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

422 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [cnAP.whole year, except during a short period of moulting as withmost other birds.The Great Bird of Paradise is very active and vigorous, andseems to be in constant motion all day long. It is very abundant,small flocks of females and young males being constantlymet witli ; and thougli the full-j^lumaged birds ai-eless plentiful,their loud cries, whicli are heard daily, show that they also arevery numerous. Their note is, " Wawk-wawk-wawk—W6k,w6k-w6k,"' and is so loud and shrill as to be heard a greatdistance, and to form the most prominent and chai'acteristicanimal sound in the Aru Islands. The mode of nidification isunknown ; but the natives told me that the nest was formed ofleaves placed on an ant's nest, or on some projecting limb of avery lofty tree, and they believe that it contains oidy one youngbird. The egg is quite unknown, and the natives declared theyhad never seen it ; and a very high reward oifered for one by aDutch ofiicial did not meet with success. They moult aboutJanuary or February, and in May, when they are in full plumage,the males assemble early in tlie morning to exhibit themselvesin the singular manner already described at p. 354. This habitenables the natives to obtain specimens with comparative ease.As soon as they find that the birds have fixed upon a tree onwhich to assemble, they build a little shelter of palm leaves ina convenient place among the brandies, and the hunter ensconceshimself in it before daylight, armed with his bow and a numberof arrows terminating in a round knob. A boy waits at thefoot of the tree, and when the birds come at sunrise, and asuflicient number have assembled, and Jiave begun to dance, tliehunter shoots with his blunt arrow so strongly as to stun thebird, which drops down, and is secured and killed by the boywithout its plumage being injured by a drop of blood. The resttake no notice, and fall one after another till some of them takethe alarm. (See Illustration facing p. 337.)The native mode of preserving them is to cut off the wingsand feet, and then skin the body up to the beak,, taking out theskull. A .stout stick is then run up through the specimen comingout at the mouth. Kound this some leaves are stuffed, and thewhole is wrapped up in a palm spathe and dried in the smoky hut.By this plan the head, which is really large, is shrunk uj) almostto nothing, the body is much reduced and shortened, and thegreatest prominence is given to the flowing plumage. Some ofthese native skins are very clean, and often have wings and feetleft on ; others are dreadfully stained with smoke, and all givea most erroneous idea of the proportions of the living bird.The Paradisea apoda, as far as we have any certain knowledge,is confined to the mainland of the Aru Islands,never beingfound in the smaller islands whicli suiTOund tlie central mass.It is certainly not found in any of the parts of New Guineavisited by the Malay and Bugis trader.s, nor in any of the otherislands where Birds of Paradise are obtained. But this is by