The things we do!

For the moment, they were
chattering with parrots of all colours, and grave cockatoos,
who seemed to meditate upon some philosophical problem,
whilst brilliant red lories passed like a piece of bunting carried
away by the breeze, papuans, with the finest azure colours,
and in all a variety of winged things most charming to behold,
but few eatable.
However, a bird peculiar to these lands, and which has never passed
the limits of the Arrow and Papuan islands, was wanting in this collection.
But fortune reserved it for me before long.
After passing through a moderately thick copse, we found a plain
obstructed with bushes. I saw then those magnificent birds,
the disposition of whose long feathers obliges them to fly against
the wind. Their undulating flight, graceful aerial curves,
and the shading of their colours, attracted and charmed one's looks.
I had no trouble in recognising them.
"Birds of paradise!" I exclaimed.
The Malays, who carry on a great trade in these birds with the Chinese,
have several means that we could not employ for taking them.


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