It Had Evidently Lived For Many Years Afterwards,
And A Curious Kind Of Growth Had Formed Round The Point.
As for other game, every time I went out in the mountain woods I had
splendid sport with the wild chickens or jungle fowl and pigeons,
and I would often return with my guide bearing a long pole loaded
at both ends with the birds I had shot.
The pigeons, which were
large birds, settled on the tops of the tallest trees and made a
very peculiar kind of growling noise. Many years ago (as Ratu Lala
told me) the natives of Taviuni had been in the habit of catching
great quantities of pigeons by means of large nets suspended from the
trees. The chickens would generally get up like a pheasant, and it
was good sport taking a snap shot at an old cock bird on the wing. It
was curious to hear them crowing away in the depths of the forest,
and at first I kept imagining that I was close to some village. I also
obtained some good duck shooting on a lake high up in the mountains,
and Ratu Lala described to me what must. be a species of apteryx,
or wingless bird (like the Kiwi of New Zealand), which he said
was found in the mountains and lived in holes in the ground, but I
never came across it, though I had many a weary search. Ratu Lala
also assured me that the wild chickens were indigenous in Fiji, and
were not descended.
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