As Soon As I Found They Were Generally Brought Alive, I
Set One Of My Men To Make A Large Bamboo Cage With Troughs For
Food And Water, Hoping To Be Able To Keep Some Of Them.
I got the
natives to bring me branches of a fruit they were very fond of,
and I was pleased to find they ate it greedily, and would also
take any number of live grasshoppers I gave them, stripping off
the legs and wings, and then swallowing them.
They drank plenty
of water, and were in constant motion, jumping about the cage
from perch to perch, clinging on the top and sides, and rarely
resting a moment the first day till nightfall. The second day
they were always less active, although they would eat as freely
as before; and on the morning of the third day they were almost
always found dead at the bottom of the cage, without any apparent
cause. Some of them ate boiled rice as well as fruit and insects;
but after trying many in succession, not one out of ten lived
more than three days. The second or third day they would be dull,
and in several cases they were seized with convulsions, and fell
off the perch, dying a few hours afterwards. I tried immature as
well as full-plumaged birds, but with no better success, and at
length gave it up as a hopeless task, and confined my attention
to preserving specimens in as good a condition as possible.
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