It was quite a relief to my mind to get these, for I could hardly have torn myself away from Aru had I not obtained specimens.
But what I valued almost as much as the birds themselves was the knowledge of their habits, which I was daily obtaining both from the accounts of my hunters, and from the conversation of the natives.

The birds had now commenced what the people here call their "sacaleli," or dancing-parties, in certain trees in the forest, which are not fruit trees as I at first imagined, but which have an immense tread of spreading branches and large but scattered leaves, giving a clear space for the birds to play and exhibit their plumes.

On one of these trees a dozen or twenty full-plumaged male birds assemble together, raise up their wings, stretch out their necks, and elevate their exquisite plumes, keeping them in a continual vibration.

Between whiles they fly across from branch to branch in great excitement, so that the whole tree is filled with waving plumes in every variety of attitude and motion.
(See Frontispiece.) The bird itself is nearly as large as a crow, and is of a rich coffee brown colour.

The head and neck is of a pure straw yellow above and rich metallic green beneath.