The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

VII.] JAVA. 83two small bamboo rooms on one side of his own courtyard toaccommodate me, and seemed inclined to assist me as much as hecould. The weather was exceedingly hot and dry, no rainhaving fallen for several months, and there w^as, in consequence,a great scarcity of insects, and especially of beetles. I thereforedevoted myself chiefly to obtaining a good set of the birds, andsucceeded in making a tolerable collection. All the peacocks wehad hitherto shot had had sliort or imperfect tails, but I nowobtained two magnificent specimens more than seven feet long,one of which I preserved entire, while I kejit the train onlyattached to the tail of two or three others. When this bird isseen feeding on the ground, it appears wonderful how it can riseinto the air with such a long and cumbersome train of feathers.It does so, however, witli great ease, by running quickly for ashort distance, and then rising obliquely ;and will fly over treesof a considerable height. I also obtained here a specimen of therai'e gi-een jungle-fowl (Gallus furcatus), whose back and neckare beautifully scaled with bronzj^ feathers, and whose smoothedgedoval comb is of a violet purple colour, changing to greenat the base. It is also remarkable in possessing a single largewattle beneath its throat, brightly coloured in three patches ofred, yellow, and blue. The common jungle-cock (Gallus bankiva)was also obtained here. It is almost exactly like a commongamecock, but the voice is different, being much shorter andmore abrupt ; whence its native name is Bekeko. Six differentkinds of woodpeckers and four kingfishers w^ere found here, theline liornbill, Buceros lunatus, more than four feet long, and thepretty little lorikeet, Loriculus pusillus, scarcely more than asmany inches.One morning, as I was preparing and arranging my specimens,I was told there w^as to be a trial ; and presently four orfive men came in and squatted down on a mat_ under theaudience-shed in the court. The chief then came in with hisclerk, and sat down opposite them. Each spoke in turn, tellinghis own tale, and then I found out that those who first enteredwere the prisoner, accuser, policeman, and witness, and that theprisoner w^as indicated solely by having a loose piece of cordtwined round his wrists, but not tied. It was a case of robbery,and after the evidence was given, and a few questions had beenasked by the chief, the accused said a few words, and tlien sentencewas pronounced, which was a fine. The parties then gotup and w^alked away together, seeming quite friendly; andthroughout there was nothing in the manner of any one presentindicating passion or ill-feeling—a very good illustration of theMalayan type of charactei*.In a month's collecting at Wonosalem and Djapannan I accumulatedninety-eight species of birds, but a most miserable lotof insects. I then determined to leave East Java and try themore moist and luxuriant districts at the w^estern extremity ofthe island. I returned to Sourabaya by w^ater, in a roomy boat(!-1