J862.] OF HIS SEARCH AFTER BIRDS OF PARADISE. 155 



the inhabitants assured me that not a single Bird of Paradise of any- 

 kind was ever prepared by the Dorey people, and that only the com- 

 mon yellow one (P. papuana) was found in the district. This turned 

 out to be the case; for I could get nothing but P. papuana sparingly, a 

 few females of P. regia, and one young male of Seleucides alba, a spe- 

 cies Lesson does not mention. Nevertheless Lesson did undoubtedly 

 obtain all the birds he mentions at Dorey ; but the natives are great 

 traders in a petty way, and are constantly making voyages along the 

 coast and to the neighbouring islands, where they purchase Birds of 

 Paradise and sell them again to the Bugis praus, Molucca traders, 

 and whale-ships which annually visit Dorey harbour. Lesson must 

 have been there at a good time, when there happened to be an accu- 

 mulation of birds ; I at a bad one, for I could not buy a single rare 

 bird all the time I was there. I also suffered much by the visit of 

 a Dutch surveying- steamer, which, for want of coals, lay in Dorey 

 harbour a month ; and during that time I got nothing from the 

 natives, every specimen being taken on board the steamer, where the 

 commonest birds and insects were bought at high prices. During 

 this time two skins of Astrapia nigra were brought by a Bugis 

 trader and sold to an amateur ornithologist on board ; and I never 

 had another chance of getting a skin of this rare and beautiful bird. 



The Dorey people all agreed that Amberbaki, about 100 miles 

 west, was the place for Birds of Paradise, and that almost all the 

 different sorts were to be found there. Determined to make an effort 

 to secure them, I sent my two best men with ten natives and a large 

 stock of goods to stay there a fortnight, with instructions to shoot 

 and buy all they could. They returned, however, with absolutely 

 nothing. They could not buy any skins but those of the common 

 P. papuana, and could not find any birds but a single specimen of 

 P. regia. They were assured that the birds all came from two or 

 three days' journey in the interior, over several ridges of mountains, 

 and were never seen near the coast. The coast people never go there 

 themselves, nor do the mountaineers who kill and preserve them ever 

 come to the coast, but sell them to the inhabitants of intermediate 

 villages, where the coast people go to buy them. These sell them to 

 the Dorey people or any other native traders ; so that the specimens 

 Lesson purchased had already passed through three or four hands. 



These disappointments, with a scarcity of food sometimes ap- 

 proaching starvation, and almost constant sickness both of myself 

 and men, one of whom died of dysentery, made me heartily glad when 

 the schooner returned and took me away from Dorey. I had gone 

 there with the most brilliant hopes, which I think were fully justi- 

 fied by the facts known before my visit ; and yet, as far as my special 

 object (the Birds of Paradise) was concerned, I had accomplished 

 next to nothing. 



My ardour for New Guinea voyages being now somewhat abated, 

 for the next year and a half I occupied myself in the Moluccas ; but 

 in January 1860, being joined (when at Amboyna) by my assistant 

 Mr. Allen, I arranged a plan for the further exploration of the 

 country of the Paradisece, by sending Mr. Allen to Mysol, while I 



