256 Feb. 17th - Sunday. Myself ashore about 5:30 again in hopes of securing quail. I flushed two and fired at both without success. One I thought I hit but could not find it in the grass. Mr. Arbour gave me breakfast. Later the captain, his wife, and I had lunch with the old gentleman. "I can run this place setting in this chair," he says, "which suits me down to the ground." Rain squalls all day. Feb. 18th Ashore before dawn after quail with similar results to yesterday: shot at two and missed both. The local boys tell me they often flush coeries of from two to six, but I have not yet seen them otherwise than singly. The boys followed me after having breakfast and brought in several good birds. The long-tail dove appears similar to the D'Entrecasteaux species. The mag-pie and fantail show variation, I think. All the avifauna of these islands, as in the case of the D'Entrecasteaux, seems to me to be dominated by the mainland of New Guinea. Duplication occurs everywhere with certain species favoring different localities. One does not encounter the intra-island variation so far-