Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
mune), abundant in the islands where this bird is found; and the manner in which it gets at
these seeds shows a correlation of structure and habits, which would point out the 'kanary'
as its special food. The shell of this nut is so excessively hard that only a heavy hammer will
crack it; it is somewhat triangular, and the outside is quite smooth. The manner in which the
bird opens these nuts is very curious. Taking one endways in its bill and keeping it firm by a
pressure of the tongue, it cuts a transverse notch by a lateral sawing motion of the sharp-
edged lower mandible. This done, it takes hold of the nut with its foot, and biting off a piece
of leaf retains it in the deep notch of the upper mandible, and again seizing the nut, which is
prevented from slipping by the elastic tissue of the leaf, fixes the edge of the lower mandible
in the notch, and by a powerful nip breaks off a piece of the shell. Again taking the nut in its
claws, it inserts the very long and sharp point of the bill and picks out the kernel, which is
seized hold of, morsel by morsel, by the extensible tongue. Thus every detail of form and
structure in the extraordinary bill of this bird seems to have its use, and we may easily con-
ceive that the black cockatoos have maintained themselves in competition with their more
active and more numerous white allies, by their power of existing on a kind of food which
no other bird is able to extract from its stony shell. The species is the Microglossum aterrim-
um of naturalists.
During the two weeks which I spent in this little settlement, I had good opportunities of
observing the natives at their own home, and living in their usual manner. There is a great
monotony and uniformity in every-day savage life, and it seemed to me a more miserable
existence than when it had the charm of novelty. To begin with the most important fact in
the existence of uncivilized peoples—their food—the Aru men have no regular supply, no
staff of life, such as bread, rice, mandiocca, maize, or sago, which are the daily food of a
large proportion of mankind. They have, however, many sorts of vegetables, plantains,
yams, sweet potatoes, and raw sago; and they chew up vast quantities of sugar-cane, as well
as betel-nuts, gambir, and tobacco. Those who live on the coast have plenty of fish; but
when inland, as we are here, they only go to the sea occasionally, and then bring home
cockles and other shell-fish by the boatload. Now and then they get wild pig or kangaroo,
but too rarely to form anything like a regular part of their diet, which is essentially veget-
able; and what is of more importance, as affecting their health, green, watery vegetables, im-
perfectly cooked, and even these in varying and often insufficient quantities. To this diet
may be attributed the prevalence of skin diseases, and ulcers on the legs and joints. The
scurfy skin disease so common among savages has a close connexion with the poorness and
irregularity of their living. The Malays, who are never without their daily rice, are generally
free from it; the hill-Dyaks of Borneo, who grow rice and live well, are clean skinned, while
