Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
all, and got everything dry and comfortable by the evening, we again went to bed, and be-
fore midnight were again awaked by torrents of rain and leaks streaming in upon us as bad
as ever. There was no more sleep for us that night, and the next day our roof was again taken
to pieces, and we came to the conclusion that the fault was a want of slope enough in the
roof for mats, although it would be sufficient for the usual attap thatch. I therefore pur-
chased a few new and some old attaps, and in the parts these would not cover we put the
mats double, and then at last had the satisfaction of finding our roof tolerably water-tight.
I was now able to begin working at the natural history of the island. When I first arrived I
was surprised at being told that there were no Paradise Birds at Muka, although there were
plenty at Bessir, a place where the natives caught them and prepared the skins. I assured the
people I had heard the cry of these birds close to the village, but they would not believe that
I could know their cry. However, the very first time I went into the forest I not only heard
but saw them, and was convinced there were plenty about; but they were very shy, and it
was some time before we got any. My hunter first shot a female, and I one day got very
close to a fine male. He was, as I expected, the rare red species, Paradisea rubra, which
alone inhabits this island, and is found nowhere else. He was quite low down, running along
a bough searching for insects, almost like a woodpecker, and the long black riband-like fila-
ments in his tail hung down in the most graceful double curve imaginable. I covered him
with my gun, and was going to use the barrel which had a very small charge of powder and
number eight shot, so as not to injure his plumage, but the gun missed fire, and he was off in
an instant among the thickest jungle. Another day we saw no less than eight fine males at
different times, and fired four times at them; but though other birds at the same distance al-
most always dropped, these all got away, and I began to think we were not to get this magni-
ficent species. At length the fruit ripened on the fig-tree close by my house, and many birds
came to feed on it; and one morning, as I was taking my coffee, a male Paradise Bird was
seen to settle on its top. I seized my gun, ran under the tree, and, gazing up, could see it fly-
ing across from branch to branch, seizing a fruit here and another there, and then, before I
could get a sufficient aim to shoot at such a height (for it was one of the loftiest trees of the
tropics), it was away into the forest. They now visited the tree every morning; but they
stayed so short a time, their motions were so rapid, and it was so difficult to see them, owing
to the lower trees, which impeded the view, that it was only after several days' watching,
and one or two misses, that I brought down my bird—a male in the most magnificent
plumage.
This bird differs very much from the two large species which I had already obtained, and,
although it wants the grace imparted by their long golden trains, is in many respects more
