80 NANKAURI 



were judged to have enough, each was smacked on the head 

 and sent off; no greediness nor crowding was allowed, and the 

 pigs were far better behaved than the generality of their species. 



We found the jungle near the houses quite impracticable, 

 both from its tangled nature and the steepness of the ground 

 it covered. A walk along the shore produced only a whimbrel 

 {Numenius pJiceopus), which, although not bad for the pot, is 

 too wide-spread a species to be of much value ornithologically. 



Experiences next day on the opposite side of the bay were 

 little more encouraging. Scrambling up a steep hill, we found 

 a small stretch of flat land on the top, where ran one or two 

 faint paths, along which the traps were placed. Birds were 

 very scarce, and as it began to rain, we returned to the dingh}% 

 and rowed round the bay, looking for kingfishers. The boat 

 was paddled up all the creeks in the thick belt of mangroves 

 that fringe the shores, but there was no sign of the bird we were 

 after — the large stork-billed Pelargopsis — and we had to be 

 content with whimbrels. The creeks, which in many cases are 

 only just broad enough to row in, often wind for long distances 

 among the mangroves, and on a dull day are depressing places, 

 with but little life in them. In the bay itself we saw many 

 beautiful branching corals of kinds far too delicate to grow in 

 the more disturbed water of the sea ; much of the growth which 

 spreads all over the bottom was, however, killed by the mud and 

 fresh water that comes down through the mangroves. 



Our arrival in the harbour was coincident with the beginning 

 of a feast, which was to continue for a week or so. Two new 

 canoes, decked with most gorgeous banners, flags, and streamers 

 flying from small poles,* were launched on the first day, and, 

 to an accompaniment of singing, rowed across to the northern 

 shore to obtain young coconuts for the coming festivity. These 

 joyous occasions the natives call, in imitation of our English 

 custom, " making Christmas " ; and over the door of those houses 



* These flags are made by the natives, and some of them are a legacy from 

 the Danish occupation — a white St George's cross on a red ground, with a 

 double-ended fly. 



