er him.

I called to my two boys who were skinning birds below and said, "Here's
a big snake in the roof;" but as soon as I had shown it to them they
rushed out of the house and begged me to come out directly. Finding they
were too much afraid to do anything, we called some of the labourers in
the plantation, and soon had half a dozen men in consultation outside.
One of these, a native of Bouru, where there are a great many snakes,
said he would get him out, and proceeded to work in a businesslike
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. It was again poked out, and again the
Bourn 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,
Tanysiptera nais, one of the most singular and beautiful of that
beautiful family. These birds differ from all other kingfishers (which
have usually short tails) by having the two middle tail-feathers
immensely lengthened and very narrowly webbed, but terminated by
a spoon-shaped enlargement, as in the motmots and some of the
humming-birds. They belong to that division of the family termed
king-hunters, living chiefly on insects and small land-molluscs, which
they dart down upon and pick up from the ground, just as a kingfisher
picks a fish out of the water. They are confined to a very limited area,
comprising the Moluc