.CHAP. XXXI.] RAVENOUS DOGS. 259 



of mosquitoes, or of the insect pests often found at 

 home. These latter are a constant and unceasing source 

 of torment and disgust^ whereas you may live a long time 

 among scorpions, spiders, and centipedes, ugly and veno- 

 mous though they are, and get no harm from them. After 

 living twelve years in the tropics, I have never yet been 

 bitten or stung by either. 



The lean and hungry dogs before mentioned were my 

 greatest enemies, and kept me constantly on the watch. 

 If my boys left the bird they were skinning for an instant, 

 it was sure to be carried off. Everything eatable had to 

 be hung up to the roof, to be out of their reach. Ali 

 had just finished skinning a fine King Bird of Paradise 

 one day, when he dropped the skin. Before he could 

 stoop to pick it up, one of this famished race had seized 

 upon it, and he only succeeded in rescuing it from its 

 fangs after it was torn to tatters. Two skins of the large 

 Paradisea, which were quite dry and ready to pack away, 

 were incautiously left on my table for the night, wrapped 

 up in paper. The next morning they were gone, and onl}' 

 a few scattered feathers indicated their fate. My hanging 

 shelf was out of their reach ; but having stupidly left a 

 box which served as a step, a fuU-plumaged Paradise bird 

 was next morning missing ; and a dog below the house was 

 to be seen still mumbling over the fragments, with the fine 

 golden plumes all trampled in the mud. Every night, as 



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