ANIMALS. 211 



mens. The trunk measured fifteen feet in height, 

 with a diameter at the base of eio'ht inches. 



No mammaha were procured on South-east 

 Island — indeed the only one seen was a flying-- 

 squirrel which I caught a glimpse of one evening* 

 at the river-mouth as it sprung off among the 

 mangroves from the summit of a dead tree —it 

 appeared to be of the size of an ordinary rat^ and 

 was probably a Petaurus. Wild pigs must be 

 very numerous — as indicated by fresh marks where 

 they had been wallowing in the beds of the ditch- 

 like rivulets_, their footprints everywhere^ and well 

 beaten tracks through the jungle. But none of the 

 animals themselves, probably from their extreme 

 shyness and partially nocturnal habits, were ever 

 encountered by our shooting parties. I was after- 

 wards informed by Mr. Inskip that while in the 

 Bramble, in the neighbourhood of Conde Peninsula, 

 a native in a canoe alono'side havino* his attention 

 directed to a very large boar's tusk which he wore 

 as an ornament, described, by pantomimic gestures, 

 that the animal had cost much trouble in killino- it, 

 having repeatedly charged him, and received no 

 less than eight spear wpunds before it fell. 



Birds were plentiful, but owing to the difficulty 

 of seeing them among the thick foliage, few, com- 

 paratively, were shot. The most interesting specimen 

 procured was one of a very handsome scarlet Lory, 

 closely alUed to Lorius domiceUus^ a bird widely 

 spread over the Indian Archipelago. It was 



p 2 



