140 DoDD, A Naturalist in New Guinea. rv<^"^xxx'^ 



discovered in the fields we would be hailed and requested to 

 kill it — perhaps a harmless little thing eighteen inches long. 

 During the despatching process various nervous natives would 

 stand back at respectful distances. To pick up a murdered 

 snake and take one step towards a native would set him off 

 at a run. A large legless lizard was a snake to them, too. 

 Even our boys, wilder fellows from a mountain village, greatly 

 disliked snakes, though in some quarters natives ate them ; 

 but those fellows were looked upon as low-grade. One of our 

 boys, when allowed a week-end home, generally returned lazy 

 and listless, which we supposed to be the effects of excessive 

 betel-nut chewing (the palm occurred in some of the scrubs). 

 One day, after a prolonged absence, he came to explain that 

 " Snake bite him, he been sick." Pitying the rascal, I asked 

 to see the punctures, which he seemed disinclined to exhibit. 

 I pressed him, and was shown a little place from which the 

 skin had been scratched off by a stick or stone ! However, 

 for the trifle of los. a month paid these men, and the food and 

 tobacco, &c., we gave them, we could not expect too much. 

 Many a heavy load they carried for us, and they were loyal in 

 a way, but, as to gratitude, the gentle Papuan understands it 

 not. We were regarded as being too tender-hearted towards 

 our dusky assistants, for we rewarded them above their pay, 

 &c., when we supposed their work deserved a httle recognition. 

 As to the birds : At Port Moresby we saw Rhipidura tricolor, 

 and, though the friendly little bird was not observed at Sapphire 

 or Hombron, it was at Sogeri, and loved the top of our grass 

 house. It usually roosted in a clump of bamboos, and often 

 during the night would utter its notes, though in an imperfect 

 and sleepy way. It may have been fancy, but the individuals 

 we saw seemed slightly larger than the Queensland form. At 

 Moresby we saw a Black-and-White Butcher-bird fly at a half- 

 fledged chicken and send it off squawking. Probably Butcher- 

 birds are mischievous that way, for the black Cradicus quoyi 

 of Queensland scrubs would often bounce and frighten fair-sized 

 chickens and induce them to take cover ; but I never saw one 

 actually attack a young fowl. We noticed several handsome 

 pigeons, one being olive-green above with pink feathers in the 

 wing. My companion procured some seven or eight skins, but 

 we were not after birds. It is my boast that I have killed only 

 two birds in 35 years — one being a Black Butcher-bird which 

 was too much interested in some larvae of Coscinocera hercules 

 that I had on a garden tree. We frequently saw the great 

 ungainly Hornbills — ^jet black birds with white tail and yellow 

 and chestnut neck ; they can be heard great distances away, 

 and the swish of the wings of a single specimen may be dis- 

 tinctly heard when the bird is fully 700 feet in the air. Two 



