[The Malay Archipelago Volume I. (of II.) by Alfred Russell Wallace]@TWC D-Link bookThe Malay Archipelago Volume I. (of II.) CHAPTER III 15/16
The bird is so exceedingly shy and wary, and runs along the ground in the densest parts of the forest so quickly, that it is impossible to get near it; and its sober colours and rich eye-like spots, which are so ornamental when seen in a museum, must harmonize well with the dead leaves among which it dwells, and render it very inconspicuous.
All the specimens sold in Malacca are caught in snares, and my informant, though he had shot none, had snared plenty. The tiger and rhinoceros are still found here, and a few years ago elephants abounded, but they have lately all disappeared.
We found some heaps of dung, which seemed to be that of elephants, and some tracks of the rhinoceros, but saw none of the animals.
However, we kept a fire up all night in case any of these creatures should visit us, and two of our men declared that they did one day see a rhinoceros.
When our rice was finished, and our boxes full of specimens, we returned to Ayer-Panas, and a few days afterwards went on to Malacca, and thence to Singapore. Mount Ophir has quite a reputation for fever, and all our friends were astonished at our recklessness in staying so long at its foot; but none of us suffered in the least, and I shall ever look back with pleasure to my trip as being my first introduction to mountain scenery in the Eastern tropics. The meagreness and brevity of the sketch I have here given of my visit to Singapore and the Malay Peninsula is due to my having trusted chiefly to some private letters and a notebook, which were lost; and to a paper on Malacca and Mount Ophir which was sent to the Royal Geographical Society, but which was neither read nor printed owing to press of matter at the end of a session, and the MSS.
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