Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The next day (October 16th) I went beyond the swamp, and found a place where a new
clearing was being made in the virgin forest. It was a long and hot walk, and the search
among the fallen trunks and branches was very fatiguing, but I was rewarded by obtaining
about seventy distinct species of beetles, of which at least a dozen were new to me, and
many others rare and interesting. I have never in my life seen beetles so abundant as they
were on this spot. Some dozen species of good-sized golden Buprestidæ, green rose-chafers
(Lomaptera), and long-horned weevils (Anthribidæ), were so abundant that they rose up in
swarms as I walked along, filling the air with a loud buzzing hum. Along with these, several
fine Longicorns were almost equally common, forming such an assemblage as for once to
realize that idea of tropical luxuriance which one obtains by looking over the drawers of a
well-filled cabinet. On the under sides of the trunks clung numbers of smaller or more slug-
gish Longicorns, while on the branches at the edge of the clearing others could be detected
sitting with outstretched antennæ ready to take flight at the least alarm. It was a glorious
spot, and one which will always live in my memory as exhibiting the insect-life of the trop-
ics in unexampled luxuriance. For the three following days I continued to visit this locality,
adding each time many new species to my collection—the following notes of which may be
interesting to entomologists. October 15th, 33 species of beetles; 16th, 70 species; 17th, 47
species; 18th, 40 species; 19th, 56 species—in all about a hundred species, of which forty
were new to me. There were forty-four species of Longicorns among them, and on the last
day I took twenty-eight species of Longicorns, of which five were new to me.
My boys were less fortunate in shooting. The only birds at all common were the great red
parrot (Eclectus grandis), found in most of the Moluccas, a crow, and a Megapodius, or
mound-maker. A few of the pretty racquet-tailed kingfishers were also obtained, but in very
poor plumage. They proved, however, to be of a different species from those found in the
other islands, and come nearest to the bird originally described by Linnæus under the name
of Alcedo dea, and which came from Ternate. This would indicate that the small chain of is-
lands parallel to Gilolo have a few peculiar species in common, a fact which certainly oc-
curs in insects.
The people of Kaióa interested me much. They are evidently a mixed race, having Malay
and Papuan affinities, and are allied to the peoples of Ternate and of Gilolo. They possess a
peculiar language, somewhat resembling those of the surrounding islands, but quite distinct.
They are now Mahometans, and are subject to Ternate. The only fruits seen here were pa-
paws and pine-apples, the rocky soil and dry climate being unfavourable. Rice, maize, and
plantains flourish well, except that they suffer from occasional dry seasons like the present
one. There is a little cotton grown, from which the women weave sarongs (Malay petti-
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