CH. XXXVIII.] DIFFICULT TO OBTAIN. 425 



known to exist in the New Guinea district. The kinds 

 obtained are those that inhabit the coasts of New Guinea 

 and its islands, the remainder seeming to be strictly con- 

 fined to the central mountain-ranges of the northern 

 peninsula ; and our researches at Dorey and Amberbaki, 

 near one end of this peninsula, and at Salwatty and 

 Sorong, near the other, enable me to decide with some 

 certainty on the native country of these rare and lovely 

 birds, good specimens of which have never yet been seen 

 in Europe. 



It must be considered as somewhat extraordinary that, 

 during five years' residence and travel in Celebes, the 

 Moluccas, and New Guinea, I should never have been 

 able to purchase skins of half the species which Lesson, 

 forty years ago, obtained during a few weeks in the 

 same countries. I believe that all, except the common 

 species of commerce, are now much more difficult to obtain 

 than they were even twenty years ago ; and I impute it 

 principally to their having been sought after by the Dutch 

 officials through the Sultan of Tidore. The chiefs of the 

 annual expeditions to collect tribute have had orders to get 

 all the rare sorts of Paradise Birds ; and as they pay little 

 or nothing for them (it being sufficient to say they are for 

 the Sultan), the head men of the coast villages would 

 for the future refuse to purchase them from the moun- 

 taineers, and confine themselves instead to the commoner 



