328 NEW GUINEA. [chap, xxxiv. 



realized none of my expectations. Instead of being far 

 better than the Aru Islands, it was in almost everything 

 much worse. Instead of producing several of the rarer 

 Paradise birds, I had not even seen one of them, and had 

 not obtained any one superlatively fine bird or insect. 

 I cannot deny, however, that Dorey was very rich in 

 ants. One small black kind was excessively abundant. 

 Almost every shrub and tree was more or less infested 

 with it, and its large papery nests were everywhere to 

 be seen. They immediately took possession of my house, 

 building a large nest in the roof, and forming papery 

 tunnels down almost every post. They swarmed on my 

 table as I was at work setting out my insects, carr3dng 

 them off from under my very nose, and even tearing them 

 from the cards on which they were gummed if I left them 

 for an instant. They crawled continually over my hands 

 and face, got into my hair, and roamed at will over my 

 whole body, not producing much inconvenience till they 

 began to bite, which they would do on meeting with any 

 obstruction to their passage, and with a sharpness which 

 made me jump again and rush to undi'ess and turn out 

 the offender. They visited my bed also, so that night- 

 brought no relief from their perseciitions ; and I verily 

 believe that during my three and a half months' residence 

 at Dorey I was never for a single hour entirely free from 

 them. They were not nearly so voracious as many other 



