INTRODUCTION. 



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remote period these two divisions, Moluccan and Papuan, were doubtless united, and also the continent of Australia 

 was joined to New Guinea ; and in the vast extent of land thus forming one mighty continent the Birds of 

 Paradise found their home. That portion of it now known as the island of New Guinea, however, was 

 probably most suited, in its formation, climate, and productions, to the sustenance and development of these birds ; 

 for at the present day so many species still inhabit it that we must look upon that island as the district in 

 which the family had its origin. 



That a great length of time has elapsed since this continent was divided and its northern portion broken 

 up into large and small islands as we now see it, is very evident from the presence in some of these groups 

 of various forms of animal life that are restricted to certain of the smaller islands, and which present characters 

 not seen elsewhere. In the case of the Paradiseidae, for instance, there is the notable example of the Semioptera 

 W allacii, which is only found in Batchian and Gilolo of the Moluccan group, and nowhere else to my knowledge, 

 thus showing that these two islands have been separated from New Guinea a sufficient length of time to 

 produce a creature differing in its generic as well as its specific characters from any form of bird-life that 

 existed when these islands were not isolated from their great neighbour. In the same way the non-presence, 

 in the smaller islands, of certain species which are now living in New Guinea and were also existing as we 

 may fairly suppose, when all the groups were united, may be accounted for by the fact that, as most of the 

 Paradiseidse are dwellers in mountain-ranges, some of very high altitudes, only those individuals of existing New-Guinea 

 species which met with similar physical conditions of climate, food, and soil, in the islands to which they found 

 themselves perhaps suddenly restricted, would be able to maintain life in an unchanged form — and that when- 

 ever they became exposed to influences different from those to which they had always been accustomed, they 

 either succumbed and disappeared altogether, or else became adapted to their new home by the gradual assumption 

 of a different form more suitable to their changed mode of existence. It is only in this manner that we can 

 account for the restricted habitats of some species of this family, and for the fact that others with no greater powers 

 for passing over considerable distances are inhabitants of more than one island. The species of the family of the 

 Birds of Paradise are restricted in their distribution, then, to New Guinea and to several of the islands in its 

 immediate vicinity, with a few outlying branches upon the neighbouring continent of Australia. To commence with 

 the district which we may call par excellence the home of the Birds of Paradise, we find the mountain-ranges of 

 the interior of New Guinea are the sole habitat of the following species -.—Paradisea Eaggiana, Astrapia nigra, 

 Parotia sexpennis, Lophorina atra, Paradigalla canmcidata, Epimachus speciosus, Epimachus Ellioti, Drepanornis 

 Albertisi, Ptiloris paradisea, Chlamydodera xauthogastra, and Amblyornis inornata, none of which have ever been met 

 with at any point on the coast. Our knowledge of these species had always been confined to mutilated native skins 

 until about a year ago, when M. von Rosenberg and, still later, M. d'Albertis procured the "birds in the interior, 

 some at an elevation of from 4000 to 5000 feet. Of the other species inhabiting the same island, Xanthomelus 

 aureus and Manucodia atra have been procured on the coast near to Dorey, and Ptiloris magnificus at both Dorey 

 and the environs of the Bay of Lobo. On the north-eastern coast Paradisea minor, Diphyllodes speciosa, Cicinnurus 

 regius, Manucodia chahjbea, and JElurwdus bnccoides have been met with. Seleucides alba has been obtained at the 

 head of the great Bay of Geelwink ; and Mr. Allen, Mr. Wallace's assistant, also procured the same species amono- 

 the mountains behind Sorong, a place on the mainland, nearly opposite the island of Salwatty; and it is possible 

 that this beautiful species may inhabit the whole extent of territory between these two points. The singular species 

 known as Paradigalla carunculata has been obtained only by Lesson, when at New Guinea during the voyage of the 

 'Bonite;' and its exact habitat is not as yet known. At Sorong, also on the north-west coast, the beautiful little 

 Cicinnurus regius has been procured, together with the Diphyllodes speciosa, Manucodia. Keraudreni, and Paradisea 

 minor. The island of Salwatty, lying closest to New Guinea, possesses no species peculiar to itself, but contains 

 only those that are met with on the mainland nearest to its position. They are Cicinnurus regius, Diphyllodes 

 speciosa, Seleucides alba, Manucodia atra, Xanthomelus aureus, and AElurcedus buccoides. The island of Mysol, lying 

 to the south-west of Salwatty, has three species of this family, viz. Paradisea minor, Cicinnurus regius, and Diphyllodes 

 speciosa, and is apparently the furthest point westward that any of the Paradiseae reach. Batanta, lying close to 

 and north of Salwatty, contains three species— the Paradisea sanguinea, Diphyllodes respublica, and Jtturcedus 

 buccoides, all of which are also inhabitants of Waigiou— which is rather singular, as Batanta, in its geographical 

 position, lies much nearer to Salwatty ; but the presence of these Birds of Paradise within its confines would seem 



