552 



TUE BIRDS OF PAIUMSE, 



[cH. xi^irj. 



the full plumage is not acquired till the Inrd is four 

 years old. It was long tliouglit that the fine train of 

 feathers was assumed for a short time only at the breed- 

 ing se4ason, but my own experience, as well as tlie obser- 

 vation of birds of an allied species which I brought home 

 With, me, and which lived two years in this country, show 

 tlmt the complete plumage ia retained during the whole 

 year, except during a short period of moulting as with 

 most other birds. 



The Great Bird of Paradise is very active aod vigorous, 

 and seems to be in constant motion all clay long. It is 

 very abundant, small flocks of females and yoaug males 

 being constantly met with ; and though the fall-pluniaged 

 birds are less plentiful, their loud cries, which are heard 

 daily, show that they also are very numerous. Their 

 note is, " Wawk-wawk-wav\'k— Wi3k, wok-wok," and is so 

 loud and shrill as to be heard a great distance, imd to 

 torm the most promuient and characteristic animal sound 

 in the Am Islands. The mode of nidiBcation is un- 

 known ; but tlie natives told me that the nest was formed 

 of leaves placed on an ant's nest, or on some projecting 

 limb of a verj' lofty tree, and they believe that it contains 

 ouly one young bird. The egg is quite unknown, and the 

 natives declared they had never seen it ; and a very high 

 reward olTered for one by a Dutch official did not meet 

 with success. They moult about January or Febmarj*, and 

 in 3*Iay, wlien they are in full plunjage, the males assem- 

 ble early in the morning to exhibit themselves in the 

 singular manner ah-eady described at p. 4ri-3. This habit 

 enables the natives to obtain specimens with comparative 

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

 upon a tree on 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 l>eforQ 

 daylight, armed with his bow and a nnml^er of arrows 

 terminating in a round knob. A boy waits at the foot 

 of the tree, and when the birds come at sunrise, and a 

 ■suflicient nuriiber have assembled, and have begun to 

 dance, the hiuiter shoots with his blunt arrow so strongly 

 as to stun the bird, which drops down, and is secured 

 and killed by the boy witliout its plumage being injured 



