Mr. A. R. Wallace on the great Bird of Paradise. 413 



the whole figure. Above rise the intensely-shining, orange- 

 coloured plumes, richly marked with a stripe of deep red, and 

 opening out with the most perfect regularity into broad, waving 

 feathers of airy down, — every filament which terminates them 

 distinct, yet waving and curving and closing upon each other 

 with the vibratory motion the bird gives them ; while the two im- 

 mensely long filaments of the tail hang in graceful curves below*. 



In the freshly killed specimens it can be easily seen (even did 

 not observation of the living bird prove it) that this is the natural 

 position of the long plumes. They all spring from an oval fold 

 of the skin, about an inch in length, situated just below the 

 elbow or first joint of the wing. On this point they turn as on 

 a hinge, and admit only of being laid down closed beneath the 

 wing, or erected and expanded in the manner described, which 

 position they take of their own accord, if the bird is held up by 

 the legs, with the head inclining a little downwards, and the 

 whole gently shaken. In this manner, by slightly altering the 

 position of the body, all the forms which the plumage assumes 

 during life can be correctly and beautifully imitated. If I am 

 right in supposing this attitude to be now first made known in 

 Europe, and our taxidermists succeed in properly representing 

 it, the Bird of Paradise will, I am sure, excite afresh universal 

 admiration, and be voted worthy of its illustrious name. 



The curious habit of the males assembling to play and exer- 

 cise their limbs and feathers, occurs in some other birds, as the 

 Turkeys and Argus Pheasants, and particularly in the Rupicola 

 cayana, which, though a true arboreal bird, has its ball-room on 

 the ground, generally on a flat rock, on which a space of a few 

 feet in diameter is worn clean and smooth by the feet of the 

 dancers. On these spots the natives set snares, and catch these 

 beautiful birds alive. The soaring of the Lark, and, in all song- 

 birds, the exertion of singing, probably results from the same 

 desire for action at the time when the moulting is completed, 

 and the frame overflowing with health and vigour. 



When the natives wish to procure ' Burong mati,^ they search 

 for one of the trees on which the birds assemble, and, choosing 

 a time when they are absent, construct among its branches a 

 little hut of boughs, so chosen as to afibrd them a good con- 

 cealed station for shooting the birds. They say the greatest care 

 is necessary to make the covering very close, and at the same 

 time not too artificial ; for if the birds once see anything move 

 within, they will quit the tree, and never return to it. They 

 ascend to this nest before daylight in the morning, with their 

 bow and a good stock of arrows ; a boy accompanying them, who 



* A note on the mode in which the male Bird of Paradise displays his 

 plumes, will be found in the Annals for February 1854, vol. xiii. p. 157. 



