550 
THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
similar knobbed arrows are used in South America by certain tribes, to kill Trogons and 
other fine plumagecl birds. One man brought for sale a large Bird of Paradise, dried in the 
usual manner, but he wanted the full price for it asked by the Chinese dealers at Dobbo. 
Mr. Moseley writes of this excursion as follows : — “ I procured two guides, a man and 
a boy, and promised them a florin for every Bird of Paradise that I shot. I had 
previously been in pursuit of the birds at Wokan, but they were not so common there, 
and I believe that the native guides did not exert themselves to show us the birds, as 
they no doubt regard them more or less as property, and a source of wealth. 
“ My first acquaintance with the great Bird of Paradise ( Paradisea apoda ) was at 
Wokan. I was making my way through the forest with a guide in the very early morning, 
when a flock of birds flew by in the misty light, passing right over my head. They flew 
somewhat like a flock of jackdaws, and I was disgusted to realize when too late that they 
were a flock of the very birds I was in search of. I did not fire for fear of disturbing the 
woods. I heard them cry soon after ‘ wauk, w.auk,’ but could not come up with them. 
“ At Wanumbai with my guides, I first encountered a number of Fruit Bats, which 
were on the wing in the early morning, and I killed one with a young one hanging at 
its breast. We soon heard the cry of the great Bird of Paradise, ‘wauk, wauk.’ I 
crept up within shot with my guides several times, but as usual, though they saw the 
bird plainly amongst the foliage, I could not make it out in time, though I saw the 
leaves rustle, and I did not want to fire without making sure. The guides, in view of the 
florin, were as excited as I was, and kept seizing my arm and pointing, ‘ burong mate, 
burong mate,’ but away went the bird without showing itself to me. The birds seemed 
to keep constantly on the move in the trees, hopping from branch to branch, and were 
very quick and silent in their flight away to a fresh spot. Several times I saw them 
amongst the branches of trees so high that it was useless to shoot at them, for my 
cartridges, specially prepared with nearly four drachms of powder, had no effect. The 
birds seemed to be as .often single as in companies, and were evidently on the feed in 
the early morning. At last a hen bird flew up off' the ground close to me, with a small 
lizard in her beak, and pitched on a dead branch to eat it, and I shot her. But, of course, 
what I wished was a male in full plumage. This, however, was not to be obtained, 
for not a single one was shot. It is remarkable what a very large proportion of young 
males and females of the great Bird of Paradise there seems to be, to the comparatively 
small number of males in full dress. I believe I saw one at the top of a high tree, 
but am not certain. Probably the old males are warier, being often hunted, and keep 
out of the way. They require four or five years to develop full dress . 1 At the breeding 
1 It is improbable that Paradisea apoda loses its breeding plumage as soon as the breeding season is over. 
Paradisea minor, as has been observed in the case of specimens kept in confinement in the Zoological Gardens, London, 
certainly loses its plumes only at the moulting season, like other richly ornamented birds. Paradisea apoda moults, 
according to Wallace, in January or February, and is in full plumage in May. At all events there must have remained 
birds with plumes in September. 
