Then
Stretching Himself Along The Limb, He Crept Towards The Nearest Comb
And Swung The Torch Just Under It.
The moment the smoke touched it,
its colour changed in a most curious manner from black to white, the
myriads of bees that had covered it flying off and forming a dense
cloud above and around.
The man then lay at full length along the
limb, and brushed off the remaining bees with his hand, and then
drawing his knife cut off the comb at one slice close to the tree, and
attaching the thin cord to it, let it down to his companions below. He
was all this time enveloped in a crowd of angry bees, and how he bore
their stings so coolly, and went on with his work at that giddy height
so deliberately, was more than I could understand. The bees were
evidently not stupified by the smoke or driven away far by it, and it
was impossible that the small stream from the torch could protect his
whole body when at work. There were three other combs on the same
tree, and all were successively taken, and furnished the whole party
with a luscious feast of honey and young bees, as well as a valuable
lot of wax.
After two of the combs had been let down, the bees became rather
numerous below, flying about wildly and stinging viciously. Several
got about me, and I was soon stung, and had to run away, beating them
off with my net and capturing them for specimens. Several of them
followed me for at least half a mile, getting into my hair and
persecuting me most pertinaciously, so that I was more astonished than
ever at the immunity of the natives. I am inclined to think that slow
and deliberate motion, and no attempt at escape, are perhaps the best
safeguards. A bee settling on a passive native probably behaves as it
would on a tree or other inanimate substance, which it does not
attempt to sting. Still they must often suffer, but they are used to
the pain and learn to bear it impassively, as without doing so no man
could be a bee-hunter.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE TIMOR GROUP.
IF we look at a map of the Archipelago, nothing seems more unlikely
than that the closely connected chain of islands from Java to Timor
should differ materially in their natural productions. There are, it
is true, certain differences of climate and of physical geography, but
these do not correspond with the division the naturalist is obliged to
make. Between the two ends of the chain there is a great contrast of
climate, the west being exceedingly moist and leaving only a short and
irregular dry season, the east being as dry and parched up, and having
but a short wet season. This change, however, occurs about the middle
of Java, the eastern portion of that island having as strongly marked
seasons as Lombock and Timor. There is also a difference in physical
geography; but this occurs at the eastern termination of the chain
where the volcanoes which are the marked feature of Java, Bali,
Lombock, Sumbawa, and Flores, turn northwards through Gunong Api to
Banda, leaving Timor with only one volcanic peak near its centre,
while the main portion of the island consists of old sedimentary
rocks. Neither of these physical differences corresponds with the
remarkable change in natural productions which occurs at the Straits
of Lombock, separating the island of that name from Bali, and which is
at once so large in amount and of so fundamental a character, as to
form an important feature in the zoological geography of our globe.
The Dutch naturalist Zollinger, who resided a long time on the island
of Bali, informs us that its productions completely assimilate with
those of Java, and that he is not aware of a single animal found in it
which does not inhabit the larger island. During the few days which I
stayed on the north coast of Bali on my way to Lombock, I saw several
birds highly characteristic of Javan ornithology. Among these were the
yellow-headed weaver (Ploceus hypoxantha), the black grasshopper
thrush (Copsychus amoenus), the rosy barbet (Megalaema rosea), the
Malay oriole (Oriolus horsfieldi), the Java ground starling
(Sturnopastor jalla), and the Javanese three-toed woodpecker
(Chrysonotus tiga). On crossing over to Lombock, separated from Bali
by a strait less than twenty miles wide, I naturally expected to meet
with some of these birds again; but during a stay there of three
months I never saw one of them, but found a totally different set of
species, most of which were utterly unknown not only in Java, but also
in Borneo, Sumatra, and Malacca. For example, among the commonest
birds in Lombock were white cockatoos and three species of
Meliphagidae or honeysuckers, belonging to family groups which are
entirely absent from the western or Indo-Malayan region of the
Archipelago. On passing to Flores and Timor the distinctness from the
Javanese productions increases, and we find that these islands form a
natural group, whose birds are related to those of Java and Australia,
but are quite distinct from either. Besides my own collections in
Lombock and Timor, my assistant Mr. Allen made a good collection in
Flores; and these, with a few species obtained by the Dutch
naturalists, enable us to form a very good idea of the natural history
of this group of islands, and to derive therefrom some very
interesting results.
The number of birds known from these islands up to this date is: 63
from Lombock, 86 from Flores, and 118 from Timor; and from the whole
group, 188 species. With the exception of two or three species which
appear to have been derived from the Moluccas, all these birds can be
traced, either directly or by close allies, to Java on the one side or
to Australia on the other; although no less than 82 of them are found
nowhere out of this small group of islands.
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