“And I will add,” said I, “that, nicely prepared, they are worth eating.”
A whole race of parrots were flitting from branch to branch, beneath the thick foliage of this wood, and only required a little careful teaching to be able to speak, They chattered with paroquets of all colours, grave cockatoos, which seemed to be considering some problem; the loris, of a beautiful scarlet, darted like a bit of stamen carried by the wind; and every variety of bird, beautiful to behold, but not usually good to eat.
Nevertheless, there was one bird wanting, which never passes the limits of the Aroo and the Papuan Islands. But fate had decreed that I should admire it before long.
We crossed through a thicket, and found ourselves on a plain sprinkled with clumps of bushes. I then saw get up some beautiful birds, whose long feathers obliged them to fly against the wind. Their undulating flight, their graceful curves in their aerial course, the varying play of colour, attracted and charmed the eye. I had no difficulty to recognise them.
“These are birds of paradise!” I cried.
“Order, sparrows; section, clystomores,” said Conseil.
“Family partridges?” inquired Ned Land.
“I do not know, Master Land. Nevertheless, I count upon your skill to procure one of them.”
“I can try, though I am more accustomed to handle a harpoon than a gun.”
The Malays, who drive a great trade in these birds with the Chinese, have various methods of catching them, which we could not employ. Sometimes they fix snares
