136 BOURU. [chap. XXVI.. 



Soon after we had arrived at Waypoti, Ali had seen a 

 beautiful little bird of the genus Pitta, which I was very 

 anxious to obtain, as in almost every island the species are 

 different, and none were yet known from Bouru. He and 

 my other hunter continued to see it two or three times a 

 week, and to hear its peculiar note much oftener, but could 

 never get a specimen, owing to its always fi^equenting the 

 most dense thorny thickets, where only hasty glimpses of 

 it could be obtained, and at so short a distance that it 

 would be difficult to avoid blowing the bird to pieces. Ali 

 was very much annoyed that he could not get a specimen 

 of this bird, in going after which he had already severely 

 wounded his feet with thorns ; and when we had only two 

 days more to stay, he went of his own accord one evening 

 to sleep at a little hut in the forest some miles off, in order 

 to have a last try for it at daybreak, when many birds 

 come out to feed, and are very intent on their morning 

 meal. The next evening he brought me home two speci- 

 mens, one with the head blown completely off, and other- 

 wise too much injured to preserve, the other in very good 

 order, and which I at once saw to be a new species, very 

 like the Pitta celebensis, but ornamented with a square 

 patch of bright red on the nape of the neck. 



The next day after securing this prize we returned to 

 CajeU, and packing up my collections left Bouru by the 

 steamer. During our two days' stay at Ternate, I took on 



J 



