

86 GnUISE OF THE ' CUBACJOA.' 



without taking the boats too high up the stream to be able 

 to float out again before the next tide. 



The rat, the flying fox, or large fruit-eating vampire bat 

 (Pieropus), the pig, are indigenous throughout the group ; 

 the dog, the cow, the horse, have been imported. Birds 

 are tolerably munerous and remarkable. The most singular 

 of all is the Didunculus strigirostris, or tooth-billed pigeon, 

 of which I have met but two specimens, one alive, the other 

 preserved in spirits of wine, and making part of my collec- 

 tion.^ It has the feet of a pigeon, short legs, the beak large 

 and strongly hooked at the tip like a bird of prey, with 

 three teeth on each side of the lower mandible, fitting into 

 corresponding cavities in the upper. The plumage is dark 

 and uniform in colour, the body of the shape and size of 

 a pigeon. This bird is so raxe here that the natives 

 were unable or too lazy to find any specimens, though 

 stimulated by the promise of 10/. for every bird they 

 brought. It is said to be found only in one valley on the 

 mountain. I saw honey-suckers with yellow plumage, re- 

 sembling those I had seen in Tutuila. I shot some brown 

 birds like hen blackbirds, and pretty little birds Avith pink 

 feathers about their heads and some parts of their bodies. 

 The foliage being thick it is hard to get a shot at them. 

 Also several pretty white and black bu'ds. I saw two 

 parrots in a cocoa-nut tree, with fine blue and brilliant green 



' Since this was written I have presented it to the British Museum. 

 There is said to be another specimen in the Imperial Museum in 

 St. Petersburg. 



