and could easily be compared to the falling of a many pointed autumn leaf. No one else saw it and no one else collected anything like it. When we return to Shortland Island I shall make every effort to discover what it is. There is a variation in the crow from the Choiseul Island crow, as well as in the graybird and blackbird. We shot no small blue kingfishers (which are present) and no yellow-bibbed doves. We have not yet estab- lished whether they are present or not. But we are returning to Shortland later on to visit the springs of the great frog, to visit the caves, and to get a better chance at the birds we couldn't get this time. Saturday, December 17th to Sunday, December 18th. At sea. On Saturday morning early we cleared for Bougainville, weighing anchor in a heavy drizzle which was destined to last all day. And with us, in the way of a Jonah, we carried a red bearded Catholic padre called Father Schnack. The company of Father Schnack began to bear very heavily on the ship's com- pany. Naturally there isn't much extra room on a craft of the disposition of the France. Father Schnack commandeered all the chairs for his own use, borrowed all the airs of a Fifteenth Century Papal lieutenant, and in the evening after a rather disconcerting day in a rolling sea bucking the tide, and straining out to see where we were going, Father Schnack descended into the cabin, grabbed the only light there was, and