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TIEE BIRD OF PAKADISE. 271 



perch on lofty trees, and are variously captured by the inhabitants, with bird-lime 

 snares, and blunted arrows. Though many arc taken alive, they arc always killed 

 immediatel}', embowelled, the feet cut off, the plumed skins fumigated with sidphur, and 

 then dried for sale. The Dutch ships frequenting tlio sea between New Guinea and Aru, 

 a distance of about twenty miles, not imfrequeutly observe flocks of paradise birds 

 crossing from one to the other of these places, but constantly against the wind. Should a 

 gale arise, they ascend to a great height, into the regions of perpetual calm, and there 

 pursue their journey. With respect to their food, we have little certain information 

 from the older authors, some of whom assert they prey on small birds, a supposition 

 which ])r. Shaw inclines to think is favoured by their strength of bills and legs, and the 

 vigour with which they act in self-defence. They are said also to feed on fruits and 

 berries ; and Liiinasus says they devour the larger butterflies. 



A recent accoiuit of these birds in a state of nature is given bj'' IM. Lesson, who, 

 though he deeply laments his short stay at New Guinea, only thirteen days, appears to 

 have turned his visit to singular advantage. 



" The birds of paradise," he says, " or at least the emerald [PanuUsca apoda, Linn.), 

 the only species concerning which we possess authentic intelligence, live in troops in the 

 vast forests of the Papuans, a group of islands situated under the equator, and which is 

 composed of the islands Arou, AVagiou, and the great island called New Guinea. They 

 arc birds of passage, changing their quarters according to the monsoons. The females 

 congregate in troops, assemble upon the tops of the highest trees in the forest, and all 

 cry together to call the males. Th^^e last are always alone in the midst of some fifteen 

 females, which compose their seragKo, after the manner of the gallinaceous birds." 

 M. Lesson then gives the following extract from his journal written on the spot. After 

 observing that the birds of paradise, with the exception of two species, were brought to 

 the corvette, " La Coquille," by the Papuans, and that the quantity afforded reason for 

 supposing that these birds, so esteemed in Europe, were singvdarly multiplied in these 

 countries, he" thus continues: — "The manucode presented itself twice in our shooting 

 excursions, and we killed the male and female. This species would seem to be mono- 

 gamous, or perhaps it is only separated into pairs at the period of laying. In the woods, 

 this bird has no brilliancy ; its fine coloured plumage is not discovered, and the tints 

 of the female are dull. It loves to take its station on the teak- trees {arbres de tcck), 

 whole ample foliage shelters it, and whose small fruit forms its nourishment. Its irides 

 are brown, and the feet are a delicate azure. The Papuans call it ' saya/ 



" Soon after our arrival on this land of promise (New Guinea) for the naturalist, I was 

 on a shooting excursion. Scarcely had I walked some himdred paces in those ancient 

 forests, the daughters of time, whose sombre depth was perhaps the most magnificent and 

 stately sight that I had ever seen, when a bird of paradise struck my view : it flew 

 gi-acefidly and in imdulations ; the feathers of its sides formed an elegant and aerial 

 plmne, which, without exaggeration, bore no remote resemblance to a brilliant meteor. 

 Surprised, astounded, enjoying an inexpressible gratification, I devom-ed this splendid 

 bird with my eyes ; but my emotion was so great that I forgot to shoot at it, and did not 

 recollect that I had a gun in my hand till it was far away. One scarcely has a just idea 

 of the paradise birds from the skins which tlie Papuans sell to the Malays, and which 

 come to us in Europe. The people formerly himted the birds to decorate the turbans of 

 their chiefs. They call them mambefore in their tongue, and kill them during the night 

 by climbing the trees where they perch, and shooting them with arrows made for the 

 purpose, and very short, which they make with the stem {racTiis) of the leaves of a pahn 

 {latanier). The campongs, or "tillages of Mappia and of Emberbakene are celebrated for 

 the quantity of birds which they prepare, and all the art of the inhabitants is directed to 

 taking ofi' their feet, skinning, thrusting a little stick through the body, and drying it in 



