304 A NATURALIST ON THE " CHALLENGER." 



young, concluded that this circumstance explained the peculiar 

 whistling note of the birds, which is quite unlike that of other 

 full grown pigeons. We obtained a specimen of a closely 

 similar bird from Taviuni, in which the plumage is of the 

 brightest orange {Glirysama Victor). 



As we crossed a small clearing, I shot a large Fruit-pigeon 

 (Carpophaga pacified) which flew across ; the same bird which is 

 so common in Tonga. On returning to the bottom of the valley, 

 we heard the loud screams of the brightly coloured parrot, Platy- 

 cercus splendens. There were a pair of the birds, but they were 

 so wild that I could not get a shot. They are, however, not 

 usually wild, and a large number were shot by some of the 

 officers of the ship. By the bank of the stream I found a pair 

 of the Kingfisher, which is so common in Tongatabu, Hal- 

 cyon sacra. 



A large green Lizard, which is found at Kandavu and, I 

 believe, in the other members of the Fiji group, was brought to 

 us alive. The Lizard (Chloroscartes fasciatus) is an Agamid, of a 

 genus peculiar to the Fiji group. It measures more than two 

 feet and a-half in length. It has a pouched throat with a cross 

 fold. All the scales of the body are keeled, and it has a low 

 crest of triangular scales on the neck.* 



In all parts of the Fijis which I visited, I met with 

 abundance of a land-inhabiting Hermit Crab of the s^enus 

 Ccenobita, allied to the well-known crab Birgus latro of the Philip- 

 pines and elsewhere, which feeds on cocoanuts. Birgus latro 

 is apparently a Hermit Crab, which has given up using a shell to 

 protect itself, because it has grown too large to be contained by 

 any shell. It has therefore developed, as a substitute, a 

 hardened covering to the hinder part of its body, which was, 

 no doubt, soft, as in other Hermit Crabs, when it wore a 

 shell. The Hermit Crabs of the genus Ccenobita are smaller, 

 and always wear shells like marine Hermit Crabs. 



On one small coral island, off the mouth of the Wai Levu, 

 the beds of the littoral Convolvulus (Ipomcea) were swarming 

 with these air-breathing Hermit Crabs, carrying about with 



* For a description of this lizard, bv Dr. Giinther, see " Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. 1869," p. 189, PI. XXV. 



