272 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE.

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 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 cirri, 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 can 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; the female is a very plain and ordinary
looking bird. The male is generally seventeen or eighteen
inches from the beak to the tip of the tail.”

Hunting the In catching the Bird of Paradise, the natives
Bird of | take advantage of the apparent vanity of their
Paradise. victims. “In May when they are in full

plumage,” says Mr. Wallace, “the males assemble early in the
morning to exhibit themselves in a most singular manner.
This habit enables the natives to obtain specimens with
comparative ease. As soon as they find that the birds have
fixed upon a tree upon 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 ter-
minating in a round nob. A boy waits at the foot of the tree,
and when the birds come at sunrise, and a sufficient num-
ber 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