185 
THE BIRDS OF PARADISE. 
The Great Bird of Paradise is very active 
and vigorous, and seems to be in constant mo¬ 
tion all day long. It is very abundant, small 
flocks of females and young males being con¬ 
stantly met n itb ; and tbougb the full-idumaged 
birds are less plentiful, their loud cries, which 
are heard daily, show that they also are very 
numerous. Their note is, “ Wawk-wawk-wawk 
—Wok, wok-wok,” and is so loud and shrill as to 
be heard a great distance, and to form the most 
prominent and characteristic animal sound in 
the Am Islands. The mode of niditication is 
unknown ; but the natives told me that the nest 
was formed of leaves placed on an ant’s nest, or 
on some projecting limb of a very lofty tree, 
and they believe that it contains only one young 
bird. The egg is quite unknown, and the na¬ 
tives declared they had never seen it; and a 
very high reward oftered for one by a Dutch 
official did not meet with success. 
They moult about January or February, and 
in ]\Iay, when they are in full plumage, the 
males assemble early in the morning to exhibit 
themselves in the singular manner which the 
natives call their “ Saceleli,” or dancing-parties, 
in certain trees in the forest, which are not fruit 
trees as I at first imagined, but which have an 
immense head of spreading branches and large 
but scattered leaves, giving a clear space for 
the birds to play and exhibit their plumes. On 
one of these trees a dozen or twenty full-plu- 
maged male birds assemble together, raise up 
their wings, stretch out their necks, and elevate 
their exquisite plumes, keeping them in a con¬ 
tinual vibration. Between whiles they fly across 
from branch to branch in great excitement, so 
that the whole tree is filled with waving plumes 
in every variety of attitude and motion. The 
bird itself is nearly as large as a crow, and is 
of a rich coffee-brown color. The head and 
neck is of a pure straw-yellow above, and rich 
metallic green beneath. The long plumy tufts 
of golden-orange feathers spring from the sides 
beneath each wing, and when the bird is in re¬ 
pose are partly concealed by them. At the 
time of its excitement, however, the wings are 
raised vertically over the back, the head is bent 
down and stretched out, and the long plumes are 
raised up and expanded till they form two mag¬ 
nificent golden fans, striped witli deep red at 
the base, and fixding off into the pale brown 
tint of the finely divided and softly waving 
points. The whole bird is then overshadowed 
by them, the crouching body, yellow head, and 
emerald-green throat forming but the founda¬ 
tion and setting to the golden glory which waves 
above. When seen in this Attitude the Bird 
of Paradise really deserves its name, and must 
be ranked as one of the most beautiful and most 
wonderful of living things. 
This habit enables the natives to obtain speci¬ 
mens with comparative ease. As soon as they 
find that the birds have fixed upon a tree on 
which to assemble, they build a little shelter of 
palm leaves in a convenient place among the 
branches, and the hunter ensconces himself ini 
it before daylight, armed with his bow and a 
number of tirrows terminating in a round knob. 
A boy waits at the foot of the tree, and when 
the birds come at sunrise, and a sufficient num¬ 
ber have assembled, and have begun to dance, 
the hunter shoots with his blunt arrow so strong¬ 
ly as to stun the bird, which dro])s down, and 
is secured and killed by the boy without its jilu- 
mage being injured by a droj) of blood. 'J'lie 
rest take no notice, and fall one after another 
till some of them take the alarm. 
The native mode of preserving them is to cut 
off the wings and feet, and then skin the body 
up to the beak, taking out the skull. A stout 
stick is then run up through the s])ecimcn, com¬ 
ing out at the mouth. Round this some leaves 
are stuffed, and the whole is wrapped up in a 
palm spathe and dried in the smoky hut. By 
this plan the head, which is really large, is 
shrunk up almost to nothing, the body is much 
reduced and shortened, and the greatest prom¬ 
inence is given to the flowing jtlumage. Some 
of these native skins are very clean, and often 
have wings and feet left on; others are dread¬ 
fully stained with smoke, and all give a most erro¬ 
neous idea of the proportions of the living bird. 
The Paradisea apoduj as far as we have any 
certain knowledge, is confined to the main land 
of the Am Islands, never being found in the 
smaller islands which surround the central mass. 
It is certainly not found in any of the parts of 
New Guinea visited by the Malay and Bugis 
traders, nor in any of the other islands where 
Birds of Paradise are obtained. But this is bv 
no means conclusive evidence, for it is only in 
certain localities that the natives prepare skins, 
and in other places the same birds may be 
abundant without ever becoming known. It is 
therefore quite possible that this species may 
inhabit the great southern mass of New Guinea, 
from which Am has been separated; while its 
near ally, which I shall next describe, is con¬ 
fined to the northwestern peninsula. 
The Lesser Bird of Paradise {Paradhea 
papuana of Bechstein, “Le petit Emeraiide” 
of French authors) is a much smaller bird than 
the preceding, although very similar to it. It 
differs in its lighter brown color, not becoming 
darker or pur])led on the breast; in the exten¬ 
sion of the yellow color all over the upper part 
of the back and on the wing coverts; in the 
lighter yellow of the side plumes, which have 
only a tinge of orange, and at the tips are near¬ 
ly pure white; and in the comjiarative short¬ 
ness of the tail cirrhi. The female diifcrs re¬ 
markably from the same sex in Paradisea apoda 
by being entirely white on the under surface of 
the body, and is thus a much handsomer bird. 
The young males are similarly colored, and as 
they grow older they change to brown, and go 
through the same stages in acquiring the per¬ 
fect plumage as has already been described in 
the allied species. It is this bird which is most 
commonly used in ladies’ head-dresses in this 
countiy, and also forms an important article of 
commerce in the East. 
