272 VERTEBRATA. AVES. 



and that the shot should be large, for it is very 

 difficult to kill an Emerald outright, and if only 

 wounded, he is often lost in the dense thickets. 



" The Little Emerald (P. Papuensis) feeds on 

 many substances, doubtless, in a state of freedom. 

 I can affirm that it eat the seeds of the teak-tree, 

 and a fruit called amihou, of a rosy-white, insipid, 

 and mucilaginous, of the size of a small fig, and 

 belonging to a tree of the genus Ficus. Two which 

 were kept in a cage for more than six months at 

 Amboyna, were fed with boiled rice, but evinced a 

 special fondness for cockroaches." 



Mr. George Bennett describes at some length a 

 specimen (P. Apoda) which he saw in the aviary of 

 Mr. Beale at Macao, where it had lived nine years, 

 having been originally received from the Moluccas. 

 " This elegant creature has a light, playful, and 

 graceful manner, with an arch and impudent look; 

 dances about when a visitor approaches the cage, and 

 seems delighted at being made an object of admira- 

 tion : its notes are very peculiar, resembling the 

 cawing of the raven, but its tones are far more varied. 

 During four months of the year, from May to Au- 

 gust, it moults. It washes itself regularly twice 

 daily, and after having performed its ablutions throws 

 its delicate feathers up nearly over its head, the quills 

 of which feathers have a peculiar structure, so as 

 to enable the bird to effect this object. Its food 

 during confinement is boiled rice, mixed up with 

 soft egg, together with plantains, and living insects 

 of the grasshopper tribe ; these insects, when thrown 



