XXIII] 



LIFE IN LONDON 



387 



thirty-six years after its publication, its sale is equal to that 

 of any of the others. 



Having, as already described, brought home two living 

 birds of paradise, which were attracting much notice at the 

 Zoological Gardens, I thought it would be of interest to the 

 Fellows of the Society to give an outline of my various 

 journeys in search of these wonderful birds, and of the 

 reasons why I was, comparatively speaking, so unsuccessful. 

 This was the first paper I wrote after my return, and I read 

 it to the society on May 11. As it gives an account of 

 how I pursued this special object, and summarizes a number 

 of voyages, the description of which occupies six or seven 

 chapters of my " Malay Archipelago," and as it is not 

 accessible to general readers, I give the larger portion of it 

 here. 



NARRATIVE OF SEARCH AFTER BIRDS OF PARADISE. 



Having visited most of the islands inhabited by the paradise birds, in 

 the hope of obtaining good specimens of many of the species, and some 

 knowledge of their habits and distribution, I have thought that an outline 

 of my several voyages, with the causes that have led to their only partial 

 success, might not prove uninteresting. 



At the close of the year 1856, being then at Macassar, in the island of 

 Celebes, I was introduced to the master of a prau trading to the Aru 

 Islands, who assured me that two sorts of birds of paradise were abun- 

 dant there— the large yellow and the small red kinds — the Paradisea 

 apoda and P. regia of naturalists. 



He seemed to think there was no doubt but I could obtain them either 

 by purchase from the natives or by shooting them myself. Thus encou- 

 raged, I agreed with him for a passage there and back (his stay being 

 six months), and made all my preparations to start by the middle of 

 December. 



Our vessel was a Malay prau of about 100 tons burthen, but differing 

 widely from anything to be seen in European waters. The deck sloped 

 downwards towards the bows, the two rudders were hung by rattans and 

 ropes on the quarters, the masts were triangles standing on the decks, 

 and the huge mat sail, considerably longer than the vessel, with its yard 

 of bamboos, rose upwards at a great angle, so as to make up for the low- 

 ness of the mast. In this strange vessel, which, under very favourable 

 circumstances, plunged along at nearly five miles an hour, and with a 

 Buginese crew, all of whom seemed to have a voice in cases of difficulty 



