222 COLLECTOR'S RAMBLES 



I stood at the corner of the house with the gun, and, 

 at about the time the village became quiet, a fluttering 

 object appeared over the rock. I pulled the gun to my 

 shoulder, but he caught sight of the motion, and was 

 off. In a few minutes he was back again , and now 

 his skin adorns my cabinet. I afterwards discovered 

 that he belonged to a new species which had never 

 been described. 



While out in the forest on one of my bird-hunting 

 expeditions, near Gidiaruma, I heard a very soft and 

 long-continued whistle. It sounded very like a steam- 

 boat whistle at a great distance, and it was with diffi- 

 culty that I could tell from whence it came. It did not 

 seem possible that any bird could make such a sound, 

 and continue it for so long a time without an interrup- 

 tion. I became very curious to learn the origin of this 

 sound, and set out to investigate. 



I had not gone very far when I came in sight of two 

 brown birds (Rectes) with black heads, and discovered 

 that they were the whistlers. They sat so close on a 

 branch as to touch, and they whistled together. The 

 only time that the whistle completely died out was when 

 they both stopped at the same time, which was not often. 



On my way back that same day, another most 

 remarkable sound attracted my attention. This was 

 loud and coarse, and was not unlike the noise made 

 by what is popularly known as the "devil's fiddle." 

 As near as I can express it in words, it was "wow 



