Capturing Birds of Paradise. 537 



were in coustant motion, jumping about the cage from perch 

 to perch, clinging on the top and sides, and rarely resting a 

 moment the first day till nightfall. The second day they were 

 always less active, although they would eat as freely as before; 

 and on the morning of the third day they were almost always 

 found dead at the bottom of the cage, without any apparent 

 cause. Some of them ate boiled rice as well as fi-uit and in- 

 sects ; but after trying many in succession, not one out of ten 

 lived more than three days. The second or third day they 

 would be dull, and in several cases they were seized with con- 

 vulsions, and fell off the perch, dying a few hours afterward. 

 I tried immature as well as fuU-plumaged birds, but with no 

 better success, and at length gave it up as a hopeless task, 

 and confined my attention to preserving specimens in as good 

 a condition as possible. 



The red birds of paradise are not shot M'ith blunt arrows, 

 as in the Aru Islands and some parts of New Guinea, but are 

 snared in a very ingenious manner. A large cUmbing Arum 

 bears a red reticulated fruit, of which the birds are very fond. 

 The hunters fasten this fruit on a stout forked stick, and pro-, 

 vide themselves with a fine but strong cord. They then seek 

 out some tree in the forest on which these birds are accustom- 

 ed to perch, and climbing up it fasten the stick to a branch 

 and arrange the cord in a noose so ingeniously that when the 

 bird comes to eat the fruit its legs are caught, and by pulling 

 the end of the cord, which hangs down to the ground, it conies 

 free from the branch and brings do^vm the bird. Sometimes, 

 when food is abundant elsewhere, the hunter sits from morn- 

 ing till night under his tree Avith the cord in his hand, and even 

 for two or three whole days in succession, without even getting 

 a bite ; while, on the other hand, if very lucky, he may get two 

 or three birds in a day. There are only eight or ten men at 

 Bessir who jiractice this art, which is unknown anywhere else 

 in the island. I determined, therefore, to stay as long as pos- 

 sible, as my only chance of getting a good series of specimens ; 

 and although I was nearly starved, every thing eatable by civil- 

 ized man being scarce or altogether absent, I finally succeeded. 



The vegetables and fruit in the plantations around us did 

 not suffice for the wants of the inhabitants, and were almost 

 always dug up or gathered before they were rij^e. It was 



