esounds through the forest, changing its direction
continually. This is the Great Bird of Paradise going to seek his
breakfast. Others soon follow his example; lories and parroquets cry
shrilly, cockatoos scream, king-hunters croak and bark, and the various
smaller birds chirp and whistle their morning song. As I lie listening
to these interesting sounds, I realize my position as the first European
who has ever lived for months together in the Aru islands, a place which
I had hoped rather than expected ever to visit. I think how many besides
my self have longed to reach these almost fairy realms, and to see with
their own eyes the many wonderful and beautiful things which I am daily
encountering. But now Ali and Baderoon are up and getting ready their
guns and ammunition, and little Brio has his fire lighted and is boiling
my coffee, and I remember that I had a black cockatoo brought in late
last night, which I must skin immediately, and so I jump up and begin my
day's work very happily.

This cockatoo is the first I have seen, and is a great prize. It has
a rather small and weak body, long weak legs, large wings, and an
enormously developed head, ornamented with a magnificent crest, and
armed with a sharp-pointed hoofed bill of immense size and strength. The
plumage is entirely black, but has all over it the curious powdery white
secretion characteristic of cockatoo. The cheeks are bare, and of an
intense blood-red colour. Instead of the harsh scream of the white
cockatoos, its voice is a somewhat plaintive whistle. The tongue is a
curious organ, being a slender fleshy cylinder of a deep red colour,
terminated by a horny black plate, furrowed across and somewhat
prehensile. The whole tongue has a considerable extensile power. I will
here relate something of the habits of this bird, with which I have
since become acquainted. It frequents the lower parts of the forest, and
is seen singly, or at most two or three together. It flies slowly and
noiselessly, and may be killed by a comparatively slight wound. It eats
various fruits and seeds, but seems more particularly attached to the
kernel of the kanary-nut, which grows on a lofty forest tree (Canarium
commune), abundant in the islands where this bird is found; and the
manner in which it gets at these seeds shows a correlation of structure
and habits, which would point out the "kanary" as its special food. The
shell of this nut is so excessively hard that only a heavy hamme