(40) ing to the chart.The rain abatted giving him a chance to shoot a few birds- fantails,both brown and black,thickhead and blackhead,and one flying fox.Instead of a mission he found a prosperous plantation under the direction of Mr.McPherson,about 150 acres under cultiva- tion.A number of the labor boys paid their respects and with them came a fine assortment of bananas,pawpaws,and pineapples.All were Malaita men. November 15 All ashore except Hicks;my leg is practically back to old form.Mr.Beck took a trail that follows the ridge in back of Mr.Mc- Pherson's house.The Doctor and I hunted along a river which has out- let just opposite our present anchorage.It averages 25 feet in width and from three to six in depth except over the last 1/2 mile before the mouth where it gets much larger.G.R.,went upstream,salmon-fashion, the Doctor took one side and I the other.As expected rain came about 11 o'clock and continued until 3.I followed a river trail for a mile and found birds plentiful,taking both brown and black fantails,bald flycatchers,brown-winged blackbird,white-eyes,red-rumped honeysuckers, and one red-billed kingfisher,the only significant catch.I also heard the cockatoo,mina,long-tail,parrots and paroquets,and megapodes;I saw a brown heron on the way up and missed a bittern on the way down.The ground dove occurs in the usual reddish-brown.The Doctor shot a new species of ground dove,a fine male,purple and black with white throat and head patches.Mr.Beck thinks it similar to one taken on Ramos I., in the southern Solomons.The honeysucker here is very dark and the adult male shows a slight red marking on the top of the head in addi- tion to the rump.The little kingfisher I shot right beside the stream just after the rain.One hears their shrill pipe at such times,particu- larly if it is near evening.They are never found high up in trees but invariably near the ground usually perched on some dead log or bare limb.In flight they are like a streak.The bittern was near the base of a huge root-tree,a species of wood unknown to me;the trunk pro- per begins anywhere from 10 to 30 feet above the ground surmounting a great pyramid cluster of roots that forms its base.The thickhead and blackhead are rare at the low altitude of the river bottom.Mr. Beck collected several above 1000 feet on his trek that took him to the top of the high ground about 5 miles inland.The France entertain- ed Mr.and Mrs.McPherson at dinner after the Doctor had extracted an ulcerated tooth belonging to the latter.The Doctor has proved a most welcome visitor both at plantations and native villages by virtue of his profession. November 16 The Doctor went along the river flats again while Hicks and I took the high ridge trail and climbed steadily until noon.On the way I took one ground dove,a red-throated dove and afew small birds.At 12:30 the rain came down in tropical torrents and contin- ued all afternoon.We had an old native leaf lean-to for shelter;when this collapsed upon our heads we came down,finding no birds in the welter of the storm.The river was greatly swollen and the entire basin in the coconuts inundated.Rising water had driven the Doctor out;no one else came ashore. November 17 Raised anchor at 6 A.M.,and stood out N half E for Choi- seul I.,a large body of land with numerous outlying islands;this should give us the balance of bird-types indigenous to the Solomons. We start a 35 mile run with a fair breeze.Like Vella Lavella,Choiseul