244 IN THE ARU WOODS. 
fro ; dull-coloured little lizards glide across the wood-path ; snowy 
cockatoos terrify echo with their harsh, resonant scream ; and, listen ! 
" Wauk! wauk!" that's the "great " bird of paradise ; Whreece ! that is 
the little " king " bird ; now the note of a pigeon is heard booming low; 
yonder chatter a flock of lorriquets ; and on the dark coral shores blue 
kingfishers and lonely gray herons 
ai"e on the look-out for fish. 
Soon, says Lord George Campbell, 
describing a ramble through the 
island-forest, — soon we came to an 
open spot whei'e the undergrowth 
had been cleared away, leaving a 
few tall trees, bare of leaf, among 
the top branches of which large 
swifts and lorriquets were flying, 
when suddenly alighted on a branch 
a chocolate - coloured bird ; some 
person fired, and down he came — a 
young male of the "gi-eat" bird, but 
without the glory of his plumage. 
High up in a tree could be seen 
tlie leaf- roof beneath which the 
native hunters conceal themselves 
while watching for the arrival oi 
the paradise - birds, shooting them, 
one by one, with silent, blunt- 
headed arrow. " I saw a few ' goby- 
gobies,' and shot one. They fly 
quickly among the lower branches ; and, of course, in the woods, unless 
they remain for some time near one spot and close by you, their rare 
beauty is hardly recognized. Their colouring is exquisite : snow-white 
breast, green band round the throat, and crimson about the body; while 
from the tail two stifl", bare shafts fall down, ending in flat spirals, 
coloured metallic green; and under the wings are two emerald tufts 
of feathers, visible when the wings are outstretched. But in these 
