114 A COLLECTING TRIP 
three squirrels. The parrot is a beauty, bright red 
head, blue ring around his neck, and then the rest of 
his body erimson shading into green. He is just as 
tame as he can be and sits on my arm wherever we 
go; the only drawback is that he does not speak. The 
squirrels are sweet and as tame as they can be and 
very cunning. 
A week from today (Thursday, the 24th) we start 
for New Guinea with two very attractive Englishmen, 
who are on their vacation. They are in the Indian 
civil service and have lived in India for ten years; 
this is their first vacation. Tom got them interested 
in the trip and they decided to go with us and we are 
both delighted. The trip will take seven weeks, or 
more; so there will be a long space of time before you 
hear from us. We saw Dr. Treub yesterday; he has 
been out there and says it is most interesting. He has 
done everything possible for Tom in the way of 
getting native collectors for him, ete., and has been 
most kind to me. Collecting has been top notch and 
we have filled many large bottles with snakes of every 
color and description, frogs, toads, lizards, scorpions, 
bugs, beetles, bats and a hundred and one other things. 
We have thousands of spiders of the queerest shapes 
and a good many black beetles (not at all rare here) 
about three and a half to four inches in size, with 
great hooks, like beaks, where their noses would be if 
they had them. 
Now as to my clothes; they are holding out 
splendidly. I have worn only two white silk waists. 
Katherina washes and irons one while I wear the 
other. We frequently say how very fortunate it is 
that you cannot see our room and our street costumes. 
t. 
ate 
