352 THE HOMEWARD VOYAGE. [chap. 



becoming arboreal in its mode of life. The hind limb is shortened. 

 although still of unsuitable length, and the claws are sufficiently 

 developed to enable it to cling strongly to any object. But 

 although a tree-haimting animal, it is as yet a tyro in the art of 

 clunbing, performing this operation in the slowest and most 

 awkward manner. Oiu' pets, for instance, would take a full 

 minute or more in ascending the back of a chair, but their hold 

 was most secure, and if we wished to pull them off we had no little 

 difficulty in doing so, so tightly did they cling.^ I never saw any 

 creature tamer than ursimis. He was never happy unless at oui- 

 feet, and would follow our every movement. This habit was, 1 

 believe, the prunary cause of his death, for he was tumbled over or 

 trodden upon at least half a dozen times a day. The climate of 

 Europe proved too much for his relative D. inustus, and he died the 

 day before we reached England. 



Leaving Pobbo we set our course N.W. along the deep-sea 

 channel which separates the western coast of New Guinea from 

 Ceram. On the morning of December 10th we sighted a perfect 

 nest of small islands lying around the southern shores of Misol, 

 and, gi\^ng them a wide berth, followed as far as possible the track 

 by which we had previously approached the island. An hour or 

 two later we were once more at anchor in the harbour of Efbe. 



"We sent a prau at once in search of our hunters, who, we heard, 

 were at Lelinta, and the same night they arrived on board. All 

 were well, with the exception of one man, who had suffered rather 

 severely from fever. They had been well treated and supphed 

 with a prau as we had requested, but they told us that, owing to 

 contrary winds and strong currents, they had been five days in 

 reaching Waigamma on the north-west coast. Nearly 150 

 specimens of birds had been collected, but although there were 

 several rarities among them, there was not a single new species. 

 Perhaps the most interesting bird was a Nasiterna or Pygmy Parrot 



^ The tail, although not actuallj- prehensile, is used by them to press against the 

 branches, and is thus of considerable assistance. 



