In Such Places I Found A Good Many Birds,
Among Which Were The Fine Cream-Coloured Pigeon, Carpophaga
Luctuosa, And
The rare blue-headed roller, Coracias temmincki,
which has a most discordant voice, and generally goes in pairs,
flying from
Tree to tree, and exhibiting while at rest that all-
in-a-heap appearance and jerking motion of the head and tail
which are so characteristic of the great Fissirostral group to
which it belongs. From this habit alone, the kingfishers, bee-
eaters, rollers, trogons, and South American puff-birds, might be
grouped together by a person who had observed them in a state of
nature, but who had never had an opportunity of examining their
form and structure in detail. Thousands of crows, rather smaller
than our rook, keep up a constant cawing in these plantations;
the curious wood-swallows (Artami), which closely resemble
swallows in their habits and flight but differ much in form and
structure, twitter from the tree-tops; while a lyre-tailed
drongo-shrike, with brilliant black plumage and milk-white eyes,
continually deceives the naturalist by the variety of its
unmelodious notes.
In the more shady parts butterflies were tolerably abundant; the
most common being species of Euplaea and Danais, which frequent
gardens and shrubberies, and owing to their weak flight are
easily captured. A beautiful pale blue and black butterfly, which
flutters along near the ground among the thickets, and settles
occasionally upon flowers, was one of the most striking; and
scarcely less so, was one with a rich orange band on a blackish
ground - these both belong to the Pieridae, the group that
contains our common white butterflies, although differing so much
from them in appearance. Both were quite new to European
naturalists. [The former has been named Eronia tritaea; the
latter Tachyris ithonae.] Now and then I extended my walks some
miles further, to the only patch of true forest I could find,
accompanied by my two boys with guns and insect-net. We used to
start early, taking our breakfast with us, and eating it wherever
we could find shade and water. At such times my Macassar boys
would put a minute fragment of rice and meat or fish on a leaf,
and lay it on a stone or stump as an offering to the deity of the
spot; for though nominal Mahometans the Macassar people retain
many pagan superstitions, and are but lax in their religious
observances. Pork, it is true, they hold in abhorrence, but will
not refuse wine when offered them, and consume immense quantities
of "sagueir," or palm-wine, which is about as intoxicating as
ordinary beer or cider. When well made it is a very refreshing
drink, and we often took a draught at some of the little sheds
dignified by the name of bazaars, which are scattered about the
country wherever there is any traffic.
One day Mr. Mesman told me of a larger piece of forest where he
sometimes went to shoot deer, but he assured me it was much
further off, and that there were no birds.
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