HEAD OF BLACK COCKATOO.
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 hill of this bird
seems to have its use, and we may easily conceive 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 aterrimum 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 sbrts 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 vegetable ; and what is of more importance,