Mr. A. R. Wallace on the great Bird of Paradise. 415 



New Guinea, they are all of another kind, being the Paradisea 

 papuana, a smaller and more delicate, but less brilliantly coloured 

 species. On inquiry I found they did not trade to the eastward 

 of Cape Buro (135" E.). Lesson*, I believe, found the larger 

 species in the southern peninsula of New Guinea, and an intel- 

 ligent Ceramese trader I met at Aru assured me that, in places 

 he had visited more eastward than the range of the Macassar 

 traders, the same kind was found as at Aru. It is therefore 

 clear that the Paradisea apoda is confined to the southern pen- 

 insula of New Guinea and the Aru Islands, while the Paradisea 

 papuana inhabits only the northern peninsula, with one or two 

 of the islands (most probably) near its northern extremity. It 

 is interesting to observe, that though the Ke Islands and Goram 

 approach nearer to New Guinea than Aru, no species of the 

 Paradise birds are found upon them, — pretty clearly showing 

 that these birds have not migrated to the islands beyond New 

 Guinea in which they are now found. I have, in fact, strong 

 reasons for believing, from geographical, geological, and zoo- 

 logical evidence, that Aru is but an outlying portion of New 

 Guinea, from which it has been separated at no very distant epoch. 

 In examining my series of specimens, I find four such well- 

 marked states of the male bird, as to lead me to suppose that 

 three moults are required before it arrives at perfection. In the 

 first condition it is of a nearly uniform coffee-brown colour, 

 darker on the head and paler on the belly, but entirely without 

 markings or variety of colour. The two middle tail-feathers are 

 exactly equal in length to the others, from which they only differ 

 in having a narrower web. In the next series of specimens, the 

 head has acquired the pale yellow colour, and the throat and 



* Since writing this paper, I have, by the kindness of a German physician 

 residing at Macassar, Dr. Bauer, obtained a perusal of the ' Zoology' of the 

 voyage of the * Coquille,' containing Lesson's observations on the Paradise 

 Birds. There is, however, a great want of preciseness in his account, owing 

 to his using French trivial names, and his not stating where and how he 

 obtained each species. He visited, I find, only the north coast (Dorey Har- 

 bour) and the islands of Waigiou. His details of habits refer to, and the 

 specimens shot by himself or companions are spoken of as, the " petit 

 Emeraude," which must be the P. papuana^ Bechst. (P. minor, Forst.). 

 He states, however, that he procured from the natives at Dorey the two 

 species of ' Emeraude,'' the other being, no doubt, the true P. apoda, Linn., 

 which I believe does not inhabit that district. They were probably obtained 

 from the Ceramese traders, who had brought them from the south or from 

 Aru, just as they offered me at Aru specimens of the P. papuana which 

 they had brought from the north peninsula of New Guinea. He mentions 

 the apparently large number of females, and concludes that the bird is 

 polygamous! but I have no doubt that what he took for females were 

 mostly young males. He says nothing about the vertical expansion of the 

 plumes, which will form, I hope, an important addition to our knowledge 

 of these remarkable birds. 



