48 BIRDS THAT NO WHITE MAN HAS SEEN. 



a snare for it. They find out the tree on which it 

 roosts, and which is more of a bush than a tree. 

 They climb up in the night, and shoot the poor 

 bird with one of their blunt arrows ; or they 

 throw a piece of cloth over it and take it alive. 

 Then there is the Long-tailed Bird of Paradise, 

 which has also a slender bill, and a tail a little 

 like a Peacock. It has also a number of plumes 

 on each side of the breast, that stand up, and are 

 striped with the most brilliant green and blue. 

 No European has ever seen it alive. It lives 

 in the unknown parts of New Guinea, where the 

 inhabitants are so uncivilized that it is not safe 

 to venture near them. 



It is said that the nest of the bird is under- 

 ground, and that it has two holes, one for an 

 entrance and the other for an outlet. This is 

 what the natives report, and they are generally 

 pretty correct. 



I might weary you with descriptions of these 

 beautiful birds, and yet you can form very little 

 idea of how they appear in their native forests. 

 They are so difficult to obtain that the naturalist 



