He And My Other Hunter Continued
To See It Two Or Three Times A Week, And To Hear Its Peculiar
Note much oftener, but could never get a specimen, owing to its
always frequenting the most dense thorny thickets, where
Only
hasty glimpses of it could be obtained, and at so short a
distance that it would be difficult to avoid blowing the bird to
pieces. Ali was very much annoyed that he could not get a
specimen of this bird, in going after which he had already
severely, wounded his feet with thorns; and when we had only two
days more to stay, he went of his own accord one evening to sleep
at a little but in the forest some miles off, in order to have a
last try for it at daybreak, when many birds come out to feed,
and are very intent on their morning meal. The next evening he
brought me home two specimens, one with the head blown completely
off, and otherwise too much injured to preserve, the other in
very good order, and which I at once saw to be a new species,
very like the Pitta celebensis, but ornamented with a square
patch of bright red on the nape of the neck.
The next day after securing this prize we returned to Cajeli, and
packing up my collections left Bouru by the steamer. During our
two days' stay at Ternate, I took on board what baggage I had
left there, and bade adieu to all my friends.
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