(44) worst skull I have pulled yet;we have only one of the wood kingfishers and that had a black bill and a light yellow breast,evidently a young plumage.The natives report the red-billed"shinga";this one I missed was in plain sight and I am positive of its red bill and orange breast. Returning to the ship I collected several unusual spiders and a large lizard. November 24 (Thanksgiving Day) Breakfasted on fried hornbill breasts.Then skinned a hornbill and helped the Doctor clean snails.In the evening we had a sumptuous dinner thanks to Mrs.Beck;the Doctor wrote some appropriate stanzas which were read on the occasion. November 25 Raised anchor and steamed 11 miles north to Choiseul Bay;we let go the iron off Mr.Everett's,manager of one of Hamilton's planta- tions.Mr.Beck,the Doctor,Hicks,and I went ashore about 10 A.M.We had to walk a mile through the coconuts to reach the bush where we found no trails for considerable distance.I ventured into a mangrove swamp where the going was rough over broken coral and roots;here I took a few birds- white-eye,brown fantail,red-breasted fly-catcher,black fantail,and young male thickhead.This plumage in many of the small birds resembles the female adult.Reached higher ground and got on a ridge where I heard hornbills and cockatoos but few small birds.Met the Doctor and later Hicks.We returned together and in the coconuts I shot a rusty-winged blackbird and a common land kingfisher,large.Mr.Beck had come back to the ship early and had gone up a large river that empties into the bay nearby.He returned with a white-eared kingfisher and knowledge that the river is navigable for 3 miles. November 26 All the field party went up the river in the long boat to a point where further progress was prevented by a considerable waterfall. At this place the river branches.I followed the left for about a mile finding the river drainage extremely rough;the ground was full of holes and rocky knolls,small precipitous ravines,mostly lava and crumbly vol- canic rock.The river bed had an intermixture of clay at the surface. Bird life was very sparse.We went up the river at ebb tide and mangrove roots on either bank were exposed for considerable distance inland.Five little blue kingfishers were seen.There are plenty of curlew up the river and around the bay.Mr.Beck shot one and a duck in addition.The little kinf- fishers nest in holes up in dead trees or in the bank itself alonf small tributary streams and are out on the main stream at low tide.Wé saw none returning when the tide was full.One huge tree near the falls might be called"the hornbill tree";there were at least 30 hornbills feeding in the branches.I found a similar tree in my ramble which harbored crows, minas,and gray pigeons;some of the birds pick the inside of the friut out, the ground being covered with shucks.These could be heard dropping all around mingled with the peculiar gurgling and chuckling of the contented birds.I did my best to secure the nest of a common land kingfisher which was 20 feet up a large dead trunk,but did not make the grade.The mother bird would visit it about every five minutes,evidently feeding the young ones.I found a black honeysucker,female,teaching a pickininnny to fly;I took the young one up and the mother hovered about in distraction. Just above the place where we had tied the long boat Mr.Beck found a pigmy parrot's nest dug in a black ant's nest which was about 7 feet up on the side of a large white-barked tree 150 feet high.There were two eggs in the nest,undiscovered at first because they lay up on a little shelf above the aperture.Both Mr.Beck and Hicks saw the pair fly out.