MULLAITIVtr. 267 



their legs, of course, head downward, looking at a little distance 

 precisely like the pear-shaped nests of our Baltimore oriole, and of 

 about the same size. They actually crowded each other on the 

 limbs, quarrelling, squealing, and occasionally shifting their posi- 

 tions. 



I saw that I had a bonanza, for I wanted a hundred specimena 

 of that species, and up to that time had secured only ten. Not 

 ha^ing with me the firearms and cartridges I wanted for a regular 

 haul, I left them undisturbed, and returned the next day with my 

 No. 10 double barrel and some very fat cartridges loaded with No. 

 8 shot. I easily approached within range, and with five shots 

 killed and secured forty-four specimens, in less than a minute. It 

 looked Hke wholesale murder, but it was not, for I preserved every 

 specimen in the form of either skin or skeleton, and now they are 

 scattered far and wide through the museums of the United States. 



Just before I opened fire, a large crocodile lay on a little islet of 

 mud in the middle distance, sunning himself, but he took water in 

 fine style at the first discharge. The birds rose from the trees in a 

 cloud and flapped away, but I knew they would return. After I 

 had disposed of my flying foxes, two days later, I returned for the 

 birds and their eggs. Our first haul was of eggs, and we took 

 home 70 of lesser cormorant {Graculus Javanicus), 9 of darter 

 {Plotus melanogaster), 18 of Herodias garzetta, 4 of large egret {H. 

 alba), and 4 of night heron {Nycticorax griseus). I shot several birds 

 of each species, and also killed the crocodile which frequented that 

 incubatory, but the water and mud was so deep and ti-eacherous I 

 was afraid to wade out to where it lay, and left it as a solemn warn- 

 ing to all other crocodiles who might feel inclined to hang about 

 there until the crop of young birds got ripe and fell into the water. 



Of course I hunted in every direction around Mullaitivu, and 

 nearly always with good success. Sometimes the bag was an in- 

 teresting small mammal, and sometimes a large bird or reptile 

 which I had not known to exist there. As a rule, I endeavored to 

 be at home during the hottest part of the day, from ten till three, 

 but more than once I was out all day. I will always remember 

 one particularly roasting, blazing hot day, when I went about five 

 miles above the village, between the great lagoon and the sea-shore, 

 and was out all day hunting through the low, sandy scinib jungle 

 after monkeys, with not a breath of air stirring. My dusky com- 

 panions from the village complained of the heat more than once, 

 and it really was almost unendurable. The salt perspiration ran 



