512 



NEW OULVEJ. 



[cH^p. atJtxiv. 



brought no relief from their ptrseciiiidns ; and I verily 

 believe thai, during my three and a hs^lf montlLs' i-esidence 

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

 them. They were not nearly so voracious sis many other 

 kmds, but their numbera and nbiqtdty rendered it neces- 

 sary td be constantly on giiard against them. 



The Hies that troubled me most were a large kind of 

 blue-bottle or blow-fly. These settled in awarms on my 

 bird skins when first put out to dry, tilling their plumage 

 with masses of eggs, which, if neglected, the ne.xt day 

 produced niwggots. They would get under the wings or 

 under the body where it rested on the drying-boai*d, some- 

 times actually raising it up hall' an inch by the mass of 

 eggs deposited in a few hours ; and every egg was so firmly 

 ghicd to the fibres of the feathers, as to make it a work of 

 much time and patience to get them oil without injuring 

 the bird. In no other locality have I ever been ti'ouble'* 

 with such a plague as this. 



On the 29th wc left Dorey, and expected a quick 

 voyage home, as it was the time of year when we 

 ought to have liad steady southerly and easterly winds, 

 lustead of these, however, we had calms and westerly 

 breezed, and it was seventeen days befoi-e we reached 

 Ternate, a distance of tive hundred miles oidy, which^ 

 with average winds, could have been done in five days. 

 It was a great treat to me to tind myself back anain 

 in my comfortable house, enjoying milk to my tea and 

 cofiVe, fresh bread and butter, and fowl and fish daily 

 for dmner. This New Guinea voyage had used us all 

 up, and I determined to stay and recruit before I com- 

 menced any frr\sh expeditious. My ducceediug joiirneys 

 to (lilolo and Batchian have already been narrated, and 

 it now only remains for me to give an account of my 

 residence in Waigiou, the last Papuan territory I visited 

 in search of Birds of Pamdisu 



