(43) wiggled away from me after I had shot it in the tail with the aux.Snakes have been scarce here so far.I missed a blackhead in addition;although I waded the river for 1/4 mile upstream and followed many little brooks in my sallies down various ravines I saw no little kingfishers.The up-country is serrated with ravines that lead into three or four main ridges running lengthwise of the island(NW to SE);two central ridges surmount a large river canyon which drains the high land.The average width of the stream is 30 feet and is easily forded.I found a number of craters at 1000 feet many of the ravines leading into such places.Birds I met in small bunches- fantails,the black seem to run together while the brown is usually taken singly,fly-catchers,thickheads,pigmy parrots;the black-heads I have noticed in pairs very often.Midgets travel in flocks like the little parrots and the calls of both are easily confused.Of all the birds the pigmy comes to calling most readily,probably because its tiny squeak is so readily imitated.I have shot a number hanging upside down from vines and clinging to the bark of large trees.The fly-catchers frequent fairly low foliage when they are getting insects;and the other varieties of small birds are usually most plentiful,and are certainly most easily taken in groves of small timber and underbrush.The black honeysucker is represented on Choiseul with dark yellow breast,red head, and dark yellow wings;it feeds particularly on the blossom of a tall tree.White-eyes are abundant and are the songsters of the islands.The bald fly-catcher shows no white on the head,but is black with reddish-brown breast.The common black-headed fly-catcher does not have the pronounced red inside its bill as formerly the case on Vella Lavella,Gizo, Kulambangra,etc.,Hornbills,minas,parrots,cockatoos,graybirds,and crow as well as the common red-knobbed and gray pigeon inhabit the taller trees.I have seen hornbills,minas,parrots,cockatoos,and both pigeons feeding in the same tree,a great gnarled forest giant;they eat the small red berry-like fruit.No one has yet taken any of the doves which we can hear calling daily high up in the tree tops.The white-tailed"nickabar" pigeon is also common here.The crested ground pigeon(microgura meeki)remains a mystery bird.Both the Doctor and G.R.,have found natives here very useful as guides and retrievers;they have collected lots of snails upon the suggestion of the former.The community here is small and very friendly;one can get a boy simply by starting along one of the bush trails.There are other villages up the coast;we have been visited by several large canoes.A Methodist Mission teacher came from one with the name of Wesley as a patron saint.There is a school house at the nearby village with plenty of good slates(made in Pennsylvania)which have not seen much use. November 23 Mr.Beck,the Doctor,and I ashore for the day.The remarkable forbearance of rain has been most fortuitous.I followed Mr.Beck along his trail and struck little luck until the afternoon after crossing the large river that flows northward in the central canyon.Along the ridge over there I took a brown fantail,blackhead,red-breasted fly-catcher, and midget;as I was quietly eating my sardines a male and female hornbill flew into the tree above me.They were added to the collection.The male had six notches and the female three.I climbed down to the river bottom, suggested by Mr.Beck as a likely place for the evanescent crested pigeon; I waded downstream for 1/2 mile.I saw two brown herons and missed a rapid shot at a duck,a common teal.I shot a red-crested dove,mina,and a common sand piper;then a red-billed kingfisher flew and lighted on a log not more than 100 feet distant offering me a perfect shot,which I missed by squeezing the aux instead of the trigger on the big shell.It is the