Huniber five served as a reserve, and took turns with the others in propel- 

 ling shor swards a large, air -tight biscuit tin, bound around and reinforced 

 with rope. This latter contained the nail addressed to Niuafoou, as well as a 

 collection of magazines and newspapers for the "benefit of the literates - the 

 great majority of the Tongans, under the influence of compulsory education, 

 belong to that class - and intended to serve until the next monthly distribu- 

 tion. 



^ The steamer's search light showed these Tongans swimming about in the 

 "spotlight" like frogs in an aquarium, When their cargo had been drawn on 

 board, by means of buckets let down from the "Toufua's" upper deck, the large 

 tin container was thrown overboard, to be pushed asnore by these wonderful 

 Tongan swimmers. We watched them until they disappeared into the tropical 

 night. Of course the value and purpose of the lantern was quite apparent, but 

 the facetious Captain explained - for the benefit of some eager questioners - 

 that it was intended to prevent him from "tangling up Tongans in his propeller 

 blades, somebody having discovered that natives so treated were rarely as ef- 

 fective after as before such treatment . My share in this episode was to be 

 the recipient of one of the cleft carrying-sticks, mad* of Fau wood, very tough 

 but light, something like our Douglas fir, which I shall have made into a cane 

 for the benefit of some collector of these objects. Surely it will be unique 

 in any collection of canes. 



n F ° r naturalist » I imagine the chief attraction that Niuafoou holds in 

 its ^I/alau", one of the several species of Eegapodes that have preserved their 

 reptilian habits to the extent of laying their eggs in the sand of the sea- 

 shore and allowing the hot sun to do the hatching. When I was in Nukualofa, 

 the capital of Tonga, Dr. C, K, Dawson, chief of the Medical Service and all- 

 round scientist, gave me one of the eggs of this cruious bird - momento of a 

 happy and, I trust, enduring friendship. This specimen is of a purple-bro\7n 

 color, and so large that it just fits into an empty Wills cigarette tin. 

 Perhaps you don't think an egg twice as large as the average hen's egg a l arge 

 egg, but when one realizes that the bird that laid it is smaller than the aver- 

 age hen, the subject becomes interesting. Of course I gathered all the infor- 

 mation I could regarding the Tongan bird, and I think it must resemble very 

 closely the Celebes species, so charmingly described by Alfred Wallace in his 

 Malay Archipelago," Of course, when I reach Honolulu or California, (within 

 reach of a library), and am able to consult Finsch and Hartlaub, I may find 

 that these authorities have already described the Central Polynesian Malau as 

 a distinct species, but since the story told by Wallace closely fits the ac- 

 count given me by the most reliable of my informants, who has not only often 

 visited Kiuafoou, but has seen bird, burrows, eggs and nestlings, I venture 

 to quote the description of the Celebes Maleo ( Megacephalon maleo ):- "it is 

 in loose, hot, black sand that the Maleos deposit their eggs. In the months 

 of August and September, when there is little or no rain, they come down in 

 pairs from the interior to certain favorite spots, and scratch holes three 

 or four feet deep, just above high-water mark, where the female deposits a 

 single large egg, which she covers with about a foot of sand, and then returns 

 to the forest . At the end of ten or twelve days she comes again to the same 

 spot to lay another egg, and each female is supposed to lay six or eight 

 eggs during the season. The male assists in making the hole, coming down and 

 returning with her. The appearance of the bird when walking on the beach is 

 very handsome. The glossy black and rosy white of the plumage, the helmeted 

 head and elevated tail, like that of the common fowl, gives a striking charac- 

 ter. **** The eggs are so large that it is not possible for the body of the 



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