BEAUTIFUL BIRDS. 255 



small fort, a house for the commandant, who has 

 the rank of captain, a house for the doctor, and a few 

 native huts on either hand. The only communication 

 the inhabitants of this isolated post have with the 

 rest of the world is by means of coolies, who cross 

 over from the head of Elpaputi Bay to the head of 

 Sawai Bay, and then come along the shore. All the 

 natives in the interior are entii'ely independent of the 

 Dutch Government, and the coast natives, who carry 

 the mail, are liable to be robbed or killed at any mo- 

 ment while on their journey. 



My hunter at once began collecting birds, while 1 

 searched the shores for shells, and bought what the 

 natives chanced to have in their miserable dwellings. 

 The most common shell here is an Auricula. Its pe- 

 culiar aperture, as its name implies, is like that of the 

 luiman ear. It lives on the soft, muddy flats, where 

 the many-rooted mangrove thrives. The rarest and 

 most valuable shell found here, and indeed one of 

 the rarest livins: in all these seas, is the Hostellaria 

 rectirostris. It is so seldom found that a pair is fre- 

 quently sold here for ten guilders, foui' Mexican dol- 

 lars. My hunter soon returned with two large white 

 doves, the Carpo]?]iaga luctiiosa^ and a very perfect 

 specimen of that famous bird, the Platycercus hypo- 

 phonkis, G. R. Gray, called by the Malays the castori 

 rajali^ or "prince pan-ot," from its being the most 

 beautiful of all that brilliantly-plumaged family. It is 

 a small bird for a parrot. The head, neck, and under 

 parts are of a bright scarlet ; the wdngs a dark, rich 

 green, and the back and rump a bright laj)is-lazuli blue, 

 that shades off into a deeper blue in the tail, which 



