SOME BIRD LIFE TN BRITISH PAPUA." 



Bv R. A. Vivian. 



Wliat British Pai)iia lacks in hi^^ <raine it coutrives to fill with 

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

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

 country lying only a few hundred miles south of the equator. 



No classification of a technical nature, but a brief description of 

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

 of this paper, further remarks will be unnecessary in introducing 

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

 birds of paradise, principally Paradisca raggiana. Our Teutonic 

 neighbors evidently 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 bird of 

 paradise {F. ajmda). 



The exquisite plumage of these birds having been already treated 

 to a presumably microscopic survey, it is scarcely necessary to dwell 

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

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

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

 clarion call, while 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 appears to attract them, as they congregate there chiefly. 



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 assuni})tion is based on seeing tail feathers 

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



« Reprinted, by perraissiou, from The Emu. Melbourne, October, 1904. 



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

 I'udolphi. (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.) 



413 



