158 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



uncommon and of but few species, the avi-fauna being poorer than in 

 the Paumotus. The Society and Fiji islands are progressive!}^ richer, 

 but- it was not until the Carolines were reached that the woods and 

 thickets seemed full of birds and resounded with their songs and 

 cries. Parrots and pigeons of several species, white-eyes, flycatchers, 

 kingfishers, and many other species were observed at Kusaie, Ponape, 

 and Truk, and the collections, which, in spite of effort, had languished 

 for lack of material after leaving Suva, began to offer some returns to 

 the shooters notwithstanding the brevity of the opportunities, which 

 made it impossible to secure a really representative collection. Two 

 species of herons, seen nowhere else, resembling one another more 

 or less in color, but differing greatly in size, were taken at Ponape. 



Four species of bats, three of which are represented in the collec- 

 tions, were observed in the Carolines. Three of them belong to the 

 Frugivora, wl ile the fourth is insectivorous, the only species of its 

 kind observed except at Yiti Levu. The fruit bats appear to subsist 

 mainly on the flowers of the poinciana, and especially on the island 

 of Ponape must exist in large numbers, as from one to twenty were 

 seen in almost every tree of that species. Several species of lizardj 

 were collected, and it is probable that careful collecting in all parts 

 of the islands would show a much more extensive reptilian fauna than 

 that observed in the eastern islands of the Paciflc. 



The natives of the several Caroline islands visited differ more or less 

 in appearance and present customs and social conditions. In Kusaie 

 and Ponape they have been brought into more intimate contact with 

 the whites, from whom they have copied their clothing and in a measure 

 their houses. The women wear long loose gowns or "mother hub- 

 bards," and the men usually dress in the shirts and trousers — the 

 former, in regulation tropical style, worn outside — and most of them 

 have hats. In Truk, however, this dress, although occasionally seen, 

 is rare, the men wearing a breechcloth reduced to the utmost limit and 

 the women a cincture or loin cloth of cocoanut fiber reaching to the 

 knees. The upper part of the body is usually naked, but is covered 

 on occasion by a sorb of poncho, a straight strip of cloth about 6 feet 

 long, with a slit in the middle through which the head is thrust. 



The people of Truk, especially the men, are much given to personal 

 adornment. The face is heavily powdered with turmeric, the hair is 

 worn in a high knot on the crown of the head and bound with strips of 

 bright cloth, necklaces of various materials are worn in profusion, and 

 from the pierced and extravagantly stretched lobes of the ears depend 

 looped chains of cocoanut-shell rings, which are often 4 or 5 feet long 

 and form a bunch 6 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. 



The natives of Truk are taller and more slender than the people of 

 Kusaie and Ponape. The men are well formed and athletic looking, 

 but with somewhat effeminate faces, owing in a measure to their lavish 

 adornment and the manner ot wearing the hair. The younger women 

 are often comely and both sexes are more yellow than the Kusaie 



