The True Paradise Birds Are Omnivorous, Feeding On Fruits And
Insects - Of The Former Preferring The Small Figs; Of The Latter,
Grasshoppers, Locusts, And Phasmas, As Well As Cockroaches And
Caterpillars.
When I returned home, in 1862, I was so fortunate
as to find two adult males of this species in Singapore; and as
they seemed healthy, and fed voraciously on rice, bananas, and
cockroaches, I determined on giving the very high price asked for
them - £100.
- And to bring them to England by the overland route
under my own care. On my way home I stayed a week at Bombay, to
break the journey, and to lay in a fresh stock of bananas for my
birds. I had great difficulty, however, in supplying them with
insect food, for in the Peninsular and Oriental steamers
cockroaches were scarce, and it was only by setting traps in the
store-rooms, and by hunting an hour every night in the
forecastle, that I could secure a few dozen of these creatures, -
scarcely enough for a single meal. At Malta, where I stayed a
fortnight, I got plenty of cockroaches from a bake-house, and
when I left, took with me several biscuit-tins' full, as
provision for the voyage home. We came through the Mediterranean
in March, with a very cold wind; and the only place on board the
mail-steamer where their large cage could be accommodated was
exposed to a strong current of air down a hatchway which stood
open day and night, yet the birds never seemed to feel the cold.
During the night journey from Marseilles to Paris it was a sharp
frost; yet they arrived in London in perfect health, and lived in
the Zoological Gardens for one, and two years, often displaying
their beautiful plumes to the admiration of the spectators.
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