266 NEJF GUINEA. [chap. 



inquiring of the llajali he tokl us of a small stream whicli ran into 

 the gulf on the eastern side, just within the entrance. Its mouth 

 was hardly visible from the sea, but we at length discovered it, 

 and entering a narrow channel completely overarched by trees 

 found a little stream of good water running brightly over a pebbly 

 bed. Up this we poled our dinghy, and hearing the noise of a 

 waterfall in the distance, I left the boat and walked to it through 

 the forest. It was only a few feet in height, but the richness of 

 tlie ferns and other vegetation combined to render it one of the 

 most charming spots I saw in our New Guinea cruise. It will 

 always remain deeply impressed on my memory, for such places 

 are after all rare in these regions, or at least rarer than is generally 

 supposed by those to whom the tropics are unknown. The 

 individual beauty of any one plant or tree may be absolutely 

 perfect, but the very exuljerance of the vegetation — the cmharras 

 dc richesses — spoils all, and the traveller is chieily conscious of a 

 tangled mass of greenery presenting few characteristics, except 

 impenetrability, to his mind. 



Next day, the boats having gone round to the watering-place, I 

 endeavoured to reach it overland with a half-caste Papuan as 

 guide. As I was starting one of our hunters came in, bringing a 

 male Faradisea ruhra which, with the exception of the beautiful 

 red tufts, was in full plumage, and I learnt that he had seen others 

 at no great distance I'rom the village. The forest, however, hardly 

 yielded me a single biid for a long time, with the exception of a 

 Tanysiptera (T. galatea), a lovely racquet-tailed kingfisher not un- 

 common in North-west Papua. Presently a male Paradise bird flew 

 past me, with long tail-feathers, but, as far as I could see, with the 

 side plumes only partially developed. My guide now commenced 

 calling the birds, placing his hand to his mouth and producing a sort 

 of plaintive croak, loud, and of rather high pitch — an almost exact 

 imitation of their note. We waited silently and with no result for 

 some little time, and then continued our way, but I had hardly 

 started Ijefore a fuU-plumaged male bird perclied upon a bough 



