Fine Pigeons. » 423 



The floors were of strips of bamboo, thin, slippery, and elastic, 

 and so weak that my feet were in danger of plunging through 

 at every step. Native boxes of pandanus-leaves and slabs of 

 palm pith, very neatly constructed, mats of the same, jars and 

 cooking-pots of native pottery, and a few European plates and 

 basins, were the whole furniture, and the interior was through- 

 out dark and smoke-blackened, and dismal in the extreme. 



Accompanied by Ali and Baderoon, I now attempted to 

 make some explorations, and we were followed by a train of 

 boys eager to see what we were going to do. The most trod- 

 den path from the beach led us into a shady hollow, where 

 the trees were of immense height and the undergrowth scanty. 

 From the summits of these trees came at intervals a deep 

 booming sound, which at first puzzled us, but which we soon 

 found to proceed from some large pigeons. My boys shot at 

 them, and, after one or two misses, brought one down. It was 

 a magnificent bird twenty inches long, of a bluish- white color, 

 with the back wings and tail intense metallic green, with 

 golden, blue, and violet reflections, the feet coral red, and the 

 eyes golden yellow. It is a rare species, which I have named 

 Carpophaga concinna, and is found only in a few small islands, 

 where, however, it abounds. It is the same species which in 

 the island of Banda is called the nutmeg-pigeon, from its hab- 

 it of devouring the fruits, the seed or nutmeg being thrown 

 up entire and uninjured. Though these pigeons have a nar- 

 row beak, yet their jaws and throat are so extensible that they 

 can swallow fruits of very large size. I had before shot a 

 species much smaller than this one, which had a number of 

 hard globular palm-fruits in its crop, each more than an inch 

 in diameter. 



A little farther the path divided into two, one leading 

 along the beach, and across mangrove and sago swamps, the 

 other rising to cultivated grounds. We therefore returned, 

 and taking a fresh departure from the village, endeavored to 

 ascend the hills and penetrate into the interior. The path, 

 however, was a most trying one. "Where there was earth, it 

 was a deposit of reddish clay overlying the rock, and was 

 worn so smooth by the attrition of naked feet that my shoes 

 could obtain no hold on the sloping surface. A little farther 

 we came to the bare rock, and this was worse, for it was so 



