me of them ate boiled
rice as well as fruit and insects; but after trying many in succession,
not one out of ten lived more than three days. The second or third
day they would be dull, and in several cases they were seized with
convulsions, and fell off the perch, dying a few hours afterwards.
I tried immature as well as full-plumaged birds, but with no better
success, and at length gave it up as a hopeless task, and confined my
attention to preserving specimens in as good a condition as possible.

The Red Birds of Paradise are not shot with blunt arrows, as in the Aru
Islands and some parts of New Guinea, but are snared in a very ingenious
manner. A large climbing Arum bears a red reticulated fruit, of which
the birds are very fond. The hunters fasten this fruit on a stout forked
stick, and provide themselves with a fine but strong cord. They then
seep out some tree in the forest on which these birds are accustomed to
perch, and climbing up it fasten the stick to a branch and arrange the
cord in a noose so ingeniously, that when the bird comes to eat the
fruit its legs are caught, and by pulling the end of the cord, which
hangs down to the ground, it comes free from the branch and brings down
the bird. Sometimes, when food is abundant elsewhere, the hunter sits
from morning till night under his tree with the cord in his hand, and
even for two or three whole days in succession, without even getting a
bite; while, on the other hand, if very lucky, he may get two or three
birds in a day. There are only eight or ten men at Bessir who practise
this art, which is unknown anywhere else in the island. I determined,
therefore, to stay as long as possible, as my only chance of getting a
good series of specimens; and although I was nearly starved, everything
eatable by civilized man being scarce or altogether absent, I finally
succeeded.

The vegetables and fruit in the plantations around us did not suffice
for the wants of the inhabitants, and were almost always dug up or
gathered before they were ripe. It was very rarely we could purchase
a little fish; fowls there were none; and we were reduced to live upon
tough pigeons and cockatoos, with our rice and sago, and sometimes we
could not get these. Having been already eight months on this voyage, my
stock of all condiments, spices and butter, was exhausted, and I found
it impossible to eat sufficient of my tasteless and unpalatable food
to support health. I got very thin and we