B I R 



422 



BIR 



feathers cut square inserted upon the neck and the upper 

 part of the back ; tho first composed of narrow, raised, red- 

 dish feathers spotted with black towards the extremity ; 

 the second of longer feathers lying upon tho back of a 

 straw-yellow, deeper towards the end ; great wing-coverts 

 of a brilliant carmelito colour; quills yellow, brown in- 

 teriorly ; tail-feathers brown ; throat and breast mingled 

 green and blue ; sides of the breast brown-green ; abdomen 

 greenish -blue; beak yellow bordered with black; feet yel- 

 lowish-brown ; two shafts turned circularly and terminating 

 in a point, taking their origin on each side of the rump, 

 extend to nearly a foot beyond the tail ; length from the 

 end of the beak to the extremity of the tail-feathers (rec- 

 tricet) six inches and a half. 



Paradisea apoda. Body above, breast, and abdomen, 

 marroon-brown ; front covered with close-set feathers of a 

 vekety -black, shot with emerald-green ; top of the head 

 and upper part of the neck, citron-yellow ; upper part of the 

 throat, golden-green ; front of the neck, violet-brown ; flanks 

 adorned with bundles of very long plumes, with loose bar- 

 bules of a yellowish white, slightly spotted towards the ex- 

 tremity with purpled red: these plumes extend far beyond 

 the tail-feathers. Two long horny and downy shafts, fur- 

 nished with stiff hairs, terminated in a point and elongated, 

 take their rise on each side of the rump, and extend some- 

 what circularly to a length of nearly two feet. Beak, horn- 

 colour; feet, lead-colour; length from the end of the beak 

 to the extremity of the tail-feathers (rectrices), thirteen 

 inches. 



Female. Front and fore-part of the neck of a deep mar- 

 roon-brown; head, neck, and back, reddish-yellow : winirs 

 and tail of a deep and brilliant marroon colour ; belly and 

 breast, white ; no floating plumes. 



This species, which is not so common as the little eme- 

 rald (Paradisea Papuetuis, Latham), inhabits the islands of 

 Arou, Tidor, and Wagiou, as well as New Guinea. 



We owe the most modern account of these birds in a state 

 of nature to M. Lesson, who, though he deeply laments his 

 short stay at New Guinea (only thirteen days), appears to 

 have made the best use of his time. 



' The birds of Paradise,' says M. Lesson, or at least the 

 emerald (Paraditea apoda, Linn.), the only species concern- 

 ing which we possess authentic intelligence, live in troops 

 in the vast forests of the country of the Papuans, a group of 

 islands situated under the equator, and which is composed 

 of the islands Arou, Wagiou, and the great island called 

 New Guinea. They are birds of passage, changing their 

 quarters according to the monsoons. The females congre- 

 gate in troops, assemble upon the tops of the highest trees in 

 the forests, and all cry together to call the males. These 

 last are always alone in the midst of some fifteen females, 

 which compose their seraglio, after the manner of the galli- 

 naceous birds.' 



M. Lesson then gives the following extract from his jour- 

 nal, written on the spot. After observing that the birds of 

 Paradise, with the exception of two species, were brought to 

 the corvette. La Coquille, by tho Papuans, and that the 

 quantity afforded reason for supposing that these birds, so 

 esteemed in Europe, were singularly multiplied in those 

 countries, he thus continues : 



' The manucode* presented itself twice in our shooting 

 excursions, and we killed the male and female. This spe- 

 cies would seem to be monogamous, or perhaps it is only 

 separated into pairs at the period of laying. In the woods, 

 this bird has no brilliancy; its fine-coloured plumage is not 

 discovered, and the tints of the female arc dull. It loves to 

 take its station on the teak-trees (Arbres de teck), whose 

 ample foliage shelters it, and whose small fruit forms its 

 nourishment. Its irides arc brown, and the feet are of a 

 delicate azure. The Papuans call it " saya." 



>n 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 antient 

 forests, the daughters of time, whose sombre depth was per- 

 haps the most magnificent and stately sight that I had ever 

 hi-n a bird of Paradise struck my view : it Hew grace- 

 fully and in undulation s; tho feathers of its sides formed 

 an elegant and aerial plume, which, without exaggeration, 

 bore no remote resemblance to a brilliant meteor. Sur- 

 prised, astounded, enjoying an inexpressible gratification, I 



t'i. V, .:'.-. tliuautdiOa, r mnncotowaln. li in apprl 

 to .11 lh bin It of PuullM, .u.l 11 Kud la .iju.fj at the Mo- 

 !, TlwbWofOod. 1 



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 tho Papuans sell t.i the Mal>s, and 

 which come to us in Europe. These p< rly hunted 

 the birds to decorate the turbans call 



them mambtfore in their tongue, and kill them dm in. 

 night by climbing the trees where they perch, ami -! .n.ting 

 them with arrows made for the purpose, and very short, 

 which they make with the stem (rarhis) of the leaves of a 

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

 of Emberbakcne are celebrated for tho quantity of bitds 

 which they prepare, and all tho art of their inhabitants is 

 directed to taking off 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 the feet on. The price of a bird of Paradise 

 among the Papuans of the coast is a piastre at least. \\ < 

 killed, during our stay at New Guinea, a score of these 

 birds, which 1 prepared for the most part 



' The emerald, when alive, is of the size of a common 

 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 tlie 

 fruits of the lesser trees, or when the sun in full power com- 

 pels it to seek the shade. It has a fancy for certain trees, 

 and makes tho 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, vnike, voiko, strongly articulated. 

 The cry of the female is the same, but she raise* it much 

 more feebly. The latter, deprived of the brilliant plumage 

 orthe 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 'i-it 

 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 !th 

 of August) before half-past four, and to remain motionless 

 till some of the males, urged by hunger, liyht upon the 

 branches within range. It is indispensably requisite to have 

 a gun which will carry very far with rfl'ert, and that the 

 LTuins of shot should be large; for it is very dilflcult to kill 

 an emerald outright, and if he be only wounded it is vcrv 

 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 

 amihott, of a rosy white, insipid and mucilaginous, of the 

 size of a small European fig, and which belongs to a tree of 

 the genus ficus.' 



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

 Paradise which had been kept in a caire lor more than six 

 months by the principal Chinese merchant at Amboyna. 

 They were always in motion, and were fed with boiled rice, 

 but they had a special fondness for cock-roaches (l>!altrr\. 



Bennett, in his ' Wanderings,' gives the following account. 

 of a bird of Paradise (Paradisea apoda) which he found in 

 Mr. Heale'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 an arch and impudent look; dances about 

 when a visiter approaches tin- rage, and seems delighted at. 

 being made an object of admiration ; its notes are very pe- 

 culiar, resembling the cawing of the raven, but its tones are 

 by far more varied. During four months of the year, from 



August, it moults. It washes itself regularly t 

 ilail'y. and, after having performed its ablutions, throw* its 

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



