I Will Now Give A Short Description
Of Each Of The Known Species, And Then Add Some General Remarks
On Their Natural History.
The Great Bird of Paradise (Paradisea apoda of Linnaeus) is the
largest species known, being generally seventeen or eighteen
inches from the beak to the tip of
the tail.
The body, wings, and tail are of a rich coffee-brown,
which deepens on the breast to a blackish-violet or purple-brown.
The whole top of the head and neck is of an exceedingly delicate
straw-yellow, the feathers being short and
close set, so as to resemble plush or velvet; the lower part of
the throat up to the eye clothed with scaly feathers of an
emerald, green colour, and with a rich metallic gloss, and
velvety plumes of a still deeper green extend in a band across
the forehead and chin as far as the eye, which is bright yellow.
The beak is pale lead blue; and the feet, which are rather large
and very strong and well formed, are of a pale ashy-pink. The two
middle feathers of the tail have no webs, except a very small one
at the base and at the extreme tip, forming wire-like cirrhi,
which spread out in an elegant double curve, and vary from
twenty-four to thirty-four inches long. From each side of the
body, beneath the wings, springs a dense tuft of long and
delicate plumes, sometimes two feet in length, of the most
intense golden-orange colour and very glossy, but changing
towards the tips into a pale brown. This tuft of plumage cam be
elevated and spread out at pleasure, so as almost to conceal the
body of the bird.
These splendid ornaments are entirely confined to the male sex,
while the female is really a very plain and ordinary-looking bird
of a uniform coffee-brown colour which never changes, neither
does she possess the long tail wires, nor a single yellow or
green feather about the dead. The young males of the first year
exactly resemble the females, so that they can only be
distinguished by dissection. The first change is the acquisition
of the yellow and green colour on the head and throat, and at the
same time the two middle tail feathers grow a few inches longer
than the rest, but remain webbed on both sides. At a later period
these feathers arc replaced by the long bare shafts of the full
length, as in the adult bird; but there is still no sign of the
magnificent orange side-plumes, which later still complete the
attire of the perfect male. To effect these changes there must be
at least three successive moultings; and as the birds were found
by me in all the stages about the same time, it is probable that
they moult only once a year, and that the full plumage is not
acquired till the bird is four years old. It was long thought
that the fine train of feathers was assumed for a short time only
at the breeding season, but my own experience, as well as the
observation of birds of an allied species which I brought home
with me, and which lived two years in this country, show that the
complete plumage is retained during the whole year, except during
a short period of moulting as with most other birds.
The Great Bird of Paradise is very active and vigorous and seems
to be in constant motion all day long. It is very abundant, small
flocks of females and young male being constantly met with; and
though the full-plumaged 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 Aru
Islands. The mode of nidification 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 natives declared they had never seen it; and a
very high reward offered for one by a Dutch official did not meet
with success. They moult about January or February, and in May,
when they are in full plumage, the males assemble early in the
morning to exhibit themselves in the singular manner already
described at p. 252. This habit enables the natives to obtain
specimens with comparative ease. As soon as they find that the
birds have fled 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 in it before daylight,
armed with his bow and a number of arrows terminating in a round
knob. A boy waits at the foot of the tree, and when the birds
come at sunrise, and a sufficient number have assembled, and have
begun to dance, the hunter shoots with his blunt arrow so
strongly as to stun the bird, which drops down, and is secured
and killed by the boy without its plumage being injured by a drop
of blood. The rest take no notice, and fall one after another
till some of them take the alarm. (See Frontispiece.)
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 specimen coming
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 prominence is given to the flowing plumage.
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