24& 
CAPTAIN MORESBY'S DESCRIPTION. 
EMERALD BIRD OP PARADISE. 
to branch, or 
flying strongly 
with a loud 
whiiTing sound. 
He lives upon 
stone-bearing 
fruits ; and, 
says Wallace, 
often flutters 
his wings some- 
what in the 
fashion of the 
South Ameri- 
can manakirLS, 
— at which 
time he elevates and expands the graceful 
fan-like plumes with which his breast is adorned. 
He has an extraordinary voice. At earh^ morn, 
before even the sun has risen, a cry of " Wauk, 
wauk, wauk ' wok, wok, wok ! " resounds through 
the forest; thus he appears to signal to all the 
feathered tribes that it is time to be up and 
doing. 
Here is Captain Moresby's description of the 
king bird : — "This bird, only lately becoming known 
at home, is as large as a small thrush ; the back, 
glossy crimson; the head-feathers being soft and deep in 
tone like velvet; the throat crimson, and separated from the pure white 
breast by a wide band of green. He has the long wire-tail of all birds of 
paradise ; terminating, however, in two circular feathers, about the size 
of a sixpenny-piece, of a burnished green. But his peerless ornaments 
are two small feather ftms, of intense emerald colour, set in the upper 
joint of the wing, and capable of being spread or folded at pleasure." 
Let us pass on to another of these fairy ci-eatures — "the great" 
