348 THE HOMEWARD VOYAGE. [chap. 



The East Iiidiau Archipelago is pre-eminently the home of the 

 pigeon, the parrot, and the kingfisher. Bu'ds of the latter family 

 are, of eoiu'se, seldom to be obtained alive, but we had numberless 

 specimens of the others in our aviary. The magnificent Crowned 

 Pigeons {Goura coronata and vidorice) are very lethargic in their 

 habits, and soon get tame in confinement, but we were unable to 

 give sufficient room to the number we had, and in spite of their 

 being very hardy birds, only six or seven reached England out of 

 the twenty-five we had collected. By theu' side the large Carpo- 

 phagas, of which we had tln^ee or four species, looked almost 

 pygmies. The little doves of the genus Ptilojncs, conspicuous even 

 more for their extraordinary colouring than their tiny size, we did 

 not succeed m obtaining alive. 



Noisiest of all our pets were the paiTots. During the mid-day 

 heat we were left in comparative peace, except when a quarrel 

 arose between the occupants of two adjacent perches. But in the 

 early morning, and for an hour or more before sunset, the ship was 

 a perfect pandemonium. Cockatoos swore and chattered; lories 

 fought and flapped their wings and shrieked at the top of their 

 voices, and the dull, hea\'y Edcctus — birds as stupid and uninterest- 

 ing as they are gaudy in colour — alone sat motionless, adding theb 

 monotonous scream from time to time to the tumult. "Writing was 

 almost as impossible during these hours as it would have been in 

 the parrot-house of the Zoological Gardens. As we got westward 

 the noise duninished day by day. The brilliant coloured lories of 

 New Guinea seem little able to bear change of temperature or 

 confinement, and long before we arrived at Singapore fully half of 

 them were dead. AVe missed most of all the rare Black Lory from 

 Misol {Chalcopsittcicus ater), whose absurdly extravagant demon- 

 strations of affection had made us all ^■ery fond of him. 



Forward of the bridge, the decks presented still more the 

 appearance of a menagerie. ]\Ionkeys sat gibbering on the 

 bulwarks, and large white cockatoos, with their moustaches 

 bristling, sidled solemnly up and down their perches, envying, no 



