274 WILSON, Papua, the Land of Birds. Kt'l^ii 



roar made by the lumbering flight of a flock of Hornbills moving 

 across one's path. This hideous bird is the enemy of the cocoa- 

 nut planter, and has to be shot at sight. He is dark green, chest- 

 nut and white, and his bill is used instead of human scalps by the 

 cannibal who wishes to advertise his deeds. 



There are many varieties of Bower-Birds, mottled green, 

 brown with golden crest, and black and gold, but the most in- 

 teresting to me was one of a dull brown colour. This bird rivals 

 the Lyre-Bird as a mimic, and has often fooled me into think- 

 ing I had heard a species new to me, or the reverse. It does its 

 mimicry when playing on its bower, not unlike that of the Satin 

 Bird, but raised on a solid platform often 18 inches high. Its 

 decorations are uniformly green — berries or leaves. The taller 

 jungle trees are busy with Starlings, Fish-tailed Drongoes (al- 

 most as noisy), Pigeons of every hue, Parrots, Cockatoos, Friar- 

 Birds, Cuckoo Shrikes, and Kingfishers, to name only a few 

 common sorts. 



The natives are good naturalists, knowing all the birds by 

 sound and sight, but cannot recognise families ; for instance, each 

 Pigeon has a difl:'erent name, and each Kingfisher also, but there 

 IS no word for "Pigeon" or "Kingfisher" as a class. The feathers 

 of birds are used by the boys for personal adornment, head- 

 dresses of Paradise-Birds, crested Goura Pigeons, Bowser Birds 

 and Parrots being the ruling fashion, while even their spears 

 have feather decorations. For the hair u wing or tail feather is 

 often stripped to the quill, leaving only a tuft at the tip, by which 

 decoration a young buck advertises the fact that he is courting, 

 or even, by a different combination, that he is courting another 

 man's wife. 



The Papuan is a master at catching birds alive. He will bring 

 you for a shilling any bird you ask for. I saw a perfect Long- 

 tailed Kingfisher with scarlet bill taken by means of a frog 

 7)laced between two nooses in the hollow of a half bamboo, while 

 swooping down, while Pigeons are snared in tunnels between the 

 foliage of the taller trees, where observation has proved them to 

 make a highway, and the many Rails are often driven into nets 

 (home-made by women). Scrub-Fowl, akin to the Mallee Fowl, 

 make an even larger mound than that of these latter, and are 

 very common though shy. 



Among so many, how can I choose a few to discuss in a 

 short paper, without omitting some of the most interesting? 

 As an instance of too much material to work on, I was one day 

 watching the splendid flight of a flock of Frigate Birds wheeling 

 in play, at the same time as a Pitta was investigating my camera 

 placed on the ground. Let me then tell of the Eclectus Parrot, 

 that flics home to roost at 5.30 every evening, and always on ex- 

 actly the same line. So regular is he that I could take you with 

 me and say, "In four minutes a Parrot will pass right overhead, 

 and three minutes later two more will pass immediately above 

 the kapok tree over there." And it would be so. 



