NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 
551 
season, when the natives kill most of them, they assemble, and are easily obtained. The 
cry ‘ wauk,’ is not so far removed from such cries as those of the Rook and others of the 
Corvidae, to which the Paradise Birds are allied. The voices of birds need, however, no 
more necessarily be a test of the pedigrees of the birds themselves, than need language 
be a test of true race connection amongst mankind. 
“ In the case of the other smaller species of Paradise Birds found in the Arrou Islands, 
the King Bird ( Cicinnurus regius), the males in full plumage seemed as common as the 
simple brown young males and females. The natives knew these latter well, as forms 
of the brilliant red bird, though so vastly different, and several times pointed them out 
to me, as 4 Gobi, gobi,’ their name for the King Bird. The King Birds were even 
more abundant at Wanumbai than the larger species. The males when settled in the 
trees constantly uttered a cry which is very like that of the Wryneck or Cuckoo’s 
Mate. I saw most of them in the lower trees of the forest, at about 30 feet from the 
ground. One shot by Mr. Abbott, one of the Challenger engineers, when in Wokan, 
hovered and hopped for some time about a mass of creepers hanging from a large tree, 
apparently searching for insects, and as it hovered, it showed its bright scarlet back like 
a flash of fire. Usually the bird sitting on the twigs and seen from below shows none 
of its beauty. The birds seem very tame, but like the Rifle Bird and the Great Bird of 
Paradise, are usually in constant motion. One full-plumagecl bird sat on a twig about four 
feet from the ground, and looked at me for a while at not more than three yards distance, 
and then darted away, more out of natural impulse, I imagine, than fear. I shot five 
of the birds in one day. One of them had the wonderful spiral green tail feathers, only 
just growing out. The bright lapis-lazuli blue colour of the birds’ legs and feet when 
fresh greatly enhances its beauty. Luckily the skin of the Paradise Birds is tough, and 
I found the King Bird easy to skin. The short red feathers encr'oach on the base of the 
bill on its upper surface, in an unusual manner, the tip of the bill only being free, and 
this gives the head a curious appearance.” 
The coral rock of Wokan Island is exposed in section on the shore not far from Dobbo, 
in a cliff about 1 1 feet in height. The strata are inclined towards the sea at an angle 
of about 20°. Inland, the surface is marked by a series of ridges of small elevation, 
and from the presence of numerous bivalve shells, seems to have been raised above sea level. 
There is a freshwater stream not far from Wanumbai, which flows over the coral 
rock, overhung by dense vegetation. In the bed of the stream, a constant deposit of 
carbonate of lime is taking place, and the bed is partitioned into a series of pools, 
separated by ridges and projections of stalactite-like substance, which lines also the 
pools themselves. 
The following account of the weather at Dobbo was obtained from the Malays : — 
The southeast monsoon commences early in May, and continues until the end of 
(nare. chall. exp. — vol. i. — 1885.) 70 
