When This Bird Is Seen
Feeding On The Ground, It Appears Wonderful How It Can Rise Into
The Air With Such A Long And Cumbersome Train Of Feathers.
It
does so however with great ease, by running quickly for a short
distance, and then rising obliquely; and will fly over trees of a
considerable height.
I also obtained here a specimen of the rare
green jungle-fowl (Gallus furcatus), whose back and neck are
beautifully scaled with bronzy feathers, and whose smooth-edged
oval comb is of a violet purple colour, changing to green at the
base. It is also remarkable in possessing a single large wattle
beneath its throat, brightly coloured in three patches of red,
yellow, and blue. The common jungle-cock (Gallus bankiva) was
also obtained here. It is almost exactly like a common game-cock,
but the voice is different, being much shorter and more abrupt;
hence its native name is Bekeko. Six different kinds of
woodpeckers and four kingfishers were found here, the fine
hornbill, Buceros lunatus, more than four feet long, and the
pretty little lorikeet, Loriculus pusillus, scarcely more than as
many inches.
One morning, as I was preparing and arranging specimens, I was
told there was to be a trial; and presently four or five men came
in and squatted down on a mat under the audience-shed in the
court. The chief then came in with his clerk, and sat down
opposite them. Each spoke in turn, telling his own tale, and then
I found that those who first entered were the prisoner, accuser,
policemen, and witness, and that the prisoner was indicated
solely by having a loose piece of cord twilled around his wrists,
but not tied. It was a case of robbery, and after the evidence
was given, and a few questions had been asked by the chief, the
accused said a few words, and then sentence was pronounced, which
was a fine. The parties then got up and walked away together,
seeming quite friendly; and throughout there was nothing in the
manner of any one present indicating passion or ill-feeling - a
very good illustration of the Malayan type of character.
In a month's collecting at Wonosaleni and Djapannan I accumulated
ninety-eight species of birds, but a most miserable lot of
insects. I then determined to leave East Java and try the more
moist and luxuriant districts at the western extremity of the
island. I returned to Sourabaya by water, in a roomy boat which
brought myself, servants, and baggage at one-fifth the expense it
had cost me to come to Modjo-kerto. The river has been rendered
navigable by being carefully banked up, but with the usual effect
of rendering the adjacent country liable occasionally to severe
floods. An immense traffic passes down this river; and at a lock
we passed through, a mile of laden boats were waiting two or
three deep, which pass through in their turn six at a time.
A few days afterwards I went by steamer to Batavia, where I
stayed about a week at the chief hotel, while I made arrangements
for a trip into the interior. The business part of the city is
near the harbour, but the hotels and all the residences of the
officials and European merchants are in a suburb two miles off,
laid out in wide streets and squares so as to cover a great
extent of ground. This is very inconvenient for visitors, as the
only public conveyances are handsome two-horse carriages, whose
lowest charge is five guilders (8s. 4d.) for half a day, so that
an hour's business in the morning and a visit in the evening
costs 16s. 8d. a day for carriage hire alone.
Batavia agrees very well with Mr. Money's graphic account of it,
except that his "clear canals" were all muddy, and his "smooth
gravel drives" up to the houses were one and all formed of coarse
pebbles, very painful to walk upon, and hardly explained by the
fact that in Batavia everybody drives, as it can hardly be
supposed that people never walk in their gardens. The Hôtel des
Indes was very comfortable, each visitor having a sitting-room
and bedroom opening on a verandah, where he can take his morning
coffee and afternoon tea. In the centre of the quadrangle is a
building containing a number of marble baths always ready for
use; and there is an excellent table d'hôte breakfast at ten, and
dinner at six, for all which there is a moderate charge per day.
I went by coach to Buitenzorg, forty miles inland and about a
thousand feet above the sea, celebrated for its delicious climate
and its Botanical Gardens. With the latter I was somewhat
disappointed. The walks were all of loose pebbles, making any
lengthened wanderings about them very tiring and painful under a
tropical sun. The gardens are no doubt wonderfully rich in
tropical and especially in Malayan plants, but there is a great
absence of skillful laying-out; there are not enough men to keep
the place thoroughly in order, and the plants themselves are
seldom to be compared for luxuriance and beauty to the same
species grown in our hothouses. This can easily be explained. The
plants can rarely be placed in natural or very favourable
conditions. The climate is either too hot or too cool, too moist
or too dry, for a large proportion of them, and they seldom get
the exact quantity of shade or the right quality of soil to suit
them. In our stoves these varied conditions can be supplied to
each individual plant far better than in a large garden, where
the fact that the plants are most of them growing in or near
their native country is supposed to preclude, the necessity of
giving them much individual attention. Still, however, there is
much to admire here. There are avenues of stately palms, and
clumps of bamboos of perhaps fifty different kinds; and an
endless variety of tropical shrubs and trees with strange and
beautiful foliage.
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