477 



BIRDS OF PARADISE. 



BIRDS OF PARADISE. 



478 



" The Manucode * presented itaelf twice in our shooting excursions, 

 and we killed the male and female. This species would seem to be 

 monogamous, or perhaps it is only separated into pairs at the period 



The Great Emerald (Paraditea apodal, mas. 



raiadiscn aprtrlu, fern. 



nf laying. In the woods th'w bird li:i,s no brilliancy ; it- fin 'coloured 



plumage is not di.^rovi-rr.l, :md tin- tint^ .if ire 'lull. It 



to take itH station on tin- teak-trees (Arbrcs do Teck), whose 



ample foliage shelters it, and whose small fruit forms its nourishment. 



f'iririniiiiriii r.yni^ Virillot. Mnntiroflinta or Ufanttrndnrnta is an appel- 

 lation ermimon to nil the Birds of Paradise, and is said to signify at the Moluccas 

 The Bird of <;od.' 



Its irides are brown, and the feet are of a delicate azure. Tho 

 Papuans call it Saya. 



" Soon after our arrival on this land of promise (New Guinea) for 

 the naturalist, I was on a shooting excursion. Scarcely had I walked 

 some hundred paces in those ancient forests, the daughters of time, 

 whose sombre depth was perhaps the most magnificent aud stately 

 sight that I had ever seed, when a Bird of Paradise struck my view : 

 it flew gracefully and in undulations ; the feathers of its sides formed 

 an elegant and aerial plume, which without exaggeration bore no 

 remote resemblance to a brilliant meteor. Surprised, astounded, 

 enjoying an inexpressible gratification, I devoured this splendid bird 

 with my eyes ; but my emotion was so great that I forgot to shoot 

 at it, and did not recollect that I had a gun in my hand till it was 

 far away. 



" One can scarcely have a just idea of the Paradise-Birds from the 

 skins which the Papuans sell to the Malays, and which come to us in 

 Europe. These people formerly hunted the birds to decorate the 

 turbans of their chiefs. They call them Mambeiore in their tongue, 

 and kill them during the night by climbing the trees where they 

 perch, and shooting them with arrows made for the purpose, and very 

 short, which they make with the stem (rachis) of the leaves of a palm 

 (latanier). The campongs or villages of Mappia and of Emberbakene 

 are celebrated for the quantity of birds which they prepare, and all 

 the art of their inhabitants is directed to taking oif the feet, skinning, 

 thrusting a little stick through the body, and drying it in the smoke. 

 Some more adroit, at the solicitation of the Chinese merchants, dry 

 them with their feet on. The price of a Bird of Paradise among the 

 Papuans of the coast is a piastre at least. We killed, during our stay 

 at New Guinea, a score of these birds, which I prepared for the most 

 part 



" The Emerald when alive is of the size of a common jay, its beak 

 and its feet are bluish ; the irides are of a brilliant yellow ; its motions 

 are lively and agile ; and in general it never perches except upon the 

 summit of the most lofty trees. When it descends, it is for the 

 purpose of eating the fruits of the lesser trees, or when the sun in 

 full power compels it to seek the shade. It has a fancy for certain 

 trees, and makes the neighbourhood re-echo with its piercing voice. 

 The cry became fatal, because it indicated to us the movements of 

 the bird. We were on the watch for it, and it was thus that we came 

 to kill these birds ; for when a male Bird of Paradise has perched, 

 and hears a rustling in the silence of the forest, he is silent, and does 

 not move. His call is ' voike, voike, voike, voiko,' strongly articulated. 

 The cry of the female is the same, but she raises it much more feebly. 

 The latter, deprived of the brilliant plumage of the male, is clad in 

 sombre attire. We met with them, assembled in scores, on every 

 tree, while the males, always solitary, appeared but rarely. 



" It is at the rising and setting of the sun that the Bird of Paradise 

 goes to seek its food. In the middle of the day it remains hidden 

 under the ample foliage of the teak -tree, and comes not forth. He 

 seems to dread the scorching rays of the sun, and to be unwilling to 

 expose himself to the attacks of a rival 



"In order to shoot Birds of Paradise, travellers who visit New 

 Guinea should remember that it is necessary to leave the ship early in 

 the morning, to arrive at the foot of a teak-tree or fig-tree, which 

 these birds frequent for the sake of their fruit (our stay was from 

 the 26th of July to the 9th of August) before half-past four, and to 

 remain motionless till some of the males, urged by hunger, light upon 

 the branches within range. It is indispensably requisite to have a 

 gun which will carry very far with effect, and that the grains of shot 

 should be large ; for it is very difficult to kill an Emerald outright, 

 and if he be only wounded it is very seldom that he is not lost 

 in thickets so dense that there is no finding the way without a 

 compass. 



" The little Emerald Paradise-Bird feeds, without doubt, on many 

 substances, in a state of liberty. I can affirm that it lives on the 

 seeds of the teak-tree, and on a fruit called Amihou, of a rosy white, 

 insipid and mucilaginous, of the si/e of a small European fig, and 

 which belongs to a tree of the genus Ficut." 



M. Lesson then goes on to state that he saw two Birds of Paradise 

 which had been kept in a cage for more than six months by the prin- 

 cipal Chinese merchant at Amboyna. They were always in motion, 

 and were fed with boiled rice, but they had a special fondness for 

 Cockroaches (Blattce). 



Bennett, in his ' Wanderings," gives the following account of a Bird 

 of Paradise (Paradi&ea apoda) which he found in Mr. Beale's aviary 

 at Macao, where it had been confined nine years, exhibiting no 

 appearance of age : 



" This elegant creature has a light, playful, and graceful manner, 

 with *n arch and impudent look ; dances about when a visitor 

 apprflKches tho cage, and seems delighted at being made an object of 

 Milnn'nitinn; its notes are very peculiar, resembling the cawing of the 

 raven, but its tones are by far more varied. During four months of 

 the year, from May to August, it moults. It washes itself regularly 

 twice daily, and after having performed its ablutions throws its 

 delicate feathers np nearly over the head, the quills of which feathers 

 have a peculiar structure, so as to enable the bird to effect this object. 

 Its food during confinement is boiled rice, mixed up with soft egg, 

 together with plantains, and living insects of the grasshopper tribe ; 



