BEAUTIFUL BItiDS. 



255 



small fort, a house tor the commandant, who has 

 the rank of captain, a house for the doctor, and a few 

 native huts on either hand. The only communication 

 the inhabitants of this isolated post have yntla. the 

 rest of the world is by means of coolies, who cross 

 over irom the head of Elpaputi Bay to the head of 

 Sawai Bay, and then come along the shore. All the 

 natives in the interior are entirely independent of the 

 Dutch Government, and the coast natives, who cany 

 the mail, are liable to be robbed or Mlled at any mo- 

 ment while on their jomiiey. 



My hunter at once began collecting birds, while 1 

 searched the shores for shells, and bought what the 

 natives chanced to have in their miserable dwellings. 

 The most common shell here is an Anrimila. Its pe- 

 culiar aperture, as its name implies, is like that of the 

 human ear. It lives on the soft^ muddy flats, where 

 the many-i-ooted mangrove thrives. The rarest and 

 most valuable shell found here, and indeed one of 

 the rarest living in all these seas, is the Rostellarm 

 reetiTOStris. It is so seldom found that a pair is fre- 

 quently sold here for ten guilders, four Mesicixn dol- 

 lars. My hunter soon retuined with two large white 

 doves, the Oarpapha^ga htctima, and a very perfect 

 specimen of that famous bird, the Fht/yceram liypo- 

 plironinsj G, R. Gray, called by the Malays the castori 

 rajaJi, or "prince pari'ot," from its being the most 

 beautiful of all that brilliantly-plumaged family. It is 

 a small bii'd for a parrot. The head, neck, and under 

 parts are of a bright scarlet ; the wings a dark^ rich 

 green, and the back and rump a bright lapisdazuli blue, 

 that shades off into a deeper blue in the tail, which 



