secure my prize, and admire its soft puffy plumage and lovely colours.
The upper part is rich soft green, the head jet black with a stripe
of blue and brown over each eye; at the base of the tail and on the
shoulders are bands of bright silvery blue; the under side is delicate
buff with a stripe of rich crimson, bordered with black on the belly.
Beautiful grass-green doves, little crimson and black flower-peckers,
large black cuckoos, metallic king-crows, golden orioles, and the fine
jungle-cocks--the origin of all our domestic breeds of poultry--were
among the birds that chiefly attracted my attention during our stay at
Labuan Tring.
The most characteristic feature of the jungle was its thorniness. The
shrubs were thorny; the creepers were thorny; the bamboos even were
thorny. Everything grew zigzag and jagged, and in an inextricable
tangle, so that to get through the bush with gun or net or even
spectacles, was generally not to be done, and insect-catching in such
localities was out of the question. It was in such places that the
Pittas often lurked, and when shot it became a matter of some difficulty
to secure the bird, and seldom without a heavy payment of pricks and
scratches and torn clothes could the prize be won. The dry volcanic soil
and arid climate seem favourable to the production of such stunted and
thorny vegetation, for the natives assured me that this was nothing
to the thorns and prickles of Sumbawa whose surface still bears the
covering of volcanic ashes thrown out forty years ago by the terrible
eruption of Tomboro.
Among the shrubs and trees that are not prickly the Apocynaceae were
most abundant, their bilobed fruits of varied form and colour and often
of most tempting appearance, hanging everywhere by the waysides as if
to invite to destruction the weary traveller who may be unaware of their
poisonous properties. One in particular with a smooth shining skin of
a golden orange colour rivals in appearance the golden apples of the
Hesperides, and has great attractions for many birds, from the white
cockatoos to the little yellow Zosterops, who feast on the crimson seeds
which are displayed when the fruit bursts open. The great palm called
"Gubbong" by the natives, a species of Corypha, is the most striking
feature of the plains, where it grows by thousands and appears in three
different states--in leaf, in flower and fruit, or dead. It has a lofty
cylindrical stem about a hundred feet high and two to three feet in
diameter; the leaves are large and fan-shaped, and fall off when the
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