Lae Goo One Syconycteris in Van's bat net this morning; nothing in his l2 traps baited with sweet potato. Some traps sprung by rain or the giant toads (Bufo marinus) which one sees at night in considerable numbers. The Japs are credited with the introduction of the giant toad during World War II. It would seem more likely that they reached here in cargo from Cairns, where the animals, introduced to eat beetles in the sugarcane fields, have been a bad pest for years. According to Womersley, the giant toad population is in balance in the Lae area. They are not especially numerous, and they do not attain large size (about 4 to 4\frac{1}{2} inches). The pidgin name for them is Rok-rok, from the sound they make. In the morning while Van put away some geckos he collected in our house last night, I took a walk in the Botanic Gardens with John and Mary Womersley. A goodly amount of development has taken place, and plantings greatly increased, since I saw the gardens in January, 1957. Mass plantings of epiphytic orchids have been made outside, in the vicinity of a large slathouse (locked, and boy away with the key, when we where there); collection of Vanda spp.; many Dendrobium veratrifolium; scorpion orchids from Singapore, tec. A small artificial pond in a ravine (the bottom of which fell out during a "guria" (earth tremor) a year or so ago), and a dammed stream on the flat, contain introduced Nymphaea spp., and indigenous Nymphoides and submerged aquatics which have come in by natural means. Large, roofed cages or arc mesh wire contain a tame, friendly, and well plumaged young hornbill, several Dendrolagus matschei, several Phalanger maculatus, several goura pigeons of the variety beccarri (white-tipped plumes), two or three specimens of a variety of Paradiseae minor, and at least one specimen of another bird-of-paradise. Two or three mornings ago a male of the "other" bird-of-paradise (Princess Stephanie's), which had been caged with a male of P. minor, was found dead, with a cut across its throat. In this connection, John Collins says that at the Hallstrom Wildlife Station at Nondugl, on the Western Highlands, F. Shaw Mayer has found that birds of paradise, if caged more than one species together, fight to the death. This may have happened in the Lae Botanic Gardens. Later in the morning we drove west approximately 10 miles along the Bulolo Road and there crossed the Markham River on a wartime steel Bailey bridge 1700 feet long. The Markham running turbid in low flood. A shallow, rapid stream with several channels around low silt islands. On the far bank we met a taxi load of young white men out on a sightseeing tour. One was John Howlett, Patrol Officer stationed in the Mt. Hagen area; a West Australian returning from home leave. Has undertaken to collect mammal study skins and skulls for Ride of the West Australian Museum, and material of Nothofagus for someone else in W.A. who is interested in anatomical and morphological comparisons with fossil materials of the genus discovered in W.A. (or so I understand). Our drive to the Markham was for the purpose of selecting more trapping sites, and sites for bat shooting in the evening. At Kelly Bros. place, about three miles out from Lae, I collected three spp. of hepatics and a moss from the bases of trees. In secondary rain forest on the east side of the Markham flood plain I collected good flowering and fruiting material of an apocynaceous vine. These are the first gatherings for the botanical collection. Having no tow or cotton batting with which to stuff the bat he took from his net this morning, Van utilized the seed pod fibres of a planted balsa tree in the Botanic Gardens. A springy brown fibre which worked well in the small Syconycteris.