160 MR. A. R, WALLACE’S NARRATIVE [May 27, 
inhabit the districts in which they are most frequently to be pur- 
chased. Yet such is the case ; for neither at Dorey, nor at Salwatty, 
nor Waigiou, nor Mysol are any of the rarer species to be found 
alive. Not only this, but even at Sorong, where the Waigiou chiefs 
go every year and purchase all kinds of Birds of Paradise, it has 
turned out that most of the specimens are brought from the central 
mountain-ranges by the natives of those places, and reach the shore 
in places where it is not safe for trading praus to go, owing to the 
want of anchorage on an exposed rocky coast. 
Nature seems to have taken every precaution that these, her 
choicest treasures, may not lose value by being too easily obtained. 
First we find an open, harbourless, inhospitable coast, exposed to the 
full swell of the Pacific Ocean; next, a rugged and mountainous 
country, covered with dense forests, offering im its swamps and pre- 
cipices and serrated ridges an almost impassable barrier to the cen- 
tral regions; and lastly, a race of the most savage and ruthless 
character, in the very lowest stage of civilization. In such a country 
and among such a people are found these wonderful productions of 
nature. In those trackless wilds do they display that exquisite 
beauty and that marvellous development of plumage, calculated to 
excite admiration and astonishment among the most civilized and 
most intellectual races of man. A feather is itself a wonderful and 
a beautiful thing. A bird clothed with feathers is almost necessarily 
a beautiful creature. How much, then, must we wonder at and 
admire the modification of simple feathers into the rigid, polished, 
wavy ribbons which adorn P. rubra, the mass of airy plumes on 
P. apoda, the tufts and wires of Seleucides alba, or the golden buds 
borne upon airy stems that spring from the tail of Cicinnurus regius ; 
while gems and polished metals can alone compare with the tints 
that adorn the breast of Parotia sexsetacea and Astrapia nigra, and 
the immensely developed shoulder-plumes of Epimachus magnus. 
I will now point out the distribution of the species of Birds of 
Paradise, as far as I have been able to ascertain it. The Aru Islands 
contain P. apoda and P. regia; and we have no positive knowledge 
of P. apoda being found anywhere else. Mysol has P. papuana, P. 
regia, and P. magnifica; Waigiou P. rubra only. Salwatty, though 
so close to New Guinea, has no restricted Paradisee, but possesses 
P. regia, P. magnifica, Ep. albus, and Sericulus aureus. The island 
of Jobie, and the Mysory Islands beyond it, certainly contain true 
Paradisee ; but what species beyond P. papuana, is unknown. The 
coast districts of the northern part of New Guinea contain P. papuana 
and P. regia pretty generally distributed, while P. magnifica, P. alba, 
and Sericulus aureus are scarce and local. Lastly, the central moun- 
tains of the northern peninsula are alone inhabited by Lophorina 
superba, Parotia sexsetacea, Astrapia nigra, Epimachus magnus, 
and Craspedophora magnifica; and here also probably exist the 
unique Diphyllodes wilsoni and Paradigalla carunculata. 
The most widely distributed of the Paradisee is therefore the 
little P. regia, which is found in every island except Waigiou. Next, 
and probably most abundant in individuals, comes the P. papuana, 
