Mr. A. R. Wallace's Search after Birds of Paradise. 471 



inhabit the districts in which they are most frequently to be pur- 

 chased. Yet such is the case ; for neither at Dorey, nor at Salwatty, 

 nor Waigiou, nor Mysol are any of the rarer species to be found 

 alive. Not only this, but even at Sorong, where the Waigiou chiefs 

 go every year and purchase all kinds of Birds of Paradise, it has 

 turned out that most of the specimens are brought from the central 

 mountain-ranges by the natives of those places, and reach the shore 

 in places where it is not safe for trading praus to go, owing to the 

 want of anchorage on an exposed rocky coast. 



Nature seems to have taken every precaution that these, her 

 choicest treasures, may not lose value by being too easily obtained. 

 First we find an open, harbourless, inhospitable coast, exposed to the 

 full swell of the Pacific Ocean ; next, a rugged and mountainous 

 country, covered with dense forests, offering in its swamps and pre- 

 cipices and serrated ridges an almost impassable barrier to the cen- 

 tral regions ; and lastly, a race of the most savage and ruthless 

 character, in the very lowest stage of civilization. In such a country 

 and among such a people are found these wonderful productions of 

 nature. In those trackless wilds do they display that exquisite 

 beauty and that marvellous development of plumage, calculated to 

 excite admiration and astonishment among the most civilized and 

 most intellectual races of man. A feather is itself a wonderful and 

 a beautiful thing. A bird clothed with feathers is almost necessarily 

 a beautiful creature. How much, then, must we wonder at and 

 admire the modification of simple feathers into the rigid, polished, 

 wavy ribbons which adorn P. rubra, the mass of airy plumes on 

 P. apoda, the tufts and wires of Seleucides alba, or the golden buds 

 borne upon airy stems that spring from the tail of Cicinnurus regius ; 

 while gems and polished metals can alone compare with the tints 

 that adorn the breast of Parotia sexsetacea and Astrapia nigra, and 

 the immensely developed shoulder-plumes of Epimachus magnus. 



I will now point out the distribution of the species of Birds of 

 Paradise, as far as I have been able to ascertain it. The Aru Islands 

 contain P. apoda and P. regia ; and we have no positive knowledge 

 of P. apoda being found anywhere else. Mysol has P. papuana, P. 

 regia, and P. magnifca ; Waigiou P. rubra only. Salwatty, though 

 so close to New Guinea, has no restricted Paradisece, but possesses 

 P. regia, P. magnifca, Ep. albus, and Ser'iculus aureus. The island 

 of Jobie, and the Mysory Islands beyond it, certainly contain true 

 Paradisece ; but what species beyond P. papuana, is unknown. The 

 coast districts of the northern part of New Guinea contain P. papuana 

 and P. regia pretty generally distributed, while P. magnifca, P. alba, 

 and Sericulus aureus are scarce and local. Lastly, the central moun- 

 tains of the northern peninsula are alone inhabited by Lophorina 

 superba, Parotia sexsetacea, Astrapia nigra, Epimachus magnus, 

 and Craspedophora magnifca ; and here also probably exist the 

 unique Diphyllodes Wilsoni and Paradigalla carunculata. 



The most widely distributed of the Paradisece is therefore the 

 little P. regia, which is found in every island except Waigiou. Next, 

 and probably most abundant in individuals, comes the P. papuana, 



