5 ? 
April 26-27-28 P iroe 
Our days are running pretty much on schedule now. We get up at 
six, or shortly after, have coffee, look over the menagerie, feed and 
water the animals, and buy any new ones that come in. Every morning 
there is a line of natives offering us all sorts of things. Bill has 
been anxious to get some Maleos, a curious megapode that looks like an 
undernouri shed, long-legged black chicken. Several of the natives 
said they could trap them in the jungle, and sure, enough, Maleos 
begin coming in. At first we paid Fl. 1.25 for them; when we had 
several cages full, and the annoying birds wouldn ! t eat, we sent out 
word that we had enough, and wanted no more. Still they come in, and 
we dropped the price to Fl. 1 .CO, 50 cents, finally 25 cents. The 
local policeman told us that the arket price on Maleos, which are 
considered good eating, was ten to 20 cents, so we are still paying 
too fair a price to discourage the hunters. We offer them rice, 
cooked and raw, brown and white; maize, banana , grasshoppers, chopped 
pig^s liver, chopped chicken, sago pith, papaya, but the birds are shy, 
easily frightened, and afraid to eat . One or two have died - either 
from self starvation or from injuries received when they were captured. 
Bill dissected one, to find out what was in the crop. It appeared to 
be vegetables, with a great deal of gravel, so we start sanding the 
cages liberally. 
Every morning we take a wa Ik out into the country . One day we 
spent up a. small mountain stream, an idyllic spot, and we followed the 
stream by walking up the iddle of it for a long way. Bill found 
new specimens of Polyrachus, new types of nests, new habits. One ant, 
Echinopla , a hairy ant, was nesting in a hollow twig. This is a genus 
he has never caught before, hinself, and he is delighted with it . 
Buitenbos is getting very good at finding Polyrachus, though occasionally 
he dashes into the bushes and comes back reporting on a r left nest - 
not a single guest. T ' He found one enormous Polyrachus nest high in 
a tree and brought it down . It was made of hard carton, instead of 
bark and silk, and Bill spent half an hour standing in the middle of 
the stream so the ants couldn ? t climb up his legs while he took the 
nest apart and collected vials full of the occupants. 
Another morning we walked along a new road that is being built 
into the interior. Collecting was not much good, but we saw several 
interesting things. In one place a man and a woman were clearing the 
jungle preparatory to planting cassava . Bending to the back-breaking 
wo rk , cutting trees, and thorny scrub with inadequate-looking knives, 
they reminded us that life here is not so easy after all. Once a plan- 
tation is started, it will support its owners with a minimum of 
effort on their part, buir the beginning is very hard work indeed* 
Farther along on thi s same road we passed what looked like 
a cypress swamp, with cypress knees sticking up everywhere through the 
stagnant water. Crabs, prawns, hermit crabs, small fish were to be 
seen all through it. 
£ 
Another day we followed a road that paralleled the beach 
road we took the first day, but we did not go all the way to Eti . 
ffin one place Bill turned off into a garden, and found two new' species 
of Polyrachus, before he was informed that the place wa s baited for 
wild pigs, and there was danger of getting an arrow through one 1 s 
leg if one walked into the trap. We left hastily, but not before we 
had a good look at two wild white cockatoos eating duri an in the top of 
a tree. 
