aio 



Birds or 

 Paradise. 



Shacux. 



LAND OF PAPUAS, or NEW GUINEA, 



this volume, enf^raven by Le Brun<t was one of fix feized on the 

 coaft oi New Guinea in 1706, by the commander of the V'mk^ a 

 Dutch fliip, who brought them to Batavia, where they were 

 treated with great humanity ; it having been the defign of the 

 Duicb to fend them back to their own country, in order to conci- 

 liate the afFcvflions of the natives. The Papuans trade in their 

 brother Papuans, and carry them to any chance cuflomers they 

 may meet with. Captain Forrejl met with a boat with only four 

 men, two of v/hich were flaves for fule ; each had round his 

 neck a rattan collar, with a log of Avood cut into the form of a 

 fugar loaf, and of five or fix pound weight, pendant behind. 

 Thefe were offered very cheap to the captain, but he declined 

 the purchafe. He feems to have been before provided, for he 

 tells us * he bought a linguift at 7~owl. 



I A?vi reminded of the ornithology of Nezv Guinea and the 

 Papuan iflands, by the curious birds, which make another article 

 of commerce ; nature here grows voluptuoufly rich in the 

 forms of various of the feathered tribe which wanton in its 

 fpicy nir. The birds of Paradife, the grand Promerops, and a 

 few other fpecies, are diftinguiflied by fome eccentricity of plu- 

 mage. I fliail continue my account of the former as the mofl 

 eminent, and refer to p. 148 for the preface to the genus, and 

 hiftory of the firft fpecies. I fliall refume the fubjedl with the 

 Shague, a fmaller bird of Paradife t, differing from the former 

 chiefly in fize ; it has all the chara6ters of the common, but its 

 colors are lefs bright ; the back is of a greyhh yellow, bill lead 

 color. 



• P. 100. 



t Forreft's Voy. 137. Latham, ii. 474. 



This 



