A NATURALIST IN BORNEO BY THE LATE ROBERT W C.SHELFORD EDITED BY EDWARD B.POULTON

The author, who was seven years from 1897

Curator of Rajah Brooke's museum, had splendid

opportunity for studying the human and animal

life of the. island. He was a keen and many

sided naturalist, who availed himself to the full

of the abundant riches which the tropics held

in store for him.

Each of the earlier chapters is devoted to an

important group of animals-mammals, birds,

reptiles, etc. Two more deal with insect

mimicry and the ~lationship between ants and

plants, then follo\ chapters giving an account

of the author's joOrneys in Sarawak, and his

experience of the human and animal inhabitsnts

of the forests, the river-sides and th~ shores.

The concluding chapter gives a brief account of

the natives of Borneo.

A NATURALIST IN BORNEO BY THE LATE

ROBERT W. C. SHELFORD OF EMMANUEL COLL. ,CAMBRIDGE, M.A., F.L.S. , F.Z.S., F.E.S., LATE CURATOR OF THE SARA W AK MUSEUM AND ASSISTANT CURATOR OF THE HOPE DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY OXFORD UNIVERSITY MUSEUM

EDITED WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION BY

EDWARD lB. POULTON D.SC., LL.D., F.R.S., HOPE PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY AND FELLOW OF

JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD

T. FISHER UNWIN LTD. LONDON

ADELPHI TERRACE

CONTENTS CHAPTBR PAGE

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION BIOGRAPHICAL AND

GENERAL

AUTHOR'S [UNFINISHED] INTRODUCTION

I. MAMMALS

II. BIRD-NOTES

III. SNAKES

IV. CROCODILES, TURTLES, AND TORTOISES

V. COCKHOACHES, MANTISES, AND STICK-INSECTS

VI. BEETLES

VII. ANTS AND PLANTS

VIII. MIMICRY

IX. AN EXPEDITION TO PENHISEN

X. OTHEH EXPEDITIONS.

· xiii

. xxiii

I

49

74

· II4

206

XI. ANIMAL LIFE OF THE SHORES: VISIT TO A

TURTLE ISLAND . • 293

Xli. NATIVES OF BORNEO.

NOTES 312

INDEX 32 1 vii

ILLUSTRATIONS

The plates indicated by an asterisk have been wholly, those indicated by t in part, reproduced, by kind consent of Dr. Charles Hose, from his and the author's copyright photographs.

All plates of which the source is not indicated are from the author's photographs or drawings.

PLATS

I. The Author. (From a photograph by Maull and Fox) Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

II. Nest of the Maias. (From a photograph by Dr. C. Hose) 3

*111. A Young Maias. (Photographed in an orange-tree by Dr. C. Hose) 4

IV. The Bornean Lemur, the Tarsier" Tarsius spectrum. (Photographed from life) 15

V. Right foot and left hand of the Tarsier, Tarsius spectrum, showing the clinging-discs. Also the upper surface of a disc, seen from above 16

VI. Skeleton of right fore·arm of ~e. Flying Squirrcl, Petaurista Ilitida. Natural size 36

VII. Tail of the common Bornean Porcupine, Histrix crassispinis, and of the Bornean quill-less Porcu­pine, Trichys lipttra. (From drawings by G. Talbot) • 39

VIII. Head of young Wild Boar, showing the notch in uppcr lip ready for the tush which has not yet appeared 44

ix

x ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE FACIIiG PAG!

IX. Nest and egg of the Bornean Frog-Mouth, Batracho­slomus altritus. (From a photograph taken by J. C. Moulton in the Sarawak Museum, Kuching) 52

X. The nest of Araclmolltera lOllgiroslris, one of the Sun birds, with the leaf from which it is hung. (From a drawing by Edwin Wilson of a specimen from the Sarawak Museum. About :~ of the natural size) . 54

tXI. The Bornean Owl, Pltolodillts badi1ls. (Photographed from life) 69

tXII. The two Bomean Pythons, Python reiiwiat'lts and P. ClIl'/lIs. (Photographed from life). 87

XI I I. The Bomean Flying Frog, Rltacophorus lIig'ropalmalus, with the tadpoles of some tree-haunting frog which, like Rhacoplrorus, surrounds its eggs with a mass of froth enclosed between leaves. (From drawings found among the author's papers) 105

XIV. "Trilobite-Larva " and an allied form. (From photographs of living Bomean examples brought to England by J. C. Moulton. Reproduced by kind permission from Plate VII of Proc. Solttll Loudon En[; alld Nal. His!. Soc., 1912-13) 16<)

XV. The larv::e of the Cassidid beetles" Tortoise-Beetles," Aspidomorpha 1IIiliaris (Fig. I) and Metrio/lu trivi/ala (Fig. 2) with their chains of moults attached. The pupa of the Cassidid, Laccoptera sp.? (Fig. 3) retaining the larval shield. (Figs. I and 2 after W. Schultze) . • 181

XVI. Spider, Amycirea lillcatipes, Keringa Ant, (CEcopltylia smaragdilla, and Caterpillar. The posterior ends of spider and caterpiIIar resemble the head of the ant. The latter is shown using one of its larVa:! to spin together the leaves of its nest. (The ant after D. Sharp) . 230

XVII. The start of a Head-hunting E~peditioll . 253

':'XVIII. Awat-Awat, a Malay Fishing Village at the mouth of the Trllsan River . 280

lLLUS'J.1RATlONS xi PUR . 'ACING PAGII:

XIX. The Upper Sadong River at Tabekang . 283

XX. Punan heads · 284

*XXI. Land·Dayak Head-House, or Bala, of village on Upper Sadong River · 287

*XXIJ. Murut Head-Feast · 288

AT ENl1 OF VOLum! DEFORE INDEX

~'XXI1I . The Sarawak Museum, l{uehing "

XXIV. ){uehing, from the Sarawak River

';'XXV. Kuehing, across the Sarawak HiveI', from the Astana or Rajah's Palace

*XXVI. The Astana, or Rajah's Palace,

"

Kuching "

*XXVII. The Astana, Kuching, from the Sarawak River

XXVIII. The Sarawak Hiver, Kuching, on Regatta Day: the Astana 'in the dbtance

tXXIX. The Paddock and two views of the racecourse, Kuching .

~'XXX. The Fort, Kuching, from the Sarawak River

:*XXXI. The Public Offices, Kuching

~:XXXII. The Square Tower and Gaol

"

"

"

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION-. BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENERAL

ROBERT WALTER CAMPBELL SHELFORD, the leading authority on insects of the family Blaitida;, and a · naturalist of very broad interests, was born at Singa­pore on August 3, 1872-the son of a merchant who was a member of the Legislative Council, and made C.M.G. in recognition of his many public services. There is no evidence that Shelford's strong taste for natural history was inherited, and it did not appear in any other member of his family. Prevented by a tubercular hip-joint from taking part in the games and ordinary outdoor pursuits of a boy and young man, his active mind turned to observation, and he became a naturalist. He was educated privately until he entered King's College, London, and later Emmanuel College, Cambridge. At this University, where he took a second class in both parts of the Natural Science Tripos, he received a solid foundation for the excellent zoological and anthropological work of his mature years.

After taking his degree Shelford became, in 1895, a Demonstrator in Biology, under Professor L. C. Miall, F.R.S., at the Yorkshire College, Leeds. Two years later he went to Borneo as Curator of the Sarawak Museum, established by Rajah Brooke at Kuching. During his seven years' tenure of this position he

lili

xiv EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

availed himself to the full of the abundant opportuni­ties for studying the ani'mal life of the tropics, and of making observations in anthropology, a subject which al ways strongly attracted him. His fruitful labours in the increase and arrangement of the Sarawak Museum naturally led him to take a wide survey of the animal kingdom, and he soon began the study of mimicry, a subject which regards from one point of view a multi­tude of diverse forms, including insects of the most varied groups and their vertebrate enemies. He found Borneo a very rich and imperfectly explored field for the study of this subject, and before long he entered into a regular correspondence with me, sending large consignments of insects for investigation and determi­nation. The result of his observations and work was the appearance in 1902 of an important paper in the P.roceedings of the Zoological Society of London (p. 230). This valuable and interesting monograph is illustrated by five coloured plates showing Bornean mimetic insects of many widely separated groups. Our correspondence went on, and he continued to send the record of observ­ations and specimens of great interest until his seven years' tenure of the Curatorship came to an end in 1905. Towards the close of this period he wrote to me saying that if it was impossible to provide a salary he must really come and work in the Hope Department at Oxford without one! Fortunately, at this moment, Magdalen College began to place an annual grant at the disposal of the University for the provision of extra assistance in the Departments, and it thus became possible to establish an Assistant-Curatorship, with a small income, augmented later on from the Common University Fund. Shelford accepted this position, and

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION xv

came to live at Oxford in the Autumn Term of 1905. After leaving Kuching, and before returning home by way of Japan, Vancouver, and the United States, he spent several weeks travelling in the Malay Archipelago,

t visiting many of the islands and making collections, which he presented to the Hope Department. Some of the specimens bear the' record of interesting observ­ations, throwing light on the difficult problems of adap­tation and evolution in which he took so deep an interest.

On June 25, 1908, Sh'elford married Audrey Gurney, ' daughter of the Rev. Alfred Richardson, vicar of Combe Downe, Bath.

At Oxford Shelford worked with the greatest energy, at once beginning the study of the collection of Orthop­tera in the Hope Department. He had always been especially interested in this order of insects, and was delighted when he found such an immense mass of material at Oxford, rich in types of the species described by the older authorities-Walker, Westwood, and Bates. He began with the Blattidre, or Cockroaches. In the course of his work upon this group he worked through and named the species in all the great Continental col­lections, describing those that were new in a long series of valuable memoirs.

Numbers of duplicates were received, and, as a result of his labours, the Hope Department now contains by far the finest and best-arranged collection of Blattidre in the world, including types or co-types of a large proportion of all the known species. Shelford then began to study other Orthopterous groups, especially the Phas­midce and the Mantidre. He was an indefatigable

xvi EDITOR'S IN'rRODUCTION

worker, as will be realized by any naturalist who sees what the Oxford Blattidce became in four years from the autumn of 1905; and it must be remembered that all the time he was helping the Department in many other ways, particularly in the arrangement and cata­loguing of the library.

Of all the memoirs which he wrote Shelford was, I think, most interested in that "On Mimicry amongst the Blattidce" (P.Z.S., 1912, p. 358)-a subject on which he had reflected and had been accumulating material for some years; one, moreover, which combines two depart­ments of natural history-Systematics and Bionomics­departments as wide apart as the poles, but affording each other mutual support, and both equally dear to him. It was also a special delight to him to show the high interest and in many species the extreme beauty of the universally despised cockroaches. It is a pathetic circumstance that the publication of this long-looked-for paper was nearly coincident with its author's death.

In addition to the researches on insects which formed the main work of his life, Shelford was a keen and enthusiastic student of Anthropology, as the concluding chapters of this book will abundantly testify.

He was especially interested in Bornean Tatu, and wrote, in conjunction with Dr. C. Hose, an important memoir on the subject,! of which the greater part is reproduced in Hose and McDougall's "Pa~an Tribes of Borneo," vol. ii. p. 245.

When three years old Shelford contracted tubercular , 'j01l111. A 11th rap. Ilist., vol. XXXVI., n. Ser. IX (1<)06), pp. 60-<)1.