JAZ From Magazines, &c. \^^ 



Emu 

 Oct. 



beautiful birds to England. He states that he has constantly 

 read remarks about the Birds-of-Paradise which are altogether 

 wrong, and some purely imaginative and needing correction. The 

 cult for the birds commenced in 1904, when Mr. Goodfellow brought 

 over a consignment for Mrs. Johnstone, consisting of one Greater 

 Bird, two Lesser Birds, two Kings, and a pair of Black Manucodes. 

 The importations have proved conclusively that the Birds-of- 

 Paradise are " by no means so delicate as they were at one time 

 supposed to be " — in fact, it may safely be said, Mr. Goodfellow 

 thinks, that they are generally hardy birds. So far, none have bred 

 in captivity. 



Mr. Goodfellow intends to confine his notes to those species which 

 he has imported alive, with the Gardener Bower-Bird — a total of 20. 

 He deals in the present paper with the Greater Bird-of-Paradise 

 {Paradisea apoda), whose chief home is the Aru Islands, off the 

 south-west coast of New Guinea ; but it also inhabits " the main- 

 land in the interior, south of the Charles Louis and the Snow Moun- 

 tains, which form the dividing hne, north and south, between the 

 Greater and Lesser Birds." The Greater Bird-of-Paradise, the 

 author states, is by no means distributed equally over the islands 

 of the Aru group. It is confined to the deepest jungle of the ex- 

 treme interior, where the trees are tallest. Mr. Goodfellow first 

 visited the Arus in December, IQ03, and was at the time the only 

 European in the country. The natives looked upon the birds 

 absolutely as their own property, and the white bird-hunter had to 

 come to an understanding with them before he could make any 

 collections. His description of the first hunting party is inter- 

 esting, and his field notes on the habits of the Birds-of-Paradise 

 extremely valuable. The nesting season apparently commences 

 in December. The males start to assemble irregularly in the 

 dancing-trees before the moulting season is completely over. 

 Occasionally a recognized dancing-tree is tabooed by the birds for 

 a whole season, or even longer. The Malay trade name for the 

 Apoda is " burong mate " — dead bird. 



Bird Protection. 



Deputation of the Council, A.O.U., to Federal Minister of 



Customs. 

 The Minister Sympathetic 

 A deputation from the Councif of the Australasian Ornitliologists' 

 Union waited on the Minister for Customs to-day to ask for tlie intro- 

 duction of a bill to prohibit the importation and exportation of the 

 plumage and skins of certain birds, framed on lines similar to the bill 

 now before the House of Commons. 



Mr. A. J. Campbell, Col. M. B.O.U., president of the Union, said 

 that a deputation had waited on Mr. Deakin when he was Prime 

 Minister in regard to the subject. Bird protection and other societies 

 in all the States were represented. It was desired that a bill to pro- 

 hibit the sale or exchange of the plumage and skins of certain wild 

 birds and the importation and exportation of plumes and skins of 



