chap, xx.] AN UNWELCOME GUEST. 4G7 



would get him out, and proceeded to work in a business- 

 like manner. He made a strong noose of rattan, and 

 with a long pole in the other hand poked at the snake, 

 who then began slowly to uncoil itself. He then man- 

 aged to slip the noose over its head, and getting it well 

 on to the body, dragged the animal down. There was a 

 great scuffle as the snake coiled round the chairs and 

 posts to resist his enemy, but at length the man caught 

 hold of its tail, rushed out of the house (running so 

 quick that the creature seemed quite confounded), and 

 tried to strike its head against a tree. He missed however, 

 and let go, and the snake got under a dead trunk close by. 

 It was again poked out, and again the Bourn man caught 

 hold of its tail, and running away quickly dashed its head 

 with a swing against a tree, and it was then easily kflled 

 with a hatchet. It was about twelve feet long and very 

 thick, capable of doing much mischief and of swallowing 

 a dog or a child. 



I did not get a great many birds here. The most re- 

 markable were the fine crimson lory, Eos rubra— a brush - 

 tongued parroquet of a vivid crimson colour, which was 

 very abundant. Large flocks of them came about the 

 plantation, and formed a magnificent object when they 

 settled down upon some flowering tree, on the nectar of 

 which lories feed. I also obtained one or two specimens 

 of the fine racquet-tailed kingfisher of Amboyna, Tany- 



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