
Monochoria vaginalis, Deene.
Commelinacezx.
Aneilema nudiflornm, R. Br. 3548, 6; 3789, 9.
Cyanotis cristata, R. aud 8. 3724, 8.
Palme.
Metroxylon Rumphii, Mart.
Areca catechu, Roxb.
Cocos nuc‘fera, L.
Pandanee.
reycinctia angustifolia, Bl. (R. Brown, Coupang.)
candens, Gaud. &577, 6.
Pandanus sp.
Aroid x.
Typhonium divaricatum, Deene.
sp. fruit. (R. Brown, Coupang.).
Aviseema sp., in fruit only. 3633, 7,
Remusatia vivipara, Schott. 3788, 9; on calcareous rocks.
Rhaphidophora pertusa, Schott. (CR. Brown, Coupang.)
Caladium esculentum, Schott. (R. Brown, Coupang.)
Amorphophallus campauulatus, Decne.
Cyperacez,
Cyperus hyalinus, Vahl. (R. Brown, Coupang.) stitution of the Luli, 442
Timor, East, territorial divisions of,
425; dialects of, 425; description of
country, 432, 433; dialects spoken
in, 490; law in, how exercised, 473 ;
death and burial rites in, 435
Timor-laut, start for, 298; first im-
pressions of, 303; its flatness, 332;
want of hills and streams, 332; de-
rivation of name, 331; dangers in,
304, 327; hardships in, 338; pleasures
in, 339; isolation when in, 339; its
fauna, 336; reptiles in, 337; floral
features of, 303, 334; natural pro-
ducts of, 306 ; friendliness of natives,
305; mauvais quart dheure in, 330—
Timor-laut islanders, artistic ability of,
317; appreciate bright colours, 317 ;
dwellings of, 318; great drunkards,
328; burial rites and places of, 322;
stature, colour of skin, 310; facialand
eranial characters of, 310, 311, 340;
moral characters of, 313, 314, 319,
536
INDEX.
320; food of, 314; religion of, 314;
marriage laws and rites of, 315;
departure from, 339.
Tiohmomon, pass through villaze of,
140
Titles in the Lampongs, 143
Tjipanas lot springs, 67
Irachycomus cchrocephalus, 36
Trading, manner of, of the Kubus, 235
“ Trassi,’ native condiment, 60
Trepsichrois mulciber mimicked by
Amesia, 139; ran-deventeri, new sp.,
274
Treub’s, Dr., observations on Myrme-
codia and Hydnophytum, 82
Trientalis europza, 78
Tringoides, 177
Tropical vegetation, 128
Tropic bird, 33
Trogons, colour in feathers of, 172
‘Turrets, earth-worm, 227
Turskain, Rajah’s of, flora near, 440;
arrival at; 441; the Rajah of, 447
Tweeddale, Lord, on birds of Sumatr.,
268
Uma-luli (in Timor), 442; account of,
443-445, 447
Upas tree, notes un, 112
Urostigma microcarpum, 77; consocia-
tum, 77
-Urortigma tree, giant in Lampongs, 153 |
Urtica ovalifolia, used to cure fatigue,
397
Vacciniacex near Dilly, 422
Vaccinium floribundum, in craters, 114;
forbesi, a new species, 209, 210, 278
Vanda insignis, 471
Van der Weide, Major, 408
Van Deventer, Justice and Madame,
408
Vanity of men of Timor-laut about
their hnir, 307
Versification in Kisam, 181
View going up the Dempo, 210
Vinca rosea, 284
Viola alata, in Java, 112; patrinii, 430
Vocabulary of Timor words, $91
Vocabulary of Ké and Timor-laut
words, 383
Voleanic flora in Java, 78, 114
Wai-apu rivcr, 393
Wai, Bay of, great beauty of submarine
gardens in, 295
Waitidal, visit to, 827
Wakolo lake, superstitions about, 405;
storms on, 406 ; no fish in, 406 ; birds
of, 406; herbarium from, lost, 407;
natives about, 401, 402; their physical
characters, 402; ornaments of, 402
dress of, 403
Wallace Channel, in Timor-Jaut, 331
Wallace, Mr. A. R., collected birds in
Sumatra, 268; plants from Timor,
498 ; on birds of Buru, 409; on great
mammalia of Sumatra, 165
War ceremonies in Timor, 445-446,
450, 451
Wasilalé, camp at, 398; dwellings at,
399
Watcrhouse, Mr. Charles O., on Cole-
optera from Timor-lant, 370; de-
scriptions of insects by, 276
Water-lilies in the rice-tields, 170
Water proofing i in Buru, 403
Water roads in Sumatran forest, 254 .
Wau-wau Gibbon, 76
Wave, earthquake, Keeling Islands i =
19.
Wayang, Mount, in Java, 108
White ants, 73, 74
White-eyes (Zosterops), 210, 212, 394;
in Banda, 287
Whortleberry, “ Long-age,” 209, £10 |
Wife-clans in Timor, 457
Wild dogs in Java, 116; native
accounts of habits of, and super-
stitions about, 116
Wiles’, James, plants from Timor, 497
Wollastonia asperrima, 447
Woman, position of the, in Passumah,
196; in Timor-laut, 815; in Buru,
490; in Timcr, 463
Wood-carving in Kenali, 168; in Kisam,
180; among Timorese, 464; in Ti-
mor-laut, 317
Words, Buruese, 411
Xeropteryx simplicior, 177
Xylocopa, 72
Zethus cyanopterus, mimicry in, 72, 73
Zippel’s plants from Timor, 497
Zizyphus jujuba, 480
Zosterops, chloris, 287; chlorata, 210,
212; fertilising Vaccinium, 210
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