Jan., 1907.] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 165 



its wings. During the wet weather, of which we had a good deal 

 at this camp, the boys would employ themselves making arm 

 bracelets from the fibre taken from the stems of ferns, which are 

 very neatly plaited. The particular fern they were using grows 

 to a height of 20 feet in the scrub. They usually put into the 

 bracelet in addition a few strands taken from the stems of orchids, 

 the orchid stem being first baked in a piece of bamboo till it 

 turns the desired golden colour. 



Whilst returning to Mount Oriori along the same route we had 

 taken in going north we found a few nests of the Cat-bird, 

 Aeluroedus, along the ridge. The nest is cup-shaped and com- 

 posed of twigs, and all those I saw were built in low pandanus 

 trees, the nest only containing one egg of a yellowish-white 

 colour. On reaching the neighbourhood of Mount Oriori we 

 stopped for three days on a sugarloaf-shaped mountain in a cave 

 formed by a huge overhanging rock and commanding a fine view 

 of a gorge and of a mountain on the opposite side. The Moroka 

 boys were very glad to be back in their own district, but were not 

 so energetic as they had been, preferring to sit about and chew 

 their beloved betel nut, which they had not been able to obtain in 

 the Eafa and Kage districts, or to recount tales of their doings on 

 the main range. In this district we got five Tree-climbing Kanga- 

 roos, which were larger than those in the Melbourne Museum. 

 To secure this animal a native climbs the tree and drives it out 

 to a far-out branch, and as the native keeps approaching the 

 animal drops to the ground, where it is clubbed. We got here 

 wallabies, cuscuses, scrub turkeys, Manucodes, a Cat-bird, a horn- 

 bill, five different species of parrots, and a Cassowary's egg. 

 There were several bower-birds' play -grounds on the mountain, 

 but we were unable to shoot another specimen of the bird. 



On leaving the cave we travelled to Barikoro, a small village 

 six miles north-east of Sogeri Coffee Plantation. From this village 

 there was an extensive view of a valley extending to the north- 

 east, watered partly by the Laloki River and partly by the Kemp 

 Welsh, beyond which were densely-wooded ridges as far as the 

 main range. We remained here for one week, chiefly to get some 

 more specimens of the commoner birds of paradise met with at a 

 lower elevation, but all were out of plumage, so we gave up 

 shooting them after the first three days. I usually spent the 

 afternoons here down at the creek, taking down two boys with 

 butterfly nets with me. There were large trees lining the creek 

 which gave plenty of shade during the heat of the day, and I 

 divided my time between bathing, reading, and assisting my boys 

 to catch butterflies, which in their course up and down the creek 

 stopped to settle on some white flowers where my boys were 

 stationed. On returning to camp in the evening there were 

 always the birds and animals to look at which the shooting boys 



