450 The Aeu Islands. 



ei's croak and bark, and the various smaller birds chirp and 

 whistle their morning song. As I lie listening to these inter- 

 esting sounds, I realize my position as the first European who 

 has ever lived for months together in the Aru Islands, a place 

 which I had hoped rather than expected ever to visit. I think 

 how many besides myself have longed to reach these almost 

 fairy realms, and to see with their own eyes the many won- 

 derful and beautiful things which I am daily encountering. 

 But now Ali and Baderoon are up and getting ready their 

 guns and ammunition, and little Baso has his fire lighted and 

 is boiling my coffee, and I remember that I had a black cock- 

 atoo brought in late last night, which I must skin immediate- 

 ly, and so I jump up and begin my day's work very happily. 

 This cockatoo is the first I have seen, and is a great 

 prize. It has a rather small and weak body, long weak legs, 

 large wings, and an enormously developed head, ornamented 

 with a magnificent crest, and armed with a sharp-pointed 

 hooked bill of immense size and strength. The plumage 

 is entirely black, but has all over it the curious powdery 

 white secretion characteristic of cockatoos. The cheeks are 

 bare, and of an intense blood-red color. Instead of the harsh 

 scream of the white cockatoos, its voice is a somewhat plain- 

 tive whistle. The tongue is a curious organ, being a slen- 

 der fleshy cylinder of a deep red color, terminated by a horny 

 black plate, furrowed across, and somewhat prehensile. The 

 whole tongue has a considerable extensile power. I will hei*e 

 relate something of the habits of this bird, with which I have 

 since become acquainted. It frequents the lower parts of the 

 forest, and is seen singly, or at most two or three together. 

 It flies slowly and noiselessly, and may be killed by a compar- 

 atively slight wound. It eats various fruits and seeds, but 

 seems more particularly attached to the kernel of the kanary- 

 nut, which grows on a lofty forest-tree (Canarium commune) 

 abundant in the islands Avhere this bird is found ; and the 

 manner in which it gets at these seeds shows a correlation of 

 structure and habits, which would point out the " kanary " as 

 its special food. The shell of this nut is so excessively hard 

 that only a heavy hammer will crack it ; it is somewhat trian- 

 gular, and the outside is quite smooth. The manner in which 

 the bird opens these nuts is very curious. Taking one end- 



