chap, x.] COLLECTING UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 249 



more than usual difficulties. One small room liad to serve 

 for eating sleeping and working, for storehouse and dis- 

 secting-room ; in it were no shelves, cupboards, chairs or 

 tables ; ants swarmed in every part of it, and dogs, cats and 

 fowls entered it at pleasure. Besides this it was the parlour 

 and reception-room of my host, and I was obliged to con- 

 sult his convenience and that of the numerous guests who 

 visited us. My principal piece of furniture was a box, 

 which served me as a dining-table, a seat while skinning 

 birds, and as the receptacle of the birds when skinned and 

 dried. To keep them free from ants we borrowed, with some 

 difficulty, an old bench, the four legs of which being placed 

 in cocoa-nut shells filled with water kept us tolerably free 

 from these pests. The box and the bench were however 

 literally the only places where anything could be put 

 away, and they were generally well occupied by two 

 insect boxes and about a hundred birds' skins in process of 

 drying. It may therefore be easily conceived that when 

 anything bulky or out of the common way was collected, 

 the question " Where is it to be put ? " was rather a diffi- 

 cult one to answer. All animal substances moreover re- 

 quire some time to dry thoroughly, emit a very disagreeable 

 odour while doing so, and are particularly attractive to 

 ants, flies, dogs, rats, cats, and other vermin, calling for 

 especial cautions and constant supervision, which under 

 the circumstances above described were impossible. 



