ainland, Carey," said the doctor, "and this would account for the
volcano we are ascending being so dwarfed. There must have been a
gradual sinking, and so it is that we find creatures that would not
inhabit an ordinary island. For instance, we should not find monitors
and carpet snakes in a coral island. Look at the birds too; those
kingfishers. Do you see, Bostock, there's an old friend of ours, the
great laughing jackass?"

"Nay," said the old sailor, shading his eyes; "that's not the same.
He's a deal like him, but our old laughing jackasses down south haven't
got all that bright blue in their jackets. Going to shoot him, Master
Carey?"

"No," said the boy; "I don't want it. 'Tisn't good to eat."

"There's a lovely bird there," said the doctor, pointing to where there
was a flash of dark purply orange, as the sun played upon the head and
back of a bird nearly the size of a jay. "A regular Queensland bird.
I've seen it there."

"What is it?" said Carey.

"The rifle bird; a near relative, I believe, to the birds of paradise."

"But it's nearly black," protested Carey. "Birds of paradise are all
fluffy buff feathers."

"Some of them," said the doctor, "but there are many kinds, some much
more ornamental than the kind you mean."

He raised his gun to shoot the rifle bird, but lowered it again.

"I couldn't preserve it if I shot it," he said. "Come along."

They continued the ascent, finding the heat in the sheltered valley
rather more than they could bear, and Carey looked longingly down to his
right at the placidly flowing river, thinking how pleasant a dip would
be.

"I say," he said at last, "what a little shade there is."

"And unfortunately," said the doctor, "it grows less the higher we get--
a way with the growth on mountains; but we shall soon be high enough to
feel the sea breeze, and after all it's a wonderfully interesting
tramp."

Carey agreed that it was, for the bird life now was most attractive--
gaily dressed parroquets, green, and with breasts like gorgeous sunsets,
were plentiful.

There were the lovely little zebra parrots, too, in abundance, black
cockatoos, white with sulphur crest, beauties in pink and grey, and
finches with black or scarlet heads and breasts shot with topaz,
amethyst, and vivid blue.

Then every rock had its occupants in the shape of silvery-grey,
golden-green, or black and orange lizards, some looking as if they were
bearded, others bearing a singular