five hundred
yards' distance, and I saw the deer make one great bound and fall dead.

"Good! Eatum," said Ebo approvingly; but instead of indulging in a
frantic dance he shaded his eyes and gazed about in every direction,
carefully sweeping the shore, and paying no heed to us as the boat was
sailed close in.

As the keel was checked by the sand Ebo leaped out, and I thought he was
about to rush at the deer to skin it for food, but he ran off rapidly in
one direction right along the shore, coming back at the end of a quarter
of an hour, during which, after dragging our prize on board, we
remained, gun in hand, upon the watch.

Ebo started again and went in the other direction, being away longer
this time, but returning triumphant to indulge in a dance, and help drag
the boat into a place of safety before proceeding to light a fire.

Venison steaks followed, and after another exploration we found that we
were in so thoroughly uninhabited a part of the island that we built a
hut and slept ashore perfectly undisturbed.

The next morning we had another exploration, to find that, as my uncle
had supposed, the ridge of mountains cut us off from the rest of the
island, and finding nothing to fear we once more set to work.

Parrots were in profusion, and so were the great crowned pigeons; these
latter becoming our poultry for the table. There was an abundance,
though, of birds of large size, whose skins we did not care to preserve,
but which, being fruit-eaters, were delicious roasted. Then we had
another deer or two; caught fish in the bay; and literally revelled in
the bounteous supply of fruit.

Meanwhile we were working industriously over our specimens, finding
paroquets that were quite new to us, splendid cockatoos, and some that
were as ugly as they were curious.

Sun-birds, pittas, lovely starlings, kingfishers, and beautifully-tinted
pigeons were in abundance. Bright little manakins of a vivid green were
there, so feathered that they put me in mind of the rich orange
cock-of-the-rocks that Uncle Dick had brought over from Central America.

Sometimes we were shooting beside the lovely trickling stream where it
gathered itself into pools to form tiny waterfalls, places where some
birds seemed to love to come. At others, beneath some great
flower-draped tree, where the sun-birds hovered and darted. But the
great objects of our search, the birds of paradise, haunted the nut and
berry bearing trees. Some wer