L. 14, P. 3 for swatting at them. Birds were few up there. Next went west along the beach. The shore side is planted with quantities of coconut trees, some scattered mangrove trees grow on the seaward side a little below high tide mark. They are in sand in stead of the customary mud though. On way back met large flock of parroquets and bagged a couple. Heavy shower developed once more. A very old man of the village told us he remembered "Italia", which turned out to be D'Albertis the veteran Italian explorer of the Fly river. D'Albertis spent a long time at Katau the village from the present Mabaduane people came. To check up the old man, who had said that several Katau men accompanied D'Albertis up the Fly, we asked him to give us the name of one of them. He thought the matter over and gave us a name which Brass looked up in his noted and found correct. Now D'Albertis was here in 1875 or 6, and the old man said he was just a picaninny then, so that makes the old fellow a shade over 60. His name is Awda. Fri. Apr. 17. Went along the beach with light for about a mile. But saw nothing, and turned back when got far along between mangroves and coconuts. The village dogsraid us at night, climb the steps and make for the kitchen. Blue, instead of acting as policeman, apparently keeps open house for them. Last night Brass after chasing one out, got mad threw the entire steps down off the porch so that this morning no one could get either up or down. Took a Macroglossus bat out of the bat net last night. Nothing caught in trap-line. Rebaited a lot of the traps with shredded coconut. A bird boy brought in a lot of parroquets which plan to use for bait in steel traps. Have everybody just now skinning birds, - mammal boys as well. This afternoon a short way away in the village a great crying and roaring broke out among the people. It turned out to be the death of an old woman and the noise was a general sign of grief. It is still going on as I write. The three eggs of a pheasant cuckoo were brought in by a bird boy Aulea. They had just begun to incubate. The nest was on the ground out at the savanna where the giant ant-hills are. Brass brought in pieces of rock which look much like sandstone. They overlie the ganite on top of the hill. Thye appear to show no bedding planes whatever, are possibly not sandstone but pieces of the same granite greatly decomposed. Three specimens of the "frog-mouth" a giant member of the night-hawk family with strong, horny beak were shot this morning in the savannas. Another of the boys brought in a carpet snake about 7 feet long. It is being skinned, as it is too big to be pickled at this camp. At 5 ock received Julstedt, who said that the 'plane had come at 1.10 p.m. and that there were 5 letters for me. That 's the best news I've had for some time. Sat. Apr. 18. Rain for half the night. Another Macroglossus in bat net. Two R. ringens, one R. brachyrhinus and two Melomys muscalis in traps. Took a long walk out along the trail to the savannas; found most of it under water. Saw several pheasant cuckoos, and numbers of the gregarious parroquet of which we have taken such a large number of specimens. The morning cleared off quite nicely about eleven oclock and the wind blew from the southeast. Here, at Old Mawatta and at Daru quantities of water-rounded pumice is to be seenat the top of the highest reach of tides. It evidently represents material shot out of some volcano a considerable time ago in order for it to have become water-rounded, and it has gradually been accumulated and left at levels above ordinary tide level and in mangrove swamps. At quarter to five rain again; the northeast has once more prevailed against the southeast "trade". Two long-necked turtles, little fellows, with green sea algae growing all over their backs have just been brought in. A little while ago all the ladies and children of the village under the able escort of Abua the Church councillor were brought to see the birds and mammals collected. You never saw such a mob or heard such a chattering. About once in each half