272 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



a band across the forehead and chin as far as the eye, 

 which is bright yellow. The beak is pale lead blue, and the 

 feet which are rather large and very strong and well formed, 

 are a pale ashy pink. The two middle feathers of the tail 

 have no webs, except a very small one at the base and at 

 the extreme tip, forming wire-like cirri, which spread out 

 in an elegant double curve, and vary from twenty-four to 

 thirty-four inches long. From each side of the body beneath 

 the wings, springs a dense tuft of long and delicate plumes, 

 sometimes two feet in length, of the most intense golden 

 orange colour, and very glossy, but changing towards the tips 

 into a pale brown. This tuft of plumage can be elevated 

 and spread out at pleasure so as almost to conceal the body 

 of the bird. These splendid ornaments are entirely confined 

 to the male sex; the female is a very plain and ordinary 

 looking bird. The male is generally seventeen or eighteen 

 inches from the beak to the tip of the tail." 

 Hunting the ^^ catching the Bird of Paradise, the natives 

 Bird oil take advantage of the apparent vanity of their 

 Paradise. victims. " In May when they are in full 

 plumage," says Mr. Wallace, " the males assemble early in the 

 morning to exhibit themselves in a most singular maimer. 

 This habit enables the natives to obtain specimens with 

 comparative ease. As soon as they find that the birds have 

 fixed upon a tree upon which to assemble, they build a 

 little shelter of palm leaves in a convenient place among the 

 branches, and the hunter ensconces himself in it before 

 daylight, armed with his bow and a number of arrows ter- 

 minating in a round nob. A boy waits at the foot of the tree, 

 and when the birds come at sunrise, and a sufficient num- 

 ber have assembled, and have begun to dance, the hunter 

 shoots with his blunt arrow so strongly as to stun the bird, 

 which drops down, and is secured and killed by the boy, 

 without its plumage being injured by a drop of blood. The 

 rest take no notice, and fall one after another till some of 



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