s was
whitish. They eat either boiled rice or tender fresh meat. Of the use of
such a singular cavity I could not learn any plausible conjecture. As a
receptacle for water, it must be quite unnecessary in the country of
which it is a native.

STORK, ETC.

Of the stork kind there are several species, some of great height and
otherwise curious, as the burong kambing and burong ular, which frequent
the rice plantations in wet ground.

We find also the heron, burong kuntul (ardea); the snipe, kandidi
(scolopax); the coot, or water-hen, ayam ayer (fulica); and the plover,
cheruling (charadrius).

The cassowary, burong rusa, is brought from the island of Java.

The domestic hen is as common as in most other countries. In some the
bones (or the periostea) are black, and these are at least equally good
as food. The hen of the woods, ayam barugo, or ayam utan (which latter
name is in some places applied to the pheasant), differs little from the
common sort, excepting in the uniformity of its brown colour. In the
Lampong country of Sumatra and western part of Java lying opposite to it
there is a very large breed of fowls, called ayam jago; of these I have
seen a cock peck from off of a common dining table; when inclined to rest
they sit on the first joint of the leg and are then taller than the
ordinary fowls. It is singular if the same country produces likewise the
diminutive breed that goes by the name of bantam.

A species of partridge is called ayam gunong, or mountain hen.

DOVES.

Beside the pigeon, merapeti and burong darah (columba), and two common
species of doves, the one of a light brown or dove-colour, called ballum,
and the other green, called punei, there are of the latter some most
exquisite varieties: the punei jambu is smaller than the usual size of
doves; the back, wings, and tail are green; the breast and crop are
white, but the front of the latter has a slight shade of pink; the
forepart of the head is of a deep pink, resembling the blossom of the
jambu fruit, from whence its name; the white of the breast is continued
in a narrow streak, having the green on one side and the pink on the
other, half round the eye, which is large, full, and yellow; of which
colour is also the beak. It will live upon boiled rice and padi; but its
favourite food, when wild, is the berry of the rumpunnei (Ardisia
coriacea), perhaps from this circumstance so called. The selaya, or punei
andu, another variety, has the body a