Tropidorhynchus timoriensis, allied to the Friar bird of Australia. They
are here called "Quaich-quaich," from their strange loud voice, which
seems to repeat these words in various and not unmelodious intonations.
Every day boys were to be seen walking along the roads and by the hedges
and ditches, catching dragonflies with birdlime. They carry a slender
stick, with a few twigs at the end well annointed, so that the least
touch captures the insect, whose wings are pulled off before it is
consigned to a small basket. The dragon-flies are so abundant at the
time of the rice flowering that thousands are soon caught in this
way. The bodies are fried in oil with onions and preserved shrimps,
or sometimes alone, and are considered a great delicacy. In Borneo,
Celebes, and many other islands, the larvae of bees and wasps are eaten,
either alive as pulled out of the cells, or fried like the dragonflies.
In the Moluccas the grubs of the palm-beetles (Calandra) are regularly
brought to market in bamboos and sold for food; and many of the great
horned Lamellicorn beetles are slightly roasted on the embers and eaten
whenever met with. The superabundance of insect life is therefore turned
to some account by these islanders.
Finding that birds were not very numerous, and hearing much of Labuan
Tring at the southern extremity of the bay, where there was said to be
much uncultivated country and plenty of birds as well as deer and wild
pigs, I determined to go there with my two servants, Ali, the Malay
lad from Borneo, and Manuel, a Portuguese of Malacca accustomed to
bird-skinning. I hired a native boat with outriggers to take us with
our small quantity of luggage, and a day's rowing and tracking along the
shore brought us to the place.
I had a note of introduction to an Amboynese Malay, and obtained the use
of part of his house to live and work in. His name was "Inchi Daud" (Mr.
David), and he was very civil; but his accommodations were limited, and
he could only hire me part of his reception-room. This was the front
part of a bamboo house (reached by a ladder of about six rounds very
wide apart), and having a beautiful view over the bay. However, I soon
made what arrangements were possible, and then set to work. The country
around was pretty and novel to me, consisting of abrupt volcanic hills
enclosing flat valleys or open plains. The hills were covered with a
dense scrubby bush of bamboos and prickly trees and shrubs, the plains
were adorned with hundreds of noble palm-trees, and in many places
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