Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
which has once been virgin forest, but of which the constituent trees have been for the most
part replaced by fruit trees, and particularly by the large palm, Arenga saccharifera, from
which wine and sugar are made, and which also produces a coarse black fibre used for cord-
age. That necessary of life, the bamboo, has also been abundantly planted. 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 un-
melodious notes.
In the more shady parts butterflies were tolerably abundant; the most common being spe-
cies of Euplæa 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 Pieridæ, the group that contains our common white butter-
flies, although differing so much from them in appearance. Both were quite new to
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.
