338 
The uock-oe-The-Rock. 
feathers. According to its own sweet will, the bird can fill this pouch 
with air from the palate, whereupon it rises like a horn: just as 
voluntarily it can draw the air out again, when the hag hangs over the 
side of the beak, like the so-called nose of the turkey, or else it can retract 
it altogether, when it protrudes hardly more than a quarter of an inch. 
It is in this retracted condition that the bird usually carries its pouch, 
but when it wants to ring out its metallic notes it blows it up, with the 
result that the tip of the bag becomes twisted around its own base : if it 
strikes but a single note, the bag is immediately straightened up, to 
collapse directly it is over, and erect itself again with the next cry.* In 
the colour of the plumage the female differs completely from the male, 
because the former is greyish green. The males get their snow-white 
plumage only in their third year: I was subsequently fortunate enough 
to include in my collections the most varied stages of transition. It is 
remarkable that the Indians know neither the nest nor the breeding- 
season of the bird. (They generally maintain that the bird does not 
breed here, but only appears in the environs of Nappi at this season of 
the year. 
922. The higher we climbed, the rarer became the feathered occupants 
of the forest: the deep silence was only interrupted by the shrill singing 
of the Cicadae. We might thus have reached a height of about 1,000 
feet when my companions, on coming to a small flat spot free from brush- 
wood, no longer rightly knew in which direction we had to go, particu- 
larly as the vault of dense foliage, above and beside us, prevented them 
taking their bearings. To remove this uncertainty one of them had to 
climbone of the highest trees. We found ourselves in the neighbourhood 
of Curassawaka Rock, which we reached after a short rest. The compor 
sition of the rock itself, like that of those others which I had 
hitherto seen continually present, consisted for the most part of granite 
and gneiss with more or less mica. Upon the little platform that we were 
now occupying Pitcairniae !, Tillandsiae and Monachanthus waxed in wan- 
ton fullness, while the panorama that spread out before me from this 
small plot of ground will always remain in my memory. Far below us 
the smoke clouds curling up through the thick masses: of foliage betrayed 
the situation of the friendly village of Nappi, and my eyes swept without 
hindrance over the thick virgin forest, the innumerable savannah oases, 
and the soothing rolling downs as far as the horizon where they became 
blurred in the distant blue. The Curassawaka, with three of its 
sides fairly perpendicular, rose about half way up the range above the 
surrounding timber. Somewhat to the south of our standpoint and still 
a few hundred feet higher, the fantastic looking Nappi crag with its like- 
wise perpendicular walls towered high beyond the crest of the range. 
At this elevation my Indians found a large land tortoise ( Testudo 
tabulata Walb). How much time must this creature have taken to reach 
such a height ? 
923. After surveying the glorious prospect with rapturous gaze, we 
continued our journey which now led down a steep slope. The vegetation 
* T r\ 7C.S. vi. n. 1(14 Quelch says that the «oirai tube or caruncle does not become 
inflated with air and is never carried in the erect position. (Ed.) 
