of such being the case and believe such instances are few but that natives have come to believe it through this this ex- cuse to impatient white men demanding why they haven't captured them the specimens promisted last trip of the steamer or last year. Such an excuse is commonly given to a trade who has given 5 or 10 francs credit on the strength of a native knowing where a nest is with "three fellar picannini, me wait no more long he big enough belong taken em he come long you." One trader told me in all faith that the natives nowadays would not collect birds because not only were they rare but in almost every hollow they found snakes and being terrified of them had become too afraid to look for nests. My own experience was thus. One day I had a native boy with me, when I examined 3 nest sites. I made no remarks about them being nests, merely climbed to them and examined them and passed on. A day or so later I was surprised when wandering through this almost trackless forest to observe carefully camouflaged blazes on the trees. On following these up I found the trail led from within 15 feet of a short track extending a few chains into the forest from a garden (for collecting firewood, etc.) right to the 3 nests examined by me and stopped at the last. On questioning the native he admitted his intention of returning the following nesting season to try and make capturors of well advanced nestlings. So much for their fear of snakes in hollows. Actually snakes are not so exceedingly plentiful, though common enough, and I saw no large ones, the bulk of them being only to 2 ft. or 2 ft. 6 or less, and a few about 3 ft. 6 in. length. I think the majority of these would be keener on smaller and easier caught birds, such as Zostercops Gerygone etc. and would much