d 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
tree flowers, which it does only once in its life in a huge terminal
spike, upon which are produced masses of a smooth round fruit of a green
colour rind about an inch in diameter. When those ripen and fall the
tree dies, and remains standing a year or two before it falls. Trees in
leaf only are by far the most numerous, then those in flower and fruit,
while dead trees are scattered here and there among them. The trees in
fruit are the resort of the great green fruit pigeons, which have been
already mentioned. Troops of monkeys (Macacus cynoraolgus) may often
be seen occupying a tree, showering down the fruit in great profusion,
chattering when disturbed and making an enormous rustling as they
scamper off among the dead palm leaves; while the pigeons have a loud
booming voice more like the roar of a wild beast than the note of a
bird.

My collecting operations here were carried on under more than usual
difficulties. One small room had to serve for eating, sleeping and
working, and one for storehouse and dissecting-room; in it were no
shelves, cupboards, chairs or tables; ants swarmed in every part of it,
and dogs, cats and fowls entered it at pleasure. Besides this it was the
parlour and reception-room of my host, and I was obliged to consult his
convenience and that of the numerous guests who visited us. My principal
piece of furniture was a box, which served me as a dining table, a seat
while skinning birds, and as the receptacle of the birds when skinned
and dried. To keep them free from ants we borrowed, with some difficulty,
an old bench, the four legs of which being placed in cocoa-nut shells
filled with water kept us tolerably free from these pests. The box and
the bench were, however, literally the only places where anything could
be put away, and they were generally well occupied by two insect boxes
and about a hundred birds' skins in process of drying. It may therefore
be easily conceived that when anything bulky or out of the common
way was collected, the question "Where is it to be put?" was rather a
difficult one to answer. All animal substances moreover require some
time to dry thoroughly, emit a very disagreeable odour while doing so,
and are particularly attractive to ants, flies,