CH. XXXVIII.] NATIVE BIRD-STUFFERS. 393 



upon a tree on wliicli to assemble, they build a little 

 shelter of palm leaves in a convenient place among the 

 branches, and the hunter ensconces himself in it before 

 daylight, armed with his bow and a number of arrows 

 terminating in a round knob. A boy waits at the foot 

 of the tree, and when the birds come at sunrise, and a 

 sufficient number have assembled, and have begun to 

 dance, the hunter shoots with his blunt arrow so strongly 

 as to stun the bird, which drops down, and is secm^ed 

 and killed by the boy without its plumage being injured 

 by a drop of blood. The rest take no notice, and fall one 

 after another till some of them take the alarin. (See 

 Frontispiece.) 



The native mode of preserving them is to cut off the 

 wings and feet, and then skin the body up to the beak, 

 taking out the skull. A stout stick is then run up through 

 the specimen coming out at the mouth. Eound this some 

 leaves are stuffed, and the whole is wrapped i;p in a palm 

 spathe and dried in the smoky hut. By this plan the 

 head, which is really large, is shrunk up almost to nothing, 

 the body is much reduced and shortened, and the greatest 

 prominence is given to the flowing plumage. Some of 

 these native skins are very clean, and often have wings 

 and feet left on ; others are dreadfully stained with 

 smoke, and all give a most erroneous idea of the pro- 

 portions of the living bird. 



