126 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



sage-greenback, dirty whitish belly, chestnut crest and 

 yellow throat. This is the Pachycephala gamblei of 

 Mr. Rothschild. It stops on the tops of the mountains 

 at the same altitude as the long-crested bower-bird 

 and the long-tailed Bird of Paradise. Another ground 

 bird I found seemed to be a cross between a land- 

 rail and a Pitta, had very small wings, which it does 

 not use (at least one of my men ran after one, until 

 it hid in a deep hole between stones, and it never 

 attempted to fly). It is of chestnut colour, with a 

 darkish back, and blackish wings with light stripes 

 across. The tail in both specimens was very ragged, 

 which is a peculiarity of the species. 1 



Among mammals I noticed two kinds of climbing 

 wallaby, both almost exactly alike, excepting one 

 had a round head similar to the Australian native 

 bear (koala), and the other had a long prominent 

 shiny nose absent in the other. The difference in 

 the skull was not so much as I should have thought 

 from the difference in the outside features. I noted 

 also what can only be described as a giant rat. It 

 was two feet four inches long (or was before it was 

 skinned). It is big as a Cuscus. I found also a midget 

 black female wallaby, which only measured two feet 

 two inches long, including its tail. It was full- 

 grown, as it had a young one in its pouch. 



While I was on the coast my Malay man came down 



1 This peculiar bird belongs to the family of the Rails, and is 

 called Rallicula forbesi. E. H. 



