86



Mr. Walter Goodfellow,



perfectly tame. I tried in vain to buy it, but nothing would

tempt the youngster to part with it, and he even cried in antici¬

pation that I should take it by force. The American soldiers in

charge of the prisoners advised me to take it if I wanted it; but

after seeing how much he treasured it I had no wish to deprive

him of it. The bird had evidently come with the Moros from

the Lake Lando region which is situated at a considerable alti¬

tude above the sea. I have since heard that they are plentiful

on the mountains around the lake.


During my recent visit to Apo numbers of trees bearing

masses of beautiful scarlet flowers were in full bloom about the

highest village of Tandaya which were frequented all day by the

Lish-lish. The natives said they come down when these trees

are in bloom. This is probably their lowest range—4,000 feet—

for at the next village of Sibutan, a little lower down, the

Bagobos told me they, were not found around there. After

infinite trouble I succeeded in getting the natives of Tandaya to

catch me some, but it was a still greater trouble to- get them

down to the coast and on to Davao, and they must have found

the days of rough travelling and the heat of the coast very

trying. However, I got them safely through and they remained

in Davao for several months, but although the}' had a roomy

cage, and were kept as cool as possible, they undoubtedly

suffered at first more from the heat than anything else and three

of them soon died. It was remarkable how with one exception

they quickly got tame ; several climbing on to my hand together

while I was feeding them. Coming down from the mountains I

fed them on wild honey ^diluted with water, but as soon as I

reached the coast I substituted Swiss milk for it : they took to

this readily as I have found all Lories will, in fact their supply

required to be regulated or they filled their crops so full that it

ran from their beaks. This was the only food I could get them

to take for a long time, until one after another they began to

nibble a little banana which they finally got to like very much.

On the voyage home they also readily ate grapes and oranges.

They were very fond of bathing and every day plunged fearlessly

into the water one after the other until they were completely

drenched.



