The true Paradisea minor is found in the mountains of North-western New Guinea, especially in the
Arfak district, having been procured at Andai, Mansema, Profi, and Mori by a Beceari and Mr. Bruijn’s
hunters. Signor d’Albertis met with it at Emberbaki, and Dr. Beccari at Wa panison and Dorei Hum.
Wire Ac elt Wallace obtained specimens at Dorei, and he believes that the species is found on Salawati.
The same traveller met with it in the island of Mysol. Solomon Miller noticed the species at Lobo and
on the Atanata River, and the Hon. Walter Rothschild possesses specimens from Etna Bay and Kapaur.
It seems to occur both in the vicinity of the coast-region and on the high mountains as well, as it was
found on the Arfak ranges near Profi and Mori by Dr. Beceari and by Mr. Bruijn’s hunters at a height
of 3400 feet.

A full account of the various observations of the habits of this species will be found in Count Salvadori’s
‘Ornitologia della Papuasia’ and in Mr. Elliot’s ‘ Monograph of the Paradiseidee,’ and I quote the most
important of these observations in the present work.

Lesson’s note is as follows, and deals with his experiences as Naturalist on board the ‘ Coquille’ :—
«©The small Emerald Bird of Paradise has the vivacious and agile movements and has much of the manners
of a Crow. In the forests that it inhabits it seeks the summits of the tallest trees, and it descends to the
lower branches to search for its food or to escape from the rays of the sun. It shuns the heat and loves

the shade of the thick and bushy foliage of the teak-trees. It rarely leaves these trees in the middle of the

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day; and it is only in the morning and evening that it is seen seeking its food. Ordinarily, when it

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believes itself to be alone, it utters a sharp cry, frequently repeated, which can be imitated by the syllables

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voake, voake, voako, strongly articulated. These cries, at the time of our sojourn in New Guinea in July,

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appeared to us to be a call for the females, which were in parties of twenty individuals and responded

from the surrounding trees, in a similar manner to the love-call. Never among these troops did we

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see more than one male strutting proudly in the midst of these plainly apparelled individuals, whilst he,

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plumed dandy, resembled a cock who shouts victory after having beaten a rival and gained the sovereignty

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of a poultry-yard. Is the little Emerald Bird of Paradise, then, a polygamist ? or is the disproportionate

number of females owing to the continual chase after the males, which causes this scarcity, whilst the

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females are neglected and allowed to live in peace without fear of man, having only to protect themselves

from their natural enemies the beasts of the woods? Attracted by this voake, voako, we found it easy

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in our expeditions to follow the birds, discover and kill many. The first one we saw astonished us so

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much that the gun remained at rest in our hand, so great was our surprise. We walked with care in
the tracks made by the wild boars in the thick and leafy forests in the neighbourhood of Dorey, when a
male of this species passed over our heads with graceful and soft flight, and seemed to us like a meteor, of
which the fiery tail left behind it a long streak of light. When an unaccustomed sound strikes the ear of

the bird its note ceases and its movements are suspended, so that it becomes absolutely passive and remains

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hiding in the deep foliage which conceals it from the view of the hunter; but if the sound continues, It
soon flies away. It perches upon the highest branches of the loftiest trees of New Guinea, and it is very
difficult to shoot without using long-range guns. When it is only wounded it expires in the thickets ;
however, we happened one day to find, dying upon the banks of a pond in the bed of a half-dried torrent,
one of the birds which had been wounded the day before. It is, then, in the evening or, better, the
morning that the hunter must be on the watch, after having carefully reconnoitred the trees filled with
fruit, to which the Paradise-birds resort. There, perfectly still, he awaits patiently the advent of the
Birds of Paradise, soon foretold by their harsh and loud cry. At the time of our stay in this land of
promise for naturalists (from the 29th of July to the 9th of August), these birds searched for the fleshy
buds of the teak-trees, but above all for the pinky white, very mucilaginous fruits of the fig-tree (Amihou).
We always found insects in their crops, and during our sojourn in Amboina two living specimens,
which we saw alive at the house of a rich Chinese
boiled rice.”

Dr. A. R. Wallace writes in his ‘Malay Archipelago’ :—The true Paradise-birds are omnivorous,
feeding on fruit and insects—of the former preferring small figs; of the |
and phasmas, as cockroaches and caterpillars.

merchant, were fed with large cockroaches and

atter, grasshoppers, locusts,
When I returned home, in 1862, I was so fortunate as
to find two adult males of this species in Singapore; and

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as they seemed healthy, and fed voraciously
determined on giving a very high price asked for them—£100—
and to bring them to England by the overland route under

stayed a week at Bombay to break the journey and to lay in a fresh stock of bananas for my birds.

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on rice, bananas, and cockroaches, I

my own care. On my way home I

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