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Show 1888.] ZOOLOGY OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS. 249 be hardly said to belong to the Solomon group at all. I have noticed, especially on the island of Malayta, that the Pigeons leave the mainland of the large islands and resort at night in thousands to roost on the small detached islands off the coast. I can only account for this fact by the supposition that they find themselves free from the attacks of the large Monitor Lizards, which would not be so plentiful there as on the mainland. Among Parrots the wide-ranging Eclectus polychloros is common, and several Lories, the handsome Lorius cardinalis not being found elsewhere, while the minute Nasiterna of two or three species is occasionally met with. These most interesting little birds creep about on the trunks of the large trees like tree-creepers, their tails being furnished with pointed feathers for the purpose. It is an extremely interesting fact that the Cockatoo peculiar to the Solomons (Cacatua ducorpsi) does not extend to the island of San Christoval and smaller islands adjacent ; and the same is the case with the Horn-hill (Buceros plicatus), the island of Guadalcanar being consequently the most eastern limit of the extension of these two genera. At a certain time of the year, when the bright red flowers of the coral-tree (Erythrina) are conspicuous among the bright green foliage of the forest, the Lories resort to them in large numbers, and the natives spreading fine nets near the trees catch them in considerable quantities. I have had as many as fifty of different species brought me in one day, the neck being invariably broken by their struggles in the net. On Guadalcanar I was fortunate enough to discover a new Crow (Macrocorax woodfordi), but I believe it to be extremely local, and confined to a part only of that island. I did not meet with it or hear of it at other places that I visited, nor have other collectors met with it. At Aola, on Guadalcanar, where I made m y headquarters for six months, it was extremely plentiful. One of the most interesting birds I met with was the Megapodius brenchleyi,-a bird allied to the mound-building Talegalla of Australia. This species was first described from a fresh-hatched specimen brought home by the late Julius Brenchley, and figured in his ' Voyage of the Curacoa.' This bird, although only about the size of a large pigeon, lays an egg bigger than that of a duck. It is commonly distributed throughout the group, and allied species are, I believe, found on the groups to the east and south-east; but it is upon the island of Savo that it is found in the greatest abundance. Here the eggs form an important item in the daily food-supply of the natives, and I have bought, when calling there, as many as ten eggs for one stick of tobacco, value about three farthings. The Savo natives have a curious legend connected with this bird. They hold the Shark in great veneration, and say that their island was made by the Shark, who brought the stones together and placed upon them a man, a woman, the yam-plant, and the Megapode. Things went well for a time, and the people increased, and so did the Megapodes. •U last the people went to the Shark and complained that the Megapodes made much havoc among the yam-patches by digging holes |