394 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



will show that patience and perseverance were not altogether wanting ; 

 but I must plead guilty to having been misled, first by Lesson and then 

 by all the native traders, it never having occurred to me (and I think it 

 could not have occurred to any one), that in scarcely a single instance 

 would the birds be found to inhabit the districts in which they are most 

 frequently to be purchased. Yet such is the case ; for neither at Dorey, 

 nor at Salwatty, nor Waigiou, nor Mysol are any of the rarer species to 

 be found alive. Not only this, but even at Sorong, where the Waigiou 

 chiefs go every year and purchase all kinds of birds of paradise, it has 

 turned out that most of the specimens are brought from the central 

 mountain ranges by the natives, and reach the shore in places where it is 

 not safe for trading praus to go, owing to the want of anchorage on an 

 exposed rocky coast. 



Nature seems to have taken every precaution that these, her choicest 

 treasures, may not lose value by being too easily obtained. First, we find 

 an open, harbourless, inhospitable coast, exposed to the full swell of the 

 Pacific Ocean ; next, a rugged and mountainous country, covered with 

 dense forests, offering in its swamps and precipices and serrated ridges 

 an almost impassable barrier to the central regions ; and lastly, a race of 

 the most savage and ruthless character, in the very lowest stage of 

 civihzation. In such a country and among such a people are found 

 these wonderful productions of nature. In those trackless wilds do they 

 display that exquisite beauty and that marvellous development of 

 plumage, calculated to excite admiration and astonishment among the 

 most civilized and most intellectual races of men. A feather is itself a 

 wonderful and a beautiful thing. A bird clothed with feathers is almost 

 necessarily a beautiful creature. How much, then, must we wonder at and 

 admire the modification of simple feathers into the rigid, pohshed, wavy 

 ribbons which adorn Paradisea rubra, the mass of airy plumes on P. apoda, 

 the tufts and ^wires of Seleucides alba, or the golden buds borne upon 

 airy stems that spring from the tail of Cicinnurus regius ; while gems and 

 polished metals can alone compare with the tints that adorn the breast 

 of Parotia sexsetacea and Astrapia nigra, and the immensely developed 

 shoulder-plumes of Epimachus magnus. 



My next work was to describe five new birds from New 

 Guinea obtained by my assistant, Mr. Allen, during his 

 last visit there, and also seven new species obtained during 

 his visit to the north of Gilolo and Morty Island. I also 

 described three new species of the beautiful genus Pitta, 

 commonly called ground-thrushes, but more nearly allied to 

 the South American ant-thrushes (Formicariidae), or perhaps 

 to the Australian lyre-birds. I also began a series of papers 

 dealing with the birds of certain islands or groups of islands 

 for the purpose of elucidating the geographical distribution 



