within a very few feet of a bird and fail to pick it out unless it moves and generally speaking, they are somewhat slow movers and spend much of their time perfectly motionless. The small red poll or crest is more or less invisible in life at all times and is purely a mating colouration, I believe. This appears to be borne out in the birds' habits of bowing to each other in play or courtship, bending the head and plainly showing the patch to the other watching bird, and at such times were the only occasions when this touch of red in the plumage was noticed by me in live birds and one almost gained an impression that the bird actually enlarged the area. The whole top of the head certainly made a pretty contrasting red and black rosette and though the long crest feathers appeared to be incapable of much movement they are so thin and delicate that they nod and tremble and arch over forwards almost like the anthers (?central pollen rods) of a flower, in fact the whole effect is not unlike a flower when thus seen. The birds' habit of remaining stationary and silent for long periods and the fact that even its very loudest calls are low pitched and not at all loud, gives one an impression that the bird is much rarer than it actually is. This along with the fact that Uvean natives are poor bushmen and seldom visit forest areas, except the margins close to gardens to collect small bundles of fire wood or poles for house building and there being no wild pigs on the island to hunt or any forest game other than a few pigeons and flying foxes which can be and usually are collected in other more accessible areas which they visit and the absolute lack of bush tracks (other than main coast to coast or