do anything, we called some of the labourers in the plantation, and soon had half
a dozen men in consultation outside. One of these, a native of Bouru, where
there are a great many snakes, said he would get him out, and proceeded to work
in a businesslike manner. He made a strong noose of rattan, and with a long pole
in the other hand poked at the snake, who then began slowly to uncoil itself. He
then managed to slip the noose over its head, and getting it well on to the body,
dragged the animal down. There was a great scuffle as the snake coiled round
the chairs and posts to resist his enemy, but at length the man caught hold of its
tail, rushed out of the house (running so quick that the creature seemed quite
confounded), and tried to strike its head against a tree. He missed however, and
let go, and the snake got under a dead trunk close by. It was again poked out, and
again the Bouru man caught hold of its tail, and running away quickly dashed its
head with a swing against a tree, and it was then easily killed with a hatchet. It
was about twelve feet long and very thick, capable of doing much mischief and
of swallowing a dog or a child.
I did not get a great many birds here. The most remarkable were the fine
crimson lory, Eos rubra—a brush-tongued parroquet of a vivid crimson colour,
which was very abundant. Large flocks of them came about the plantation, and
formed a magnificent object when they settled down upon some flowering tree,
on the nectar of which lories feed. I also obtained one or two specimens of the
fine racquet-tailed kingfisher of Amboyna, Tanysiptera nais, one of the most
singular and beautiful of that beautiful family. These birds differ from all other
kingfishers (which have usually short tails) by having the two middle tail-
feathers immensely lengthened and very narrowly webbed, but terminated by a
spoon-shaped enlargement, as in the motmots and some of the humming-birds.
They belong to that division of the family termed king-hunters, living chiefly on
insects and small land-molluscs, which they dart down upon and pick up from
the ground, just as a kingfisher picks a fish out of the water. They are confined to
a very limited area, comprising the Moluccas, New Guinea and Northern
Australia. About ten species of these birds are now known, all much resembling
each other, but yet sufficiently distinguishable in every locality. The Amboynese
species, of which a very accurate representation is here given, is one of the
largest and handsomest. It is full seventeen inches long to the tips of the tail-
feathers; the bill is coral red, the under-surface pure white, the back and wings
deep purple, while the shoulders, head and nape, and some spots on the upper
part of the back and wings, are pure azure blue; the tail is white, with the
feathers narrowly blue-edged, but the narrow part of the long feathers is rich
blue. This was an entirely new species, and has been well named after an ocean