CHAP. VII. 
NATIVE LTZARDS AND BIRDS. 
179 
kinds growing not only on the branches of living trees, but 
very often high up on the bare barked trunks of the dead 
trees. Sometimes in the angle formed by the junction of an 
arm with the trunk of a large naked tree, apparently without 
a fragment of bark adhering to the trunk, a bunch of moss, 
or a cluster of orchids, or both mingled together, would be 
growing apparently with great vigour, and often in full 
flower. More than one tall bare trunk, twelve or eighteen 
inches in diameter, and thirty feet high, stood surmounted, 
or surrounded near its summit, by a cluster of angraecums, 
with their long, sword-shaped, fleshy leaves; or, what was 
more beautiful still, a fine specimen of some species of birds- 
nest fern. The contrast between the white, shining, barkless 
trunk, and these verdant clusters of plants on the top, was 
sometimes very striking; especially as the orchids were often 
in flower, and by their growth altogether suggested the idea 
that by the decay of their own roots a receptacle was 
formed for the moisture or the rain by which the plant was 
nourished. This combination of life and death, growth and 
decay, presented one of the most singular amongst the many, 
to me, new and curious aspects of nature which my journey 
afforded. 
I saw few animals, excepting lizards, of which there were 
great numbers amongst the stones and trees, some of the 
richest emerald green, others speckled or marked in lines, 
but the greatest portion were of a lightish brown. Birds 
were comparatively numerous, and there were some of gay 
and attractive plumage. The largest was a com pact-shaped, 
lively bird, apparently the black-throated crow shrike. On 
the trunks of the trees I observed some resembling wood¬ 
peckers, also a handsome bird about the size of a jay, re¬ 
sembling some kinds of the butcher-bird; its plumage red, 
brown, and yellow. Far from being shy or disturbed by our 
approach, they seemed rather to welcome us; as I noticed 
