New Guinea in search of Paradise-birds. 207 



disturbed, so forbade them. As this district appeared to be 

 fairly rich iu bird-life we determined to give it a trial; and 

 in order that no time should be wasted in having a house 

 built for us, we set out for the Mission Station at Dilava to 

 request permission to occupy the house where we were. 

 Starting soon after breakfast, accompanied by Heni-Keni 

 and a villager, we ultimately arrived after a hard march of 

 about three hours at Dilava, from which high altitude we 

 obtained a grand view of many spurs of the Owen- Stanley 

 range (particularly J\lt. Chamberlain far away on the horizon), 

 and of a great number of deep valleys all densely covered with 

 jungle. The missionaries, of whom there were seven, gave 

 us a most cordial Avelcome and shewed us what they were 

 cultivating in their gardens in the way of vegetables, "We 

 had some delicious oranges and some fresh milk, as they had 

 a small herd of cows and also w ent in for poultry-farming. 

 After a sumptuous repast and the receipt of much useful 

 information regarding the birds of our district from the 

 converts, which our genial hosts kindly interpreted for us, 

 we found it necessary to bid them farewell and return to our 

 camp. The day passed without rain, which was exceptional. 

 Our request that we might occupy the mission-house at 

 Madiu was immediately granted, and during our residence 

 there we did our best to repair it and to keep it in good 

 order. At no great distance from Epa the track led down 

 to a river about eighty yards wide, but two of my staff 

 led me safely across and I got wet only up to my middle, 

 though close to Dilava a mountain torrent took a considerable 

 amount of negotiation. By means of a fallen tree, across 

 which we manoeuvred Blondin-like, and by jumping from 

 rock to rock we managed to reach the opposite bank, but I 

 must say that after my last attempt I was glad we had no 

 more of such obstacles to encounter. For the next three 

 weeks our daily routine did not vary much. Live birds, 

 mammals, and reptiles came in to such an extent thai our 

 collapsible cages were soon filled, and we had to build two 

 large aviaries under the house. These measured roughly 

 about 6x8x5 feet, and into one of them we turned all the 



