CHAP- xxxiT,} SCARCirr OF PAKAJJI^J- Bin US. 507 



now returned ii-oiii Aiuberbaki, hut, alas ! bron«,Hit me 

 almost nothing. They had visited se%'eral villages, aud 

 even went two days' jouniBy ieto the interior, but could 

 liud no skins of Birds of Paradise to purchase, except the 

 common kind, and very few even of those. The birds 

 found were the same as at Dorey, but were still scaixier. 

 None of the natives anpvhere near the coast shoot or 

 prepare Bii^s of Paradise, which come fi*om far in the 

 interior over two or thme ranges of mouutmus, passini; 

 by barter fmm villan;e to village till tliey reach the sea. 

 There the natives of Dorey buy them, and on their return 

 home sell them to the Bngis or Ternate tradei^. it in 

 therefore hopeless for a traveller to go to any particular 

 place on the coast of New Guinea where rare Paiudise 

 birds may have been bought, in hopes of obtaining freshly 

 kOied specimens from the natives ; and it also shows the 

 scarcity of these birds in any one locality, since from the 

 Aniberbaki district, a celebrated place, where at least five 

 or six species have been procured, not one of the nirer 

 ones has been obtained tliis year. TJie Prince of Tidore, 

 who would certaiidy have got them if any were to be had, 

 was obliged to put up with a few of the common yellow 

 ones. I think it probable that a longer residence at Dorey, 

 a little farther in the mteiior, might siiow that several 

 of the rarer kiuds were fouud there, as I obtained a single 

 female of the tine scale-breiisted Ptiloris magnificus, 1 w^as 

 told at Ternate of a bird that is certainly not yet known 

 in Europe, a black Kiug Paradise Bml, %vith the curled 

 tail and beautiful side phimes of the common species, but 

 all the rest of the plumage glossy black. The people of 

 Dorey knew nothing about this, although they recognised 

 by description most of the other species. 



Wlitiu the steamer left, I wiis sutteriug from a severe 

 attack of fever. In about a week I got over this, but it 

 was followed by such a ooreness of the whole inside of the 

 mouth, tongue, and gums, that for many days I could put 

 nothing soUd between my lips, but was obliged to subsist 

 entirely on slops, although in other inspects v^Ty welL At 

 tiie same time two of my men again fell ill, f>ne with fever, 

 tlie othiT with dysentery, and both uut very had. I did 

 what 1 could for them with uiy small 4;tock of medicines. 



