170 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



it was impossible to follow them. Small birds were very scarce, but the 

 trees above one were well stocked with cockatoos, parrots, arid pigeons of 

 various kinds. These were all extremely difficult to see, although one 

 could hear them in dozens overhead. One of our fellows shot several about 

 the size of our common wood-pigeon, but they were dry eating. From the 

 ship I often saw big white cockatoos flying above the trees, and their white 

 plumage looked very conspicuous against the deep green of the forest. 

 Their flight is slow and flapping, and they keep up a continual shrieking 

 all the time. One day we started early, a party of five of us, with two 

 natives for guides, and walked a few miles inland to visit a uative village. 

 The path led us through the densest forest, and we had to walk in single 

 file. In some places the trees were so thick overhead that the path below 

 was in perfect gloom. Some places we passed through would have been 

 fine spots lor the natives to have attacked us ; however, they are all 

 friendly in this island. The ferns were in the greatest abundance, and 

 many of them were extremely beautiful, as were also the palms, which were 

 in great variety. As we neared the native village the path became more 

 open, and upon reaching it there was a little cleared ground in the 

 immediate vicinity, and here I managed to catch five or six dozen butter- 

 flies, several new species among them. The natives living in the village 

 seemed pleased to see us. Their houses are better built than those of the 

 inhabitants of the New Hebrides, and the men themselves are a finer race. 

 We got them to boil us some water and to cook some yams, and a pigeon 

 we had shot on the way. I had brought a bottle of claret, with some 

 cheese and biscuits, so we had our lunch in the middle of the village with 

 an admiring group of natives looking ou. We obtained by barter a few 

 curios in the way of spears, clubs, &o., things hard to be got now-a-days 

 when there are so many labour vessels about, from which the natives procure 

 rifles and hatchets, and have no longer need to make spears or clubs. We 

 left the village about 2 p.m., and got on board at 4.30. These savages 

 might easily have killed and eaten us had they felt inclined to do so, but 

 they seemed to be quite peaceable. Very few of the fair sex were to be 

 seen, and those that put in an appearance were abominably ugly, and some 

 of them had tame tlyiug-foxes clinging to their hair, scarcely pleasant pets 

 one would fancy. Dec. 11, 1882. — We are now steaming towards the 

 anchorage at Brisbane; and since writing the above we have been to 

 Duke of York Island, and Cooktown in the north of Queensland, only 

 staying a very short time at either place, so that I had not much chance 

 of doing auything. At Meoko, Duke of York Island, it rained most of 

 the time we were there, but I had one day, and managed to catch a 

 few new butterflies, and again was disappointed in the scarcity of species 

 and specimens. I was, however, delighted at capturing examples of a 

 magnificent Ornithoptera, a butterfly nine inches across the wings ! and, 



