536 Waigiou. 



of the first bargain with the strange white man, the only one 

 who had ever come to their island. After three days, my man 

 brought me the first bird — a very fine specimen, and alive, but 

 tied up in a small bag, and consequently its tail and wing 

 feathers very much crushed and injured. I tried to explain 

 to him, and to the others that came with him, that I wanted * 

 them as perfect as possible, and that they should either kill 

 them, or keep them on a j)erch with a string to their leg. As 

 they were now apparently satisfied that all was fair, and that 

 I had no ulterior designs upon them, six others took away 

 goods ; some for one bird, some for more, and one for as many 

 as six. They said they had to go a long way for them, and 

 that they would come back as soon as they caught any. At 

 intervals of a few days or a week, some of them would return, 

 bringing me one or more birds ; but though they did not 

 bring any more in bags, there was not much improvement in 

 their condition. As they caught them a long way off in the 

 forest, they would scarcely ever come with one, but would tie 

 it by the leg to a stick, and put it in their house till they 

 caught another. The poor creature would make violent ef- 

 forts to escape, would get among the ashes, or hang suspended 

 by the leg till the limb was swollen and half-putrefied, and 

 sometimes die of starvation and worry. One had its beauti- 

 ful head all defiled by pitch from a dammar torch ; another 

 had been so long dead that its stomach was turning green. 

 Luckily, however, the skin and plumage of these birds is so 

 fii-m and strong, that they bear washing and cleaning better 

 than almost any other sort ; and I was generally able to clean 

 them so well that they did not percej^tibly differ from those 

 I had shot myself. 



Some few were brought me the same day they were caught, 

 and I had an opportunity of examining them in all their beau- 

 ty and vivacity. As soon as I found they were generally 

 brought alive, I set one of my men to make a large bamboo 

 cage with troughs for food and water, hoping to be able to 

 keep some of them. I got the natives to bring me branches 

 of a fruit they were very fond of, and I was j^leased to find 

 they ate it gi'eedily, and would also take any number of live 

 grasshoppers I gave them, stripping off the legs and wings, 

 and then swallowing them. They drank plenty of water, and 



