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hopgarden, only N-eiy much larger, some of them extending for over a mile in length. 

 Where the island is not just now under cultivation it is thicklj' covered with short 

 vegetation, very difficult to get through. The only large timber extends in a narrow 

 belt around the coast, or is scattered in small groups to protect the villages. 



Yanarba Island, Egum group, is one of some small islets between the D'Entre- 

 casteau.x Islands and Woodlark. It was not visited by ^leek himself, but some of his 

 native collectors spent a few days there. Egum group consists only of small coralline 

 islands. 



Woodlark Island, or Mayu, consists chiefly of corals, hut some mountains seem to 

 have pierced the coralline capping and occupy about one-fourth of the island. It is 

 very little cultivated, the natives living on sago a great deal. Owing to the scarcity 

 of thick undergrowth it is, as on F"ergusson, easy to get about, and in that way very 

 different from the Trobriands. The southern part is least populated, but on the north 

 coast are two or three large villages. The natives all know a few words of Englislij 

 and some speak it very fairly. Skin disease (probably ichthyosis) is very common 

 among them. 



1. Corvus orru B]). 



Fergusson Island. Like specimens from other localities, with a purplish gloss, 

 and not at all Uke the Gorvus spec, described by Salvadori in Orn. Papuasia with a 

 greenish gloss. 



A nest with four eggs was found on .January 22n(l. Tliey are exactly like the 

 eggs of other species of crows, and if mixed with eggs of Corvus corone, or C. comix 

 especially, would hardly be found again, though the shell seems rather thick. They 

 measure 40-5 : 29, 42 : 28, 41 : 280 mm. K. H. 



2. Gymnocorax senex (Less.). 



Fergusson Inland. " Iris light blue." 



3. Maniicodia comrii Scl. 



Evidently not rare in Fergusson and Kiriwiiia. The iris is described on the 

 labels as " red " and " light hazel." Nests, containing two eggs each, were found in 

 March on Fergusson Island, one clutch being fresh, the other very hard-set. The 

 nest hangs in the fork of a branch, the upper margin being in equal height with the 

 branch, just as an oriole's nest hangs. It is fastened with thin twigs of a convolvulus- 

 like plant and other twigs. It is lined inside with these convolvulus-like twigs. The 

 bottom is very thick, and outside ornamented with large thick leaves, and in the 

 middle of the bottom layer are a good many pieces of rotten wood. 



The eggs are of a pale buflty salmon-colour, one clutch with a more grcyisii lint, 

 shaped like crows' eggs, marked with underlying pale cinereous and pale purplish 

 brown patches, and with dark brown or rufous l)rown blotches. They measure 2'J : 43 

 and 30'5 : 45'5 mm. 



The female is much smaller than the male. Specimens from the difierent 

 i.slands do not differ. 



Mr. Basil H. Thomson (Ibis, 1889, p. 554) stales that M. comrii is "confined 

 exclusively " to tlu^ D'Entrecasteaux group. This statement was .somewhat unwar- 

 ranted, since the surrounding countries were not yet explored, ^^'e know now^ that 

 it is not only found on the islands of the D'Entrecasteaux group, as Meek found it on 

 the Trobriands and the type came from the Iluon Gulf in New Guinea. \\'. It. 



