376 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER." 



I killed one with a young one hanging at its breast. We soon 

 heard the cry of the great Bird of Paradise, " wauk, wauk." I 

 crept up within shot with my guides several times, but as usual, 

 though they saw the bird plainly amongst the foliage, I could 

 not make it out in time, though I saw the leaves rustle. I did 

 not want to fire without making sure. The guides in view of 

 the florin, were as excited as I was, and kept seizing my arm 

 and pointing, " burong mate, burong mate," but away went the 

 bird without showing itself to me. 



The birds seemed to keep constantly on the move in the 

 trees, hopping from branch to branch, and were very quick and 

 silent in their flight away to a fresh spot. Several times I saw 

 the birds amongst the branches of trees, so high that it was use- 

 less to shoot at them, and my cartridges, specially prepared with 

 nearly four drachms of powder, had no effect. • 



The birds seemed to be as often single as in companies, and 

 were evidently on the feed in the early morning. At last a hen 

 bird flew up off the ground close to me, with a small lizard in 

 her beak, and pitched on a dead branch to eat it, and I shot her. 

 But what of course I wished, was a male in full plumage. This 

 however was not to be obtained. It is remarkable what a very 

 large proportion of young males and females of the great Bird of 

 Paradise there seem to be, to the comparatively small number 

 of males in full dress. Not one of these latter was shot. I 

 believe I saw one at the top of a high tree, but am not certain. 

 Probably the old males are warier, being often hunted, and keep 

 out of the way. They require four or five years to develop full 

 dress.* 



At the breeding season, when the natives kill most of them, 

 they assemble, and are easily obtained. 



The cry " wauk," is not so far removed from such cries as those 

 of the Eook and others of the Corvidcv, to which the Paradise 



* It is improbable that P. apoda, loses its breeding plumage as soon as 

 the breeding season is over. P. minor, as has been observed in the case of 

 specimens kept in confinement in the Regent's Park Gardens, certainly 

 loses its plumes only at the moulting season, like other richly ornamented 

 birds. P. apoda moults, according to Wallace, in January or February, and 

 is in full plumage in May. At all events there must have remained birds 

 with plumes in September. 



