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CHAP. VII. NATIVE LIZARDS AND BIRDS. 179 kinds growing not only on the branches of living trees, but very often high up on the bare barked trunks of the dead trees. Sometimes in the angle formed by the junction of an arm with the trunk of a large naked tree, apparently without a fragment of bark adhering to the trunk, a bunch of moss, or a cluster of orchids, or both mingled together, would be growing apparently with great vigour, and often in full flower. More than one tall bare trunk, twelve or eighteen inches in diameter, and thirty feet high, stood surmounted, or surrounded near its summit, by a cluster of angrsecums, with their long, sword-shaped, fleshy leaves; or, what was more beautiful still, a fine specimen of some species of birds- nest fern. The contrast between the white, shining, barkless trunk, and these verdant clusters of plants on the top, was sometimes very striking; especially as the orchids were often in flower, and by their growth altogether suggested the idea that by the decay of their own roots a receptacle was formed for the moisture or the rain by which the plant was nourished. This combination of life and death, growth and decay, presented one of the most singular amongst the many, to me, new and curious aspects of nature which my journey afforded. I saw few animals, except lizards, of which there were great numbers amongst the stones and trees, some of the richest emerald green, others speckled or marked in lines, but the greatest portion were of a lightish brown. Birds were comparatively numerous, and there were some of gay and attractive plumage. The largest was a compact-shaped, lively bird, apparently the black-throated crow shrike. On the trunks of the trees I observed some resembling wood peckers, also a handsome bird about the size of a jay, re sembling some kinds of the butcher-bird; its plumage red, brown, and yellow. Far from being shy or disturbed by our approach, they seemed rather to welcome us; as I noticed N 2