us to this house, where we obtained permission to pass the night. We
then walked on, Ali and Baderoon with a gun each, Baso carrying
our provisions and my insect-box, while I took only my net and
collecting-bottle and determined to devote myself wholly to the insects.
Scarcely had I entered the forest when I found some beautiful little
green and gold speckled weevils allied to the genus Pachyrhynchus, a
group which is almost confined to the Philippine Islands, and is quite
unknown in Borneo, Java, or Malacca. The road was shady and apparently
much trodden by horses and cattle, and I quickly obtained some
butterflies I had not before met with. Soon a couple of reports were
heard, and coming up to my boys I found they had shot two specimens of
one of the finest of known cuckoos, Phoenicophaus callirhynchus. This
bird derives its name from its large bill being coloured of a brilliant
yellow, red, and black, in about equal proportions. The tail is
exceedingly long, and of a fine metallic purple, while the plumage of
the body is light coffee brown. It is one of the characteristic birds of
the island of Celebes, to which it is confined.
After sauntering along for a couple of hours we reached a small river,
so deep that horses could only cross it by swimming, so we had to
turn back; but as we were getting hungry, and the water of the almost
stagnant river was too muddy to drink, we went towards a house a few
hundred yards off. In the plantation we saw a small raised hut, which
we thought would do well for us to breakfast in, so I entered, and found
inside a young woman with an infant. She handed me a jug of water, but
looked very much frightened. However, I sat down on the doorstep, and
asked for the provisions. In handing them up, Baderoon saw the infant,
and started back as if he had seen a serpent. It then immediately struck
me that this was a hut in which, as among the Dyaks of Borneo and many
other savage tribes, the women are secluded for some time after the
birth of their child, and that we did very wrong to enter it; so we
walked off and asked permission to eat our breakfast in the family
mansion close at hand, which was of course granted. While I ate, three
men, two women, and four children watched every motion, and never took
eyes off me until I had finished.
On our way back in the heat of the day, I had the good fortune to
capture three specimens of a fine Ornithoptera, the largest, the
most perfect, and the most beautiful of butterflies. I trembled with
excitement as I took the first out of my net and found it to be in
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