t; but I want my
supper. Pull the bell, one of you."

Elated at so soon escaping from the horrors of the night, we seized the
handle of the bell-pull, and gave it a vigorous tug.

"It's stuck, Ted. It won't pull down," we said.

"Granny!" said the big brother, "you're too funky to give it a proper
pull," and pushing us aside, he grasped the pendant handle and gave a
sharp pull. There was no answering sound.

"It certainly is stuck," admitted Ted, raising his lantern so as to get
a look upwards, then he gave a yell.

"Oh! look there!"

We looked up, and saw the writhing twisting, coils of a huge carpet
snake, which had wound its body round and round the bell-wire on top
of the wall plate. Its head was downwards, and it did not seem at
all alarmed at our presence, but went on wriggling and twisting and
squirming with much apparent cheerfulness.

Ted ran back to the stables, and returned in a few seconds with a
clothes-prop, with which he dealt the disturber of our peace a few
rapid, but vigorous, blows, breaking its spine in several places. Then
the step-ladder was brought out, and Ted, seizing the reptile by the
tail, uncoiled it with some difficulty from the wire, and threw it down
upon the verandah.

It was over nine feet in length, and very fat, and had caused all the
disturbance by endeavouring to denude itself of its old skin by dragging
its body between the bell-wire and the top of the wall. When Ted killed
it the poor harmless creature had almost accomplished its object.

SOUTH SEA NOTES

I

That many animals, particularly cattle and deer, are very fond of salt
we all know, but it is not often that birds show any taste for it, or,
if so, the circumstance has not generally been noted. In 1881, however,
the present writer was residing on Gazelle Peninsula, the northern
portion of the magnificent island of New Britain in the South Pacific,
and had many opportunities of witnessing both cockatoos and wild pigeons
drinking salt water. I was stationed at a place called Kabaira, the then
"furthest-out" trading station on the whole island, and as I had but
little to do in the way of work, I found plenty of time to study the
bird-life in the vicinity. Parrots of several varieties, and all of
beautiful plumage, were very plentiful, and immense flocks of white
cockatoos frequented the rolling, grassy downs which lay between my home
and the German head-station in Blanche Bay, twenty miles distant,