where, yet these are not eaten by rats and in hundreds of examinations of such I found only 1 or 2 rat marks. Natives never complain of rat losses and as far as I could see rats and mice confined themselves to the small chips of copra meat left on the ground by the axe cutting or to the sponge- like kernel of growth found in sprouting nuts. If rats were anyway common this copra would suffer, as for days sometimes it is left unattended. At night natives often turn the nuts over to keep off showers or dew and such places would be ideal for rats to crawl underneath and take their fill safely protected from owls and enemies. As far as I know this never happens and all natives I asked said it was exceedingly rare and said rats much preferred the sweet spongelike growths in sprouting nuts. Copra, yam, banana, all failed as baits in traps but this sponge growth was successful). As regards Nymphicus suffering from rats if at all it must be to a very minute degree and a factor of no real account. One might almost say of Nymphicus that it is a bird of 2 zones or layers of altitude in the forest and spends ninety per cent of its time in those 2 layers. Resting in high forests very high up, generally in teak trees, or feeding in the secondary or lower leaf canopy of the forest between six and twenty feet above the ground, and mostly between 8 ft. and 15 feet or a little less in such areas. Generally going to 15 and 20 feet to perch and rest, though occasionally higher or lower when it decides to rest low in forests instead of returning to the tree tops. I noted that except for single birds, generally speaking, on a hot day with a light breeze blowing, birds perched high to get the collar breeze, but on very hot still days they preferred the deep cool shades of the