206 



COLLECTOR'S RAMBLES 



eating, and we often preserved the skin and ate the 



body of the same bird. 



The parrots were largely gregarious, and whole 



flocks of the gayest-colored birds could often be seen 

 on a single tree. 



In the thickest forest we found 

 the red and blue racket-tailed king- 

 fishers (Tanysiptera), the hand- 

 somest of the tribe ; and, near the 

 grassy plains, other species scarcely 

 less beautiful. I secured several 

 of a very small species (Melidora) 9 

 hardly longer than a chickadee, 

 with a shining blue back and a, 

 reddish breast. They were little 

 gems. 



We were at the place some 

 time before we obtained the full- 

 pi umaged bird-of-paradise (Para- 

 disea raggiana). The young males 

 and females were quite common ; 

 but the old males, with the green 

 RED AND BLUE RACKET- throat and the long red plumes 



TAILED KINGFISHER. 



growing from the sides, under the 

 wings, were rare. We finally learned where and how to 

 get them. They congregate in numbers, in certain trees, 

 early in the morning and late in the afternoon, where 

 they play about, spreading their plumes and displaying 



