126 
BEAUTIFUL BIRDS. 
trees, whose ample foliage shelters it, and whose 
small fruit forms its nourishment. Its irides are 
bro\vn, and the feet are of a delicate azure. The 
Papuans call it Saya. 
The same author writes thus: — Soon after our 
arrival in this land of promise (New Griiinea) for the 
naturalist, I was on a shooting excursion. Scarcely 
had I walked some hundred paces in those ancient 
forests, the daughters of time, whose sombre depth 
was perhaps the most magnificent and stately sight 
that I have ever seen, when a Bird of Paradise 
struck my view; it fiew gracefully and in undula- 
tions, the feathers of its sides formed an elegant 
and aerial plume, which, without exaggeration, bore 
no remote resemblance to a brilliant meteor. Sur- 
prised, astounded, enjoying an inexpressible gratifica- 
tion, I devoured this splendid bird with my eyes ; but 
my emotion was so great that I forgot to slioot at it, 
and did not recollect that I had a gun in my hand 
till it was far away. One can scarcely have a just 
idea of the Paradise Birds from the skins which the 
Papuans sell to the Malays, and which come to us in 
Europe. These people formerly hunted the birds to 
decorate the turbans of their chiefs. They call them 
Mambefore in their tongue, and kill them during the 
night by climbing the trees where they perch, and 
shooting them with arrows made for the purpose, and 
very short, which they make with the stem of the 
leaves of a palm (Latanier). The campongs or 
villages of Mappia and of Emberbakene, are cele- 
brated for the quantity of birds which they prepare. 
Some, at the request of the Chinese merchants, are 
