324 ARU. 



shooting birds, and are not exclusively fish arrows, as is often 

 supposed. 



Besides these, there are the arrows with a large blunt knob 

 at the end, used for stunning the large Birds of Paradise, with- 

 out spoiling their skins, as described by Wallace. Pointed 

 arrows are, however, used more frequently for this purpose, as 

 Mr. Wallace relates, because the birds are so strong as to 

 escape being stunned, and the points are more certain weapons. 

 It is curious that closely similar knobbed arrows are used in 

 South America by certain tribes, to kill Trogons and other fine 

 plumaged birds. One man brought for sale a large Bird of 

 Paradise, dried in the usual manner for sale, but he wanted for 

 it the full price asked by the Chinese dealers at Dobbo. 



I procured two guides, a boy and a man, and promised them 

 a florin for every Bird of Paradise that I shot. I had previously 

 been in pursuit of the birds at Wokan, but they were not so 

 common there, and I believe that the native guides did not 

 exert themselves to show us the birds, as they no doubt regard 

 them more or less as property, and a source of wealth. 



My first acquaintance with the great Bird of Paradise {Fat'a- 

 disea apoda) was at Wokan. I was making my way through 

 the forest with a guide in the very early morning, when a flock 

 of birds flew by in the misty light, passing right over my head. 

 They flew like a flock of Jackdaws somewhat, and I was dis- 

 gusted to realize, when too late, that they were a flock of the 

 very birds I was in search of. I did not fire for fear of 

 disturbing the woods. I heard them cry soon after " wauk, 

 wauk," but could not come up with them. 



At Wanumbai with my guides, I first encountered a number 

 of Fruit-Bats, which were on the wing in the early morning, 

 and I killed one with a young one hanging at its breast. We 

 soon heard the cry of the great Bird of Paradise, "wauk, wauk." 

 I crept up within shot with my guides several times, but as 

 usual, though they saw the bird plainly amongst the foliage, I 

 could not make it out in time, though I saw the leaves rustle. 

 I did not want to fire without making sure. The guides, in 

 view of the florin, were as excited as I was, and kept seizing 

 my arm and pointing, " burong mate, burong mate," but away 

 went the bird without showing itself to me. 



The birds seemed to keep constantly on the move in the 

 trees, hopping from branch to branch, and were very quick and 

 silent in their flight away to a fresh spot. Several times I saw 

 them amongst the branches of trees, so high that it was useless 

 to shoot at them, and my cartridges, specially prepared with 

 nearly four drachms of powder, had no effect. 



They seemed to be as often single as in companies, and 



