514 New Guinea. 



of beino- far better than the Aru Islands, it was in almost 

 every thing much worse. Instead of producing several of the 

 rarer paradise birds, I had not even seen one of them, and 

 had not obtained any one superlatively fine bird or insect. I 

 can not deny, however, that Dorey was very rich in ants. One 

 small black kind was excessively abundant. Almost every 

 shrub and tree was more or less infested with it, and its large 

 papery nests were everywhere to be seen. They immediately 

 took possession of my house, building a large nest in the 

 roof, and forming papery tunnels down almost every post. 

 They swarmed on my table as I was at work setting out my in- 

 sects, carrying them off from under my very nose, and even 

 tearing them from the cards on which they were gummed if I 

 left them for an instant. They crawled continually over my 

 hands and face, got into my hair, and roamed at will over my 

 whole body, not producing much inconvenience till they began 

 to bite., which they would do on meeting with any obstruction 

 to their passage, and with a sharpness which made me jump 

 asfain and rush to undress and turn out the offender. They 

 visited my bed also, so that night brought no reUef from their 

 persecutions ; and I verily believe that during my three and a 

 half months' residence at Dorey I was never for a single hour 

 entirely free from them. They were not nearly so voracious 

 as many other kinds, but their numbers and ubiquity rendered 

 it necessary to be constantly on guard against them. 



The flies that troubled me most were a large kind of blue- 

 bottle or blow-fly. These settled in swarms on my bird skins 

 when first put out to dry, filling their plumage with masses 

 of eggs, which, if neglected, the next day produced maggots. 

 They would get under the wings or under the body where it 

 rested on the drying-board, sometimes actually raising it up 

 half an inch by the mass of eggs deposited in a few hours ; 

 and every egg was so firmly glued to the fibres of the feathers, 

 as to make it a work of much time and patience to get them 

 off without injuring the bird. In no other locality have I ever 

 been troubled with such a plague as this. 



On the 29th we left Dorey, and expected a quick voyage 

 home, as it was the time of the year when we ought to have 

 had steady southerly and easterly winds. Instead of these, 

 however, we had calms and westerly breezes, and it was seven- 



