Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
called Gading, where I was accommodated in the house of some Chinese converts, to whom
I was recommended by the Jesuit missionaries. The house was a mere shed, but it was kept
clean, and I made myself sufficiently comfortable. My hosts were forming a pepper and
gambir plantation, and in the immediate neighbourhood were extensive tin-washings, em-
ploying over a thousand Chinese. The tin is obtained in the form of black grains from beds
of quartzose sand, and is melted into ingots in rude clay furnaces. The soil seemed poor, and
the forest was very dense with undergrowth, and not at all productive of insects; but, on the
other hand, birds were abundant, and I was at once introduced to the rich ornithological
treasures of the Malayan region.
The very first time I fired my gun I brought down one of the most curious and beautiful
of the Malacca birds, the blue-billed gaper (Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchus), called by the
Malays the 'Rain-bird.' It is about the size of a starling, black and rich claret colour with
white shoulder stripes, and a very large and broad bill of the most pure cobalt blue above
and orange below, while the iris is emerald green. As the skins dry the bill turns dull black,
but even then the bird is handsome. When fresh killed, the contrast of the vivid blue with the
rich colours of the plumage is remarkably striking and beautiful. The lovely Eastern trogons,
with their rich brown backs, beautifully pencilled wings, and crimson breasts, were also
soon obtained, as well as the large green barbets (Megalæma versicolor)—fruit-eating birds,
something like small toucans, with a short, straight bristly bill, and whose head and neck are
variegated with patches of the most vivid blue and crimson. A day or two after, my hunter
brought me a specimen of the green gaper (Calyptomena viridis), which is like a small cock-
of-the-rock, but entirely of the most vivid green, delicately marked on the wings with black
bars. Handsome woodpeckers and gay kingfishers, green and brown cuckoos with velvety
red faces and green beaks, red-breasted doves and metallic honeysuckers, were brought in
day after day, and kept me in a continual state of pleasurable excitement. After a fortnight
one of my servants was seized with fever, and on returning to Malacca, the same disease at-
tacked the other as well as myself. By a liberal use of quinine, I soon recovered, and obtain-
ing other men, went to stay at the Government bungalow of Ayer-panas, accompanied by a
young gentleman, a native of the place, who had a taste for natural history.
At Ayer-panas we had a comfortable house to stay in, and plenty of room to dry and pre-
serve our specimens; but, owing to there being no industrious Chinese to cut down timber,
insects were comparatively scarce, with the exception of butterflies, of which I formed a
very fine collection. The manner in which I obtained one fine insect was curious, and indic-
ates how fragmentary and imperfect a traveller's collection must necessarily be. I was one
afternoon walking along a favourite road through the forest, with my gun, when I saw a but-
