The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

340 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.savages wno gathered round me—all had their influence indetermining the emotions with which I gazed upon this " thingof beauty." I thought of the long ages of the past, duringwhich the successive generations of this little creature had runtheir course — year by year being born, and living and dyingamid these dark and gloomy woods, with no intelligent eye togaze upon their loveliness ; to all ajDiDearance such a wantonwaste of beauty. Such ideas excite a feeling of melancholy.It seems sad that on the one hand such exquisite creaturesshould live out their lives and exhibit their charms only in thesewild, inhospitable regions, doomed for ages yet to come to hopelessbarbarism ; while on the other hand, should civilized manever reach these distant lands, and bring moral, intellectual, andIDhysical light into the recesses of these virgin forests, we maybe sui'e that he will so disturb the nicely-balanced relations oforganic and inorganic nature as to cause the disappearance, andfinally the extinction, of these very beings whose wonderfulstructure and beauty he alone is fitted to appreciate and enjoy.This consideration must surely tell us that all living things werenot made for man. Many of tliem have no relation to him. Thecycle of their existence has gone on independently of his, andis disturbed or broken by every advance in man's intellectualdevelopment ; and their hapiDiness and enjoyments, their lovesand hates, their struggles for existence, their vigorous life andearly death, would seem to be immediately related to their ownwell-being and perpetuation alone, limited only by the equalwell-being and perpetuation of the numberless other organismswith which each is more or less intimately connected.After the first king-bird was obtained, I went with my meninto the forest, and we were not only rewarded with another inequally perfect plumage, but I was enabled to see a little of thehabits of both it and the larger species. It frequents the lowertrees of the less dense forests, and is very active, flying stronglywith a whirring sound, and continually hopping or flying fi'ombranch to brancli. It eats hard stone-bearing fruits as large asa gooseberry, and often flutters its wings after the manner ofthe South American manakins, at which time it elevates andexpands the beautiful fans with which its breast is adorned.The natives of Aru call it " Goby-goby."One day I got under a tree where a number of the GreatParadise biixls were assembled, but they were high up in thethickest of the foliage, and flying and jumping about so continuallythat I could get no good view of them. At length Isliot one, but it was a young specimen, and was entirely of aricli chocolate-brown colour, without either tlie metallic greenthroat or yellow plumes of the full-grown bird. All that I hadyet seen resembled this, and the natives told me that it would beabout two montlis before any would be found in full plumage.I still hoped, therefore, to get some. Their voice is most extraordinary.At early morn, before the sun has risen, we hear a