128 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



red to dark brown, almost black, with three strips 

 of white-marked feathers down the breast. It was 

 difficult to determine the sex of these birds by their 

 plumage. I skinned many of them myself, also 

 separated them by sexes, but there was nothing to 

 go by in the plumage. I got deep brown males and 

 females, likewise red ones of both sexes. 1 



Among other birds new to me was a pair in which 

 the male was jet black with a metallic patch over 

 each eye and a little tuft of feathers similar to that 

 of the "Sexpennis" over the beak. The female was 

 of sage-green colour; both have slight wattles along 

 the inner edge of the beak. I took them to be some 

 kind of Bird of Paradise. 2 There were also two 

 specimens of a pure black Pitta, and a big black owl 

 that came from a very high altitude. 3 Yet another 

 bird new to me was a big ground pigeon. It was like 

 a goura, but only the size of a bantam. It had a 

 peculiar head, nostril well out to the end of the beak, 

 and above that a flat space an inch long and half-an- 

 inch wide, of slaty-milk colour ; then about the ears 

 it was sparsely feathered, with dark red skin, similar to 



1 This night-bird is not a true Goatsucker or Caprimulgus, 

 as Mr. Meek, quite correctly, surmised. It belongs to the genus 

 Aegotheles, of the family Podargidae, and has been named Aegotheles 

 insignis pulcher, from a specimen collected by Mr. Weiske. The 

 variations of plumage are described in Nov. ZooL, 1907, p. 456. 

 E. H. 



2 This is the Loria loriae, a small Bird of Paradise, confined to 

 the mountains of New Guinea. E. H. 



3 Mellopitta lugubris and Strix tenebricosa. E. H. 



