L. 13, P. 3. B Shot a sparrow hawk among some Pandanus trees, of which scattered individuals are also to be seen along the shore. Later went back and set the boys to putting out traps. It was the first time out for two of them, so I sent one with each of the two more experienced boys. Then went down along the beach, for the tide was now nearly low, to try for some bird meat. Shot a large heron and a willet. And back at the house a big black cockatoo out of a great dead tree. Brass went back through the swamp collecting plants. A couple of the village men came with a few coconuts to sell. We bought them for a couple of sticks of tobacco. And in the evening before sundown we sat watching the "Pitt" off the end of Bobo. A bit later with the light going and supper on the table mosquitos began to swarm in. I walked down the beach with a headlight on, and got a shot off at some animals which I failed to find, so hope I missed him - probably a bandicoot. Back at the house found found that Brass had gone to bed, and the house was simply humming with mosquitos, fully half of which were Anopheline. The beasties were so bad that our boys were driven to camp on the beach around a fire as far away from vegetation as they could get. Poor Blue who had come across in the canoe with us was nearly frantic all night long, and snapped incessantly at the swarms of tormenting insects, or else made rushes from one corner of the room to another in efforts to escape the overhanging cloud of bugs. Friday, Apr. 10. Good Friday. Bright and sunny; and as the light grew stronger I could see mosquitos clustering thickly over the outside of the net. For several hours afterwards the room was full of skeeters when outside none were to be noticed! The traplines brought in eight mammals, two species of Rattus, brahhyrinus and ringens, Melomys muscalis, and a Bandicoot Echimypera. The latter had three pouch young. Brass went out, and we had not finished skinning when he came back. By that time the tide was well in and nearing high and the canoe afloat, so we bundled all our kit on board and headed for Daru, planning to get as far across as possible before the tide should turn and set against us. A few squalls with rain caught us, but we made good time and got back for lunch. Nearly across, we saw the "Kono" take a fly around, and head out over the back of the island: we guessed that Rogers was going out to take a look at the "Pitt". He had Beech and Healy with him, as we learned later; and the boat was found still miles away from the reef. The plane came over to us and our boys tried to race the canoe against her. In the afternoon I finished up the mammals: the bandicoot proved to have very delicate skin with hardly any cross fibers, as so many mammals with rather spiny hair often do. It was troublesome to take off. We had the idea about 4 oclock of throwing a party for the inhabitants of Daru; and Goodness knows we owed it to them, for no one could have been pleasanter or more hospitable than our friends here. It took less than five minutes to decide. Invitations went out by boy, and acceptances were 100%. Ensued a feverish house-cleaning, making of cake (his one and only culinary accomplishment) by the cook-boy, hanging of cheesecloth curtains across the three "bedroom" doors, setting up of "bridge" tables, stringing of more electric light wires, and additional radio aerials. The guests arrived about 8:30. and everything went over "swell". About midnight the "Pitt" floated back on the tide, the trip to the reef having been abandoned. Sat. Apr. 11. In the afternoon proposed a test of the field radio set from Beech's farm to our headquarters, a distance of only two miles. It was found that the base of the voltage divider, asbestos, was damp and high voltage leaking across. More corrections needed. Also receivers not too good. Yesterday down on the sands of old Mawatta saw numbers of little crabs, very deep shelled creatures, holding their claws vertically downwards. They ran about gregariously in companies of forty or fifty, their legs touching so that they made a rustling sound. When they reached certain patches of sand that were roughened by the sand thrown out of crab holes each one as he came to his own hole went down into it.