RIFLE-BIRD (Ptiloris victoriæ).
One day, as I went outside the hut to stretch my cramped legs, I discovered in the fog a bird which acted in a singular manner. While sitting on a branch it raised its wings, twisting its body to either side, in which position it looked like a cormorant drying its wings. I shot it, and the blacks fetched it to me out of the scrub. It was an Australian bird of paradise, the celebrated Rifle-bird (Ptiloris victoriæ), which, according to Gould, has the most brilliant plumage of all Australian birds. It is difficult to determine its colour, as its velvet-like plumage assumes the most varied tints according as the light falls upon it.
CHAPTER XIII
Mongan, a new mammal—For my collection or to feed the blacks?—Natives do not eat raw meat—A young yarri—A meteorite—Fear of attacks—Cannibals on the war-path—The relations between the tribes.
The following day the rain had entirely ceased, but the natives refused to continue the journey because the scrub was so wet. Still I had determined to raise the disagreeable quarantine, even though I should expose myself to still greater discomfiture. After an hour or two I actually succeeded in getting them to start, in spite of Willy’s assurances that it was impossible to get into the other valley for which I was making. Jimmy went alone upon some hills to find mongan, a mammal which the natives had mentioned to me, but which I had not yet seen. The women were excused from gathering fruits in the scrub, which was now scarcely accessible, and instead they were to go down to the grassy plain and examine the poisoned meat which we had laid there as lures for the yarri. The men accompanied me to a neighbouring valley, where the women declared they had seen boongary on one of their expeditions to gather fruit.
The long incessant rain had formed countless brooks, which, with their clear and sparkling water, frequently crossed our path to vanish in the dense scrub. The sky was now clear and cloudless, and the wet, dense forest lay bathed in the bright glittering sunshine, which produced an intense heat, while warm vapours rising from the ground and from the trees made the air so damp and oppressive that we became very much exhausted.
We often found large coils of the lawyer-palm obstructing our passage. Willy repeatedly called my attention to the fact that he had been right in urging that the scrub was impassable, but still we managed to get on, partly by going round, partly by creeping under the obstructions.
Harald Jensen lith. Hoffensberg & Trapṣ Etabl.
PSEUDOCHIRUS HERBERTENSIS. N.SP.