272 THE FKATUKRED TRIliES. 



the smoke. Some more adroit, at the solicitation of the Cliiuese merchants, dry them 

 with the feet on. The price of a bird of paradise .among the Papuans of the coast is a 

 piastre at least. We killed during our stay at Now Guinea a score of these birds, which 

 I prepared for the most part. The emerald, when alive, is of the size of a common jay; 

 its beak and its feet are bluish ; the irides arc of a brilliant yellow ; its motions are 

 lively and agile ; and, in general, it never perches except upon the summit of the most 

 lofty trees. When it descends, it is for the purpose of eating the fruits of the lesser 

 trees, or when the sun in full power compels it to seek the shade. It has a fancy for 

 certain trees, and makes the neighbourhood re-echo with its piercing voice. The cry 

 became fatal, because it indicated to us the movements of the bird. We were on the 

 watch for it, and it was thus that we came to kill these birds ; for when a male bird of 

 paradise has perched, and hears a rustling in the silence of the fircst, he is silent, and 

 does not move. His call is voike, voiAr, voike, voiko, strongly articulated. The cry of the 

 female is the same, but she raises it much more feebly. The latter, deprived of the 

 brilliant plumage of the male, is clad in sombre attire. We mot with them, assembled 

 in scores, on every tree, while the males, always solitary, appeared but rarely. 



" It is at the rising and setting of the sun that the bird of paradise goes to seek its 

 food. In the middle of the day it remains hidden under the ample foliage of the teak 

 tree, and comes not forth. He seems to dread the scorching rays of the sun, and to be 

 unwilling to expose himself to the attacks of a rival 



" In order to .shoot birds of paradise, travellers who visit New Guinea should remember 

 that it is necessary to leave the ship early in the morning, to arrive at the foot of a teak 

 tree or fig tree, which these birds frequent for the sake of their fruit (our stay was from 

 the 20th of July to the 9th of August) before half-past four, and to remain motionless 

 till some of the males, urged by hunger, light upon the branches within range. It is 

 indispensably requisite to have a gun which will carry very far with eflect, and that the 

 grains of shot should be large ; for it is very difficult to kill an emerald outright, and if 

 he be only wounded it is very seldom that he is not lost in thickets so dense that there is 

 no finding the way without a compass. 



" The little emerald paradise bird feeds, uo doubt, on many substances in a state of 

 liberty. I can affirm that it Hves on the seeds of the teak tree, and on a fruit called 

 amiliOK, of a rosy- white, insipid, and mucilaginous, of the size of a small European fig, 

 and which belongs to a tree of the genus ficus." 



M. Lesson then goes on to state, that he saw two birds of paradise which had been kept 

 in a cage for juore than six months by the principal Chinese merchant at Amboyna. 

 They were always in motion, and were fed with boiled rice, but they had a special 

 fondness for cockroaches (b/affw). 



Bennett, in his " Wanderings," gives tlie following account of a bird of paradise* 

 which he found in Mr. Beale's aviary at Macao, where it had been confined nine years, 

 exhibiting no appearance of age : — 



" This elegant creature has a light, playful, and graceful manner, with au arch and 

 impudent look ; dances about when a visitor approaches the cage, and seems delighted 

 at being made an object of admiration ; its notes are very peculiar, resembling the cawing 

 of the raven, but its tones are by far moi-e varied. During four months of (he yeai-, 

 from May to August, it moults. It washes itself regularly twice daily, and, after having 

 performed its ablutions, throws its delicate feathers up nearly over the head, the quills of 

 which feathers have a peculiar structure, so as to enable the bird to effect this oliject. Its 

 food duiiug confinement is boiled rici; mixed iqj with soft egg, together witli ])I;mtains, 

 and living insects of the gra8sho]>])cr frilic ; these insects when throwu to liim (lie l>ir<l 



" I'nradiKia AjiDdii. 



