unnels down almost every post. They
swarmed on my table as I was at work setting out my insects, carrying
them off from under my very nose, and even tearing them from the cards
on which they were gummed if I left them for an instant. They crawled
continually over my hands and face, got into my hair, and roamed at will
over my whole body, not producing much inconvenience till they began
to bite, which they would do on meeting with any obstruction to their
passage, and with a sharpness which made me jump again and rush to
undress and turn out the offender. They visited my bed also, so that
night brought no relief from their persecutions; and I verily believe
that during my three and a half months' residence at Dorey I was never
for a single hour entirely free from them. They were not nearly so
voracious as many other kinds, but their numbers and ubiquity rendered
it necessary to be constantly on guard against them.

The flies that troubled me most were a large kind of blue-bottle or
blow-fly. These settled in swarms on my bird skins when first put out to
dry, filling their plumage with masses of eggs, which, if neglected, the
next day produced maggots. They would get under the wings or under the
body where it rested on the drying-board, sometimes actually raising it
up half an inch by the mass of eggs deposited in a few hours; and every
egg was so firmly glued to the fibres of the feathers, as to make it
a work of much time and patience to get them off without injuring the
bird. In no other locality have I ever been troubled with such a plague
as this.

On the 29th we left Dorey, and expected a quick voyage home, as it was
the time of year when we ought to have had steady southerly and easterly
winds. Instead of these, however, we had calms and westerly breezes,
and it was seventeen days before we reached Ternate, a distance of five
hundred miles only, which, with average winds, could have been done in
five days. It was a great treat to me to find myself back again in my
comfortable house, enjoying milk to my tea and coffee, fresh bread and
butter, and fowl and fish daily for dinner. This New Guinea voyage had
used us all up, and I determined to stay and recruit before I commenced
any fresh expeditions. My succeeding journeys to Gilolo and Batchian
have already been narrated, and if; now only remains for me to give an
account of my residence in Waigiou, the last Papuan territory I visited
in search of Birds of Paradise.