352 WAIGIOU. [chap. XXXVI. 



able. I covered liim with my gun, and was going to use 

 the barrel which had a very small charge of powder and 

 number eight shot, so as not to injure his plumage, but 

 the gun missed fire, and he was off in an instant among 

 the thickest jungle. Another day we saw no less than 

 eight fine males at different times, and fired four times at 

 them ; but though other birds at the same distance almost 

 always dropped, these all got away, and I began to think 

 we were not to get this magnificent species. At length the 

 fruit ripened on the fig-tree close by my house, and many 

 birds came to feed on it ; and one morning, as I was taking 

 my coffee, a male Paradise Bird was seen to settle on its 

 top. I seized my gun, ran under the tree, and, gazing up, 

 could see it flying across from branch to branch, seizing a 

 fruit here and another there, and then, before I could get 

 a sufficient aim to shoot at such a height (for it was one of 

 the loftiest trees of the tropics), it was away into the 

 forest. They now visited the tree every morning; but 

 they stayed so short a time, their motions were so rapid, 

 and it was so difficult to see them, owing to the lower 

 trees, which impeded the view, that it was only after 

 several days' watching, and one or two misses, that I 

 brought down my bird — a male in the most magnificent 

 plumage. 



This bird differs very much from the two large species 

 which I had already obtained, and, although it wants the 



