586 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



InseBsores. perish, being unable to rise again owing to the peculiar 

 v "-"~v-~— ' structure of their wings. They also always fly against 

 the wind, lest their flowing plumage should be discom- 

 posed. While flying they make a noise like starlings, 

 but their common cry rather resembles that of a raven, 

 and is very audible in windy weather, when they dread the 

 chance of being thrown upon the ground. In the Aru 

 Islands they are seen to perch on lofty trees, and are va- 

 riously captured by the inhabitants, with bird-lime, snares, 

 and blunted arrows. Though many are taken alive, they 

 are always killed immediately, embowelled, the feet cut 

 off, the plumed skins fumigated with sulphur, and then dried 

 for sale. The Dutch ships frequenting the sea between 

 New Guinea and Aru, a distance of about twenty miles, 

 not unfrequently observe flocks of paradise birds crossing 

 from one to the other of these places, but constantly against 

 the wind. Should a gale arise, they ascend to a great 

 height, into the regions of perpetual calm, and there pur- 

 sue their journey. With respect to their food we have 

 little certain information from the older authors, some of 

 whom assert they prey on small birds, a supposition which 

 Dr Shaw inclines to think is favoured by their strength of 

 bill and legs, and the vigour with which they act in self- 

 defence. They are also said to feed on fruits and berries; 

 and Linnaeus says they devour the larger butterflies. 1 



We owe the following observations to M. Gaimard, one of 

 the naturalists who accompanied the expedition of Cap- 

 tain Freycinet, and who having had an opportunity of seeing 

 several living birds of paradise in the island of Waigiou, 

 has furnished us with some interesting details. He says that 

 they appear to prefer to all other places the most dense and 

 secluded portions of the forests. When the heavens are 

 clear, they perch habitually on the summits of the tallest 

 trees. They fly with rapidity, but in an undulating man- 

 ner, as is usual with birds which are adorned with long 

 decomposed or disunited feathers ; and he confirms the 

 old account, that the luxuriant length of their superb plu- 

 mage induces them always to fly in the direction from which 

 the wind proceeds. " Cette manoeuvre," he observes, " est 

 pour eux tres-naturelle, puisqu'elle maintient les longues 

 plumes appliquees contre le corps ; dans une direction con- 

 traire, le vent ne manquerait pas d'etaler et de relever ces 

 plumes, et il en resulterait necessairement un grand em- 

 barras dans le jeu des ailes." Their total disappearance 

 on the approach of any storm or tempest shows their con- 

 scious weakness. In other respects, however, they are 

 courageous, and even vindictive, pursuing fiercely any sup- 

 posed enemy, however superior to themselves in strength 

 of bill and talons. There is no instance, Captain Freycinet 

 supposes (we now know he does so erroneously), of their 

 being ever reduced to the domestic state ; and they are 

 never found caged by any natives of the Papous, where 

 they are by no means rare, and where their skins form the 

 principal object of commercial exchange between the in- 

 sular inhabitants and the Chinese Indians or eastern Euro- 

 peans. Authors (we speak not of those who assert that birds 

 of paradise are nourished by dew, or by the perfume which 

 exhales from fruits and flowers) have assigned different 

 diets to these birds. Some say that they search for fruits 

 and nectarous juices ; others that they capture insects, 

 and such small prey. There is truth in both statements, 

 for it seems ascertained that they feed alike on fruits and 

 insects. As to all those anxious interesting cares which 

 precede, accompany, or follow incubation, — these and many 

 other important particulars in their history are still un- 

 known. The natives of New Guinea, in preparing the 

 skins, content themselves by removing the fleshy mass of 

 the body, and cutting off the two wings and legs. They 

 then pais a piece of stick through the mouth downwards 



to the tail. Few of the museums of Europe contain any Insessores, 

 other specimens than these mutilated remains, which the '-"""ya^ 

 gorgeous flowing feathers of the sides render still worthy 

 of admiration, however unfit to convey a true idea of the 

 natural state. 



We shall next extract some interesting information from 

 a work by M. Lesson, one of the few European naturalists 

 who have had an opportunity of beholding these extraordi- 

 nary creatures in their native haunts. " Les paradisiers 

 ou du moins 1'emeraude, seule espece sur laquelle nous pos- 

 sedons des renseignemens authentiques, vivent en bandes 

 dans les vastes forets du pays des Papous, group d'iles 

 situ6es sous l'equateur, et qui se compose des lies Arou, 

 de Waigiou, et de la grande terre nominee Nouvelle-Gui- 

 nee. Ces sont des oiseaux de passage qui changent de dis- 

 trict suivant les moussons. Les femelles se reunissent en 

 troupes, s'assemblent sur les sommites des plus grands ar- 

 bres des forets, crient toutes a la fois pour appeler les 

 m&les. Ceux-ci sont toujours solitaires au milieu d'une 

 quinzaine de femelles qui composent leur serail, a la ma- 

 niere des gallinacees. 



" J'extrairai de mon journal inedit les details suivans, 

 relatifs aux oiseaux de paradis : ils ont ete ecrits sur les 

 lieux. Journal Ms., t. vi. p. 19 et suiv. Les oiseaux de 

 paradis, a l'exception de deux especes, nous etaient ap- 

 portes par les Papous, ce qui etablit entre eux et nous un 

 commerce actif d'echange. Je me procurai 1'emeraude, le 

 manucode, le loriot paradis orange, le sifilet, le superbe, 

 les epimaques promefils, et a paremens frises, le magni- 

 fique, et le rouge. La quantite que les naturels de ces con- 

 trees apportaient a bord de la corvette la Coquille doit 

 faire supposer que ces oiseaux, si estimes en Europe, y sont 

 singulierement multiplies. Le manucode se presentadeux 

 fois dans nos chasses, et nous tuames le male et la femelle. 

 Cette espece parait monogame, ou peut-etre n'est elle iso- 

 lee par paires qu'au moment de la ponte. Dans les bois cet 

 oiseau n'a point d'eclat ; son plumage rouge de feu ne le de- 

 cele point, et sa femelle n'a que des teintes ternes. II aime a 

 se tenir sur lesarbres de teck, dont le large feuillage l'abrite, 

 et dont le petit fruit forme sa nourriture. II a l'iris brun, 

 et les pieds d'un bleu d'azur tres tendre. Les Papous lc 

 nomment saya. Des les premiers jours de notre arrivee 

 sur cette terre de promission (la Nouvelle-Guinee) pour 

 le naturaliste, je fus a la chasse. A peine avais-je fait 

 quelques centaines de pas dans ces vieilles forets, filles du 

 temps, dont la sombre profondeur est peut-etre le plus 

 magnifique et le plus pompeux spectacle que j'aie jamais 

 vu, qu'un oiseau de paradis frappa mes regards ; il volait 

 avec grace et par ondulations ; les plumes de ses flancs 

 formaient un panache gracieux et aerien, qui, sans hyper- 

 bole, ne ressemblait pas mal a un brillant meteore. Sur- 

 pris, emerveille, eprouvant une jouissance inexprimable, je 

 devorais des yeux ce magnifique oiseau ; mais mon trouble 

 fut si grand que j'oubliai de le tirer, et que je ne m'aper- 

 cus que j'avais un fusil que lorsqu'il etait deja bien loin. 

 On ne pourrait guere avoir une idee exacte des paradis 

 d'apres les peaux que les Papous vendent aux Malais, et 

 qui nous parviennent en Europe. Ces peuples chasserent 

 primitivement ces oiseaux pour decorer les turbans de leur 

 chefs. Ils les nomment mambefore dans leur langue, et 

 les tuent pendant la nuit, en grimpant le long des arbres 

 ou ilsse couchent, etles tirant avec des fleches faites expres 

 et tres courtes, qu'ils faconnent avec le rachis des feuilles 

 d'un latanier. Les campongs ou villages de Mappia et 

 &' Emberbakene sont celebres par la quantite des oiseaux 

 qu'ils preparent, et tout l'art des habitans se borne a leur 

 arracher les pieds, a les ecorcher, a leur fourrer un ba- 

 tonnet a travers du corps, et a les dessecher a la fumee. 

 Quelques uns plus adroits, et sollicites par les trafiquans 





Shaw's General Zoology, vol. vii. p. 482-4. 



