n seen by any of the coast people.

It seems as if Nature had taken precautions that these her choicest
treasures should not be made too common, and thus be undervalued. This
northern coast of New Guinea is exposed to the full swell of the Pacific
Ocean, and is rugged and harbourless. The country is all rocky and
mountainous, covered everywhere with dense forests, offering in its
swamps and precipices and serrated ridges an almost impassable barrier
to the unknown interior; and the people are dangerous savages, in the
very lowest stage of barbarism. In such a country, and among such a
people, are found these wonderful productions of Nature, the Birds
of Paradise, whose exquisite beauty of form and colour and strange
developments of plumage are calculated to excite the wonder and
admiration of the most civilized and the most intellectual of mankind,
and to furnish inexhaustible materials for study to the naturalist, and
for speculation to the philosopher.

Thus ended my search after these beautiful birds. Five voyages to
different parts of the district they inhabit, each occupying in its
preparation and execution the larger part of a year, produced me only
five species out of the fourteen known to exist in the New Guinea
district. The kinds obtained are those that inhabit the coasts of New
Guinea and its islands, the remainder seeming to be strictly confined
to the central mountain-ranges of the northern peninsula; and our
researches at Dorey and Amberbaki, near one end of this peninsula, and
at Salwatty and Sorong, near the other, enable me to decide with some
certainty on the native country of these rare and lovely birds, good
specimens of which have never yet been seen in Europe.

It must be considered as somewhat extraordinary that, during five years'
residence and travel in Celebes, the Moluccas, and New Guinea, I should
never have been able to purchase skins of half the species which Lesson,
forty years ago, obtained during a few weeks in the same countries. I
believe that all, except the common species of commerce, are now much
more difficult to obtain than they were even twenty years ago; and I
impute it principally to their having been sought after by the Dutch
officials through the Sultan of Tidore. The chiefs of the annual
expeditions to collect tribute have had orders to get all the rare sorts
of Paradise Birds; and as they pay little or nothing for them (it being
sufficient to say they are for the Sultan),