38



Mr. COLLINGWOOD INGRAM,



to the small wooden shanty that was to he our sleeping quarters for

the night.


Although from time to time we had received encouraging, if

somewhat conflicting, reports from the various people who had

chanced to visit the island, I confess I was not very sanguine of

seeing many Birds of Paradise. Surely, one argued, even if their

new surroundings had not proved uncongenial to them, the majority

must have flown across the narrow straits and become lost in the

forests of the main island


It was, therefore, with a sense of great relief that we pre¬

sently heard the well-known “wark-wark-wark ” of a Paraclisea, the

sound being carried to us faintly from a remote part of the island—

but the cry was unmistakable. So one, at least, had survived its

three years’ exile !


In a little while we heard a second bird calling from some

trees immediately behind the building. On being answered by its

fellow, this one rose from the forest and flew boldly across the

valley with a leisurely, Jay-like flight. In so doing it passed quite

near to us, and in the bright sunlight I could clearly discern the

details of its plumage. No side plumes were yet visible, but the

dark green plush-like growth on the throat pronounced it to be un¬

questionably a male.


In several parts of the island my father has had clearings

cut for the cultivation of papaws and bananas. The food supply

afforded by the fruits and the young vegetation of these compara¬

tively open spaces, seemed to attract nearly all the bird life on the

island, and it was to these places that we went in the evening, in

the hope of seeing something more of the Birds of Paradise. Nor

were we disappointed. We saw single birds on several occasions,

and once I observed as many as four together—two young males and,

if one could judge by their smaller size, two females.


* These side plumes do not appear before the fourth or fifth year (perhaps

even longer), and are then only retained for a comparatively short season.—C.I.


* In a letter which I read lately from some person evidently connected

with the plume trade, it was announced that the males do not breed after four

or five years of age, and that therefore they could be killed off. A convenient

but completely false statement. One expects this kind of argument from such

quarters ! ! — ED.



