The true Parachsea minor is found in the mountains of North-western New Guinea, especially in the 
Arfak district, having been procured at Andai, Mansema, Profi, and Mori by Dr. Beccari and Mr. Bruijn’s 
hunters. Signor d’Albertis met with it at Emberbaki, and Dr. Beccari at Wa Samson and Dorei Hum. 
Dr. A. R. Wallace obtained specimens at Dorei, and he believes that the species is found on Salawati. 
The same traveller met with it in the island of Mysol. Solomon Muller noticed the species at Lobo and 
on the Atanata River, and the Hon. Walter Rothschild possesses specimens from Etna Bay and Kapaur. 
It seems to occur both in the vicinity of the coast-region and on the high mountains as well, as it was 
found on the Arfak ranges near Profi and Mori by Dr. Beccari and by Mr. Bruijn’s hunters at a height 
of 3400 feet. 
A full account of the various observations of the habits of this species will be found in Count Salvadori’s 
‘ Ornitologia della Papuasia ’ and in Mr. Elliot’s ‘ Monograph of the Paradiscidae,’ arid I quote the most 
important of these observations in the present work. 
Lesson’s note is as follows, and deals with bis experiences as Naturalist on board the ‘Coquille’: — 
“ The small Emerald Bird of Paradise has the vivacious and agile movements and has much of the manners 
of a Crow. In the forests that it inhabits it seeks the summits of the tallest trees, and it descends to the 
lower branches to search for its food or to escape from the rays of the sun. It shuns the heat and loves 
the shade of the thick and bushy foliage of the teak-trees. It rarely leaves these trees in the middle of the 
day; and it is only in the morning and evening that it is seen seeking its food. Ordinarily, when it 
believes itself to be alone, it utters a sharp cry, frequently repeated, which can be imitated by the syllables 
wake, wake, voako, strongly articulated. These cries, at the time of our sojourn in New Guinea in July, 
appeared to us to be a call for the females, which were in parties of twenty individuals and responded 
from the surrounding trees, in a similar manner to the love-call. Never among these troops did we 
see more than one male strutting proudly in the midst of these plainly apparelled individuals, whilst he, 
plumed dandy, resembled a cock who shouts victory after having beaten a rival and gained the sovereignty 
of a poultry-yard. Is the little Emerald Bird of Paradise, then, a polygamist? or is the disproportionate 
number of females owing to the continual chase after the males, which causes this scarcity, whilst the 
females are neglected and allowed to live in peace without fear of man, having only to protect themselves 
from their natural enemies the beasts of the w'oods ? Attracted by this wake, voako, we found it easy 
in our expeditions to follow the birds, discover and kill many. The first one we saw astonished us so 
much that the gun remained at rest in our hand, so great was our surprise. We walked with care in 
the tracks made by the wild boars in the thick and leafy forests in the neighbourhood of Dorey, when a 
male of this species passed over our heads with graceful and soft flight, and seemed to us like a meteor, of 
which the fiery tail left behind it a long streak of light. When an unaccustomed sound strikes the ear of 
the bird its note ceases and its movements are suspended, so that it becomes absolutely passive and remains 
hiding in the deep foliage which conceals it from the view of the hunter ; but if the sound continues, it 
soon flies away. It perches upon the highest branches of the loftiest trees of New Guinea, and it is very 
difficult to shoot without using long-range guns. When it is only wounded it expires in the thickets ; 
however, we happened one day to find, dying upon the banks of a pond in the bed of a half-dried torrent, 
one of the birds which had been wounded the day before. It is, then, in the evening or, better, the 
morning that the hunter must be on the watch, after having carefully reconnoitred the trees filled with 
fruit, to which the Paradise-birds resort. There, perfectly still, he awaits patiently the advent of the 
Birds of Paradise, soon foretold by their harsh and loud cry. At the time of our stay in this land of 
promise for naturalists (from the 29th of July to the 9th of August), these birds searched for the fleshy 
buds of the teak-trees, but above all for the pinky white, very mucilaginous fruits of the fig-tree (Amiliou). 
We always found insects in their crops, and during our sojourn in Amboina two living specimens, 
which we saw alive at the house of a rich Chinese merchant, were fed with large cockroaches and 
boiled rice.” 
Dr. A. R. Wallace writes in his ‘ Malay Archipelago ’ : — “The true Paradise-birds are omnivorous, 
feeding on fruit and insects — of the former preferring small figs ; of the latter, grasshoppers, locusts, 
and phasmas, as cockroaches and caterpillars. When I returned home, in 1862, I was so fortunate as 
to find two adult males of this species in Singapore ; and as they seemed healthy, and fed voraciously 
on rice, bananas, and cockroaches, I determined on giving a very high price asked for them — £100 — 
and to bring them to England by the overland route under my own care. On my way home I 
stayed a week at Bombay to break the journey and to lay in a fresh stock of bananas for my birds. 
