124 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



pleasure was taken in cataloguing the greatest variety and 

 number of birds congregated there at one and the same 

 time. Several lists were compiled, the most comprehensive 

 being : 



Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, White-rumped Wood Swallow, 



Honey-eaters (varied, fasciated, Australian Bee-eater, 



and obscure), Black-headed Diamond Bird, 



Friar Bird (two species), Sun-bird, 



Shining Calornis, Pied Caterpillar-eater. 

 Drongo Shrike 



Honey-eaters were represented by a dozen or more ; 

 but were not so numerous as the sun-birds, which were 

 difficult to accurately enumerate, owing to their sprightly 

 behaviour. Next came the shining calornis (about ten), 

 friar birds (about eight), wood swallows (six, all in a row 

 a band of white among the red flowers) ; bee-eaters 

 (about the same number), and so on down the list in ever- 

 shifting places and varying numbers. 



The birds were more numerous about eight a.m. 

 This hour may seem late, in consideration of familiar habits, 

 but the flame-tree is in the shadow of the highest peak of 

 the island, and consequently does not receive the earliest 

 of the benedictions of the sun. Birds come and go to it 

 in irregular pulsations. Their presence is constant, but 

 their number variable. Comparative silence may exist for 

 an hour or so after the first joyful feast of the day, to be 

 broken by quite a gush of the sounds of revelry, and then 

 the tree becomes again for a space as noisy as a merry- 

 go-round. 



RED-LETTER BIRDS 



To the manucode is ascribed practical interference 

 with the laws of Nature. This handsome bird, of jet black 

 glossy plumage, comes hither in September, adding to the 

 pleasant sounds of the jungle a loud rich note, which 

 closely resembles the frequent repetition of the name 



