This Bird
Derives Its Name From Its Large Bill Being Coloured Of A
Brilliant Yellow, Red, And Black, In About Equal Proportions.
The
tail is exceedingly long, and of a fine metallic purple, while
the plumage of the body is light coffee brown.
It is one of the
characteristic birds of the island of Celebes, to which it is
confined.
After sauntering along for a couple of hours we reached a small
river, so deep that horses could only cross it by swimming, so we
had to turn back; but as we were getting hungry, and the water of
the almost stagnant river was too muddy to drink, we went towards
a house a few hundred yards off. In the plantation we saw a small
raised hut, which we thought would do well for us to breakfast
in, so I entered, and found inside a young woman with an infant.
She handed me a jug of water, but looked very much frightened.
However, I sat down on the doorstep, and asked for the
provisions. In handing them up, Baderoon saw the infant, and
started back as if he had seen a serpent. It then immediately
struck me that this was a hut in which, as among the Dyaks of
Borneo and many other savage tribes, the women are secluded for
some time after the birth of their child, and that we did very
wrong to enter it; so we walked off and asked permission to eat
our breakfast in the family mansion close at hand, which was of
course granted.
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