(35) and gray pigeon and the cockatoo.G.R.saw a striped hawk .The Doctor and I found all our birds in the vicinity of the mangroves;the king- fishers were shot on the salt-water.The white-headed type are plenti- ful.They seem to like the mangroves as a background for their perch on bare,dead timber.We climbed a little knoll 1/2 mile inland,finding no small birds but plenty of pigeons.We met a Malaita boy who is em- ployed by Mr.Chaperlan to milk the bullimacow and hunt pigeons for the family's kaikai.He had six of the red-knobbed koora-boras;I shot one gray koora-kau for him.He calls the white-headed kingfisher"ku-ku",ap- parently Malaita dialect.These Malaita men are certainly the most in- telligent and the most vigorous natives of the whole group;they furnish practically all the recruited labor for plantations,the population of Malaita being 50 or 60,000.Self-maintenance is difficult especially be- cause the bushmen are generally hostile to the salt-water men.The re- cently killed D.O. had acted as peace-maker between the two for many years.They are much lighter than the people of the so-called western Solomons- Bougainville and Choiseul.They cling to tradition and custom, refusing to be missionized to any extent;the Catholic and the 7-Day have accomplished a little.One can always tell a Malaita man by his color and by his tattoos;these show on his cheeks and around the orbi- tal ridge,the latter being rows of dots;the cheek sometimes shows a star(Bena).Across the chest is found the totem,a bird or more often a fish,occasionally flowers and leaves are the pattern.Generally a name completes the array,designating a particular tribe or family.The totems are a much more general classification.In the western Solomons,in the islands recently visited like Ganonga and Narovo the men have little or no tatooing.I have seen several cicatrices on the upper arm,one a fri- gate bird,evidently made by incision and rubbing in dirt.Malaita boys everywhere we have found them have shown interest in our quest for birds and recognize many species as representative of their island;the red- billed kingfisher is again shinga(or chinga), and the pigmy parrot-"sum- ba."After kai we put up birds in a heavy rainstorm that lasted until af- ter 10 P.M.,and gave us fresh water in every conceivable receptacle. November 5 Ashore with the Doctor and G.R.,shortly after 7,Mr.Beck havi- ing gone off earlier in the dinghy.We landed below the mangroves in a little bay opposite Binskin I.,and climbed to the top of the ridge,find- ing surprisingly few birds.I shot one blackhead,a red-backed honeysucker, brown fantail,white-eye,and the usual brace or so of bald flycatchers. The doctor got three white-eyes among others and G.R.,a striped hawk. Mr.Beck fared much better hunting up to,the ridge nearer the southern end of the island;among his birds were 4 of the desired blackheads.Hicks also had one;he went out after lunch.Mr.Beck also brought in a white- headed hawk.George,the mate,failed to scare up any wild pigs on his ex- cursion into the bush for that purpose.The folks on shore here show the usual admirable Solomon Is.,hospitality,having entertained Mr.Beck at lunch yesterday and Mrs.Beck and the Captain at dinner this evening.A Mr.Risby of Savo is visiting the Chaperlan home at present.They send us out a couple of quarts of milk every day;with its aid Mrs.Beck baked a splendid cake which we enjoyed for three meals.The avifauna has not yielded us what it should have,the total being about 50 birds,but the Doctor has collected 10 or 12 different species of land-snails,and Hicks brought in a large snake last night,brown and white diamond pattern sim- ilar to one taken on Ganonga.No fangs were revealed but auxilliary teeth in the upper jaw.Mr.Beck put two scorpions into pickle.The monitor li- zard is here among the mangroves;the smaller lizards show nothing new. The insect kingdom has yielded us a few beetles,among them a lorngicorn.