306 Mr. E. L. C. Layard’s Notes of a 
attacked by the natives in that same place on his last visit 
there. The natives brought off a live specimen of Carpo- 
phaga rubricera, and a pair of Halcyon albicilla flew by the 
ship. I also saw a pair of Ducks settle in the water near the 
shore. With the ship’s glass I could plainly see they had light- 
coloured heads, and belonged to a species I did not know. 
Thence we steamed to an anchorage in the Admiralty Islands, 
where a specimen of a Carpophaga allied to C. vanwycki* was 
shot, while Halcyon albicilla and Lorius hypeenochrous flew 
over the ship. 
From the Admiralty group the captain’s intention had been 
to have visited Ontong Java, or Lord Howe’s Archipelago, and 
the Abgarris or Faed Islands. Unfortunately our supply of 
coal got short, and my brother collectors can imagine my dis- 
appointment when I heard orders given to steer for the Solo- 
mons. I do not know of any skins having arrived in Kurope 
from these islands. Captain Ferguson said that Orange- 
Cowries were quite common in the Abgarris group. 
We anchored in Marau Sound, Guadalcanar Island, Solo- 
mon group, during the last week in September. As the 
natives had murdered one of Captain Ferguson’s traders, and 
stolen £800 worth of goods, some seventy men were landed 
from the ‘Danae,’ at 3 a.m., and after marching some miles 
through the bush, managed to surround a village of the mur- 
derers at early dawn, and gave a good account of them. I 
took advantage of the opportunity, and landed, close to the 
ship, in company with a Captain MacDonald, an old Fijian 
acquaintance I had fallen in with anchored in Marau Sound. 
He took three of his natives with him, all armed with rifles, 
and we had our guns and a revolver apiece. Though we 
could distinctly hear the reports of the ‘‘ Martini-Henrys ” 
round the village, we were not molested by any of the fugi- 
tive natives, and I was enabled to add to my small collection 
the following species :— 
HERMOTIMIA MELANOCEPHALA. 
Feeding on Hibiscus-blossoms. 
* (No doubt C. rhodinolema, Scl, P. Z. 8, 1877, p, 555.—Epp. ] 
