Though These Pigeons Have A
Narrow Beak, Yet Their Jaws And Throat Are So Extensible That
They Can Swallow Fruits Of Very Large Size.
I had before shot a
species much smaller than this one, which had a number of hard
globular palm-fruits in its crop, each more than an inch in
diameter.
A little further the path divided into two, one leading along the
beach, and across mangrove and sago swamps the other rising to
cultivated grounds. We therefore returned, and taking a fresh
departure from the village, endeavoured to ascend the hills and
penetrate into the interior. The path, however, was a most trying
one. Where there was earth, it was a deposit of reddish clay
overlying the rock, and was worn so smooth by the attrition of
naked feet that my shoes could obtain no hold on the sloping
surface. A little farther we came to the bare rock, and this was
worse, for it was so rugged and broken, and so honeycombed and
weatherworn into sharp points and angles, that my boys, who had
gone barefooted all their lives, could not stand it. Their feet
began to bleed, and I saw that if I did not want them completely
lamed it would be wise to turn lack. My own shoes, which were
rather thin, were but a poor protection, and would soon have been
cut to pieces; yet our little naked guides tripped along with the
greatest ease and unconcern, and seemed much astonished at our
effeminacy in not being able to take a walk which to them was a
perfectly agreeable one.
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