SOME BIRD LIFE IN BRITISH PAPUA.« 



By R. A. Vivian. 



What British Papua hicks in l)ig game it contrives to fill with 

 fowls of the air, Avhich, though varied and numerous, do not exist 

 in that enormous quantity one would be led to expect of a fertile 

 country lyiug- only a few hundred miles south of the equator. 



No classification of a technical nature, l)ut a brief description of 

 the different species and their habits, where known, being the object 

 of this paper, further remarks will be unnecessary in introducing 

 to tlie reader the typical birds of Papua, or New Guinea, viz, the 

 birds of paradise, principally Paradisea raggiiuui. Our Teutonic 

 neighbors evidentl}^ admire the birds so much that they have given 

 them the premier position by striking local coinage on the obverse 

 side with a somewhat exaggerated design of the greater Ijird of 

 paradise {P. ajmda). 



The exquisite plumage of these birds having been alread}" treated 

 to a presumably microscopic surv^e^^ it is scarcely necessar}^ to dwell 

 further in that respect, but rather on their apparent desire to be 

 noisy. Their rapidly ascending, shrill " caw, caAV, caw,'' repeated, 

 penetrating the ordinary stillness of the forest, being akin to a 

 clarion call, Avhile their prancing on a tree limb, which the natives 

 introduce and imitate in their dances, is very ludicrous. Moulting 

 seems -to take place about August, which is near the end of the dry 

 (or southwest) season. The noise of the rapids in large rivers and 

 creeks apj^ears to attract them, as they congregate there chief! 3^ 



The writer is not aware whether it is widely known among orni- 

 thologists that a blue-plumaged bird of paradise exists in Papua.'' 

 Neither can he recollect meeting anyone who has seen the particular 

 species in the flesh. The assumption is based on seeing tail feathers 

 of the Opi tribe. The latter could not be induced to part with the 



o Reprinted, by permission, from The Emu, Melbourne, Octobei-, 1904. 



6 I have seen in the national nmseum, Melbourne, a skin which is named /'. 

 rudolphi. (This species is recorded in Wallace's list of the Birds of Paradise 

 published in The Malay Archipelago, 1890 edition. The habitat is there given 

 as southeast Guinea. — Editors of The Emu.) 



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