Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
masses of a smooth round fruit of a green colour and about an inch in diameter. When these
ripen and fall the tree dies, and remains standing a year or two before it falls. Trees in leaf
only are by far the most numerous, then those in flower and fruit, while dead trees are
scattered here and there among them. The trees in fruit are the resort of the great green fruit
pigeons, which have been already mentioned. Troops of monkeys (Macacus cynomolgus)
may often be seen occupying a tree, showering down the fruit in great profusion, chattering
when disturbed and making an enormous rustling as they scamper off among the dead palm
leaves; while the pigeons have a loud booming voice more like the roar of a wild beast than
the note of a bird.
My collecting operations here were carried on under more than usual difficulties. One
small room had to serve for eating sleeping and working, for storehouse and dissecting-
room; in it were no shelves, cupboards, chairs or tables; ants swarmed in every part of it,
and dogs, cats and fowls entered it at pleasure. Besides this it was the parlour and reception-
room of my host, and I was obliged to consult his convenience and that of the numerous
guests who visited us. My principal piece of furniture was a box, which served me as a
dining-table, a seat while skinning birds, and as the receptacle of the birds when skinned and
dried. To keep them free from ants we borrowed, with some difficulty, an old bench, the
four legs of which being placed in cocoa-nut shells filled with water kept us tolerably free
from these pests. The box and the bench were however literally the only places where any-
thing could be put away, and they were generally well occupied by two insect boxes and
about a hundred birds' skins in process of drying. It may therefore be easily conceived that
when anything bulky or out of the common way was collected, the question 'Where is it to
be put?' was rather a difficult one to answer. All animal substances moreover require some
time to dry thoroughly, emit a very disagreeable odour while doing so, and are particularly
attractive to ants, flies, dogs, rats, cats, and other vermin, calling for especial cautions and
constant supervision, which under the circumstances above described were impossible.
My readers may now partially understand why a travelling naturalist of limited means,
like myself, does so much less than is expected or than he would himself wish to do. It
would be interesting to preserve skeletons of many birds and animals, reptiles and fishes in
spirits, skins of the larger animals, remarkable fruits and woods and the most curious articles
of manufacture and commerce; but it will be seen that under the circumstances I have just
described it would have been impossible to add these to the collections which were my own
more especial favourites. When travelling by boat the difficulties are as great or greater, and
they are not diminished when the journey is by land. It was absolutely necessary therefore to
limit my collections to certain groups to which I could devote constant personal attention,
