would get him out, and proceeded to work in a business^-
like manner. He made a strong noose of rattan, and
with a long pole in the other hand poked at the snake,
who then began slowly to uncoil itself. He then managed
to slip the noose over its head, and getting it well
on to the body, dragged the animal down. There was a
great scuffle as the snake coiled round the chairs and
posts to resist his enemy, but at length the man caught
hold of its tail, rushed out of the house (running so
quick that the creature seemed quite confounded), and
tried to strike its head against a tree. He missed however,
and let go, and the snake got under a dead trunk close by.
I t was again poked out, and again the Bouru man caught
hold of its tail, and running away quickly dashed its head
with a swing against a tree, and it was then easily killed
with a hatchet. It was about twelve feet long and very
thick, capable of doing much mischief and of swallowing
a dog or a child.
I did not get a great many birds here. The most remarkable
were the fine crimson lory, Eos rubra—a brush-
tongued parroquet of a vivid crimson colour, which was
very abundant. Large flocks of them came about the
plantation, and formed a magnificent object when they
settled down upon some flowering tree, on the nectar of
which lories feed. I also obtained one or two specimens
of the fine racquet-tailed kingfisher of Amboyna, Tany-
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