io8 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



in accordance with the demand of the increasing population, 

 and loads of fruits and seeds and berries to be conveyed 

 from the jungle to the colony. The shining calornisis a 

 handsome fellow, gleaming black, with purple and green 

 sheen. The live bird differs so greatly from the dull, 

 stuffed specimen of the museum that one is tempted to 

 endeavour to convey by similitude its wonderful radiance. 

 A soap bubble, black yet retaining all its changing lights 

 and flashing reflections, is the nearest approach to a just 

 description, and then there are to specify the rich, red 

 eyes, eyes gleaming like polished gems. Until after the 

 first year of their existence the young are brown-backed, 

 and mottled white and bluish-grey of breast, and would 

 hardly be recognised as members of the colony, but for the 

 shrill notes and restless activity and those flaming eyes — 

 living gems of wondrous radiance, and the eyes epitomise 

 the life of the bird which is all flame and fever. 



Twenty or thirty may be peering about in a bloodwood, 

 and with a unanimous impulse and a call in unison they 

 slip through the forest, and shoot into the jungle, flashing 

 sun-glints. Eager, alert, always under high pressure, the 

 business of the moment brooks of no delay. The flocks 

 come and go between the home and the feeding-ground 

 with noisy exclamations and impetuous haste. With whirr 

 of wings and jeering notes they swoop close overhead, 

 wheeling into the wilderness of leaves with the rapidity of 

 thought, and with such graceful precision that the sunlight 

 flashes from their shoulders as an arc of light. Work, 

 hasty work, is a necessity, for their wastefulness is extreme, 

 or, rather, do they not unconsciously perform a double 

 duty, being chief among the distributing agents — industrious 

 and trustworthy though unchartered carriers for many help- 

 less trees. When the company darts again out of the 

 jungle, each with a berry in its bill and each shrilly exulting, 

 many a load is dropped by the way, and many another 

 falls to mother earth in the act of feeding the clamorous 

 young. Berries and seeds having no means of self-trans- 

 portation are thus borne far from parent trees to vegetate 



