Forest Life and Adventures in the Malay Archipelago

Abstract

ANYONE desirous of prosecuting a biological research expedition to the tropics would be well advised to read this little book, which is charmingly written and illustrated, and equally well translated. In the thirty-one chapters, “each complete in itself and requiring no further index ”, we read of such giants of the forest as the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the buffalo, delighting as much in the habits of them as in the exciting incidents of the hunt. The goat-antelope, living in impenetrable tracts round volcano summits and only seen once before by a white man, is described and pictured to us. We are told that though it is two-horned, it is to this animal that we must refer the mythical unicorn. Another interesting mammal is the scaly, hairless ant-eater or pangolin, which simulates death amid myriads of ants. When in their hunger and curiosity enough ants have entered beneath the scales, the pangolin shuts these down and calmly enters the nearest pool. The ants, on release, rise to the surface of the water, from whence they are skimmed by means of his sticky tongue.

Forest Life and Adventures in the Malay Archipelago.

By Dr. Eric Mjöberg. Translated from the Swedish by A. Barwell. Pp. 201 + 84 plates. (London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1930.) 12s. 6d. net.