I Covered Him With My Gun,
And Was Going To Use The Barrel Which Had A Very Small Charge Of
Powder And Number Eight Shot, So As Not To Injure His Plumage,
But The Gun Missed Fire, And He Was Off In An Instant Among The
Thickest Jungle.
Another day we saw no less than eight fine males
at different times, and fired four times at them; but though
other birds at the same distance almost always dropped, these all
got away, and I began to think we were not to get this
magnificent species.
At length the fruit ripened on the fig-tree
close by my house, and many birds came to feed on it; and one
morning, as I was taking my coffee, a male Paradise Bird was seen
to settle on its top. I seized my gun, ran under the tree, and,
gazing up, could see it flying across from branch to branch,
seizing a fruit here and another there, and then, before I could
get a sufficient aim to shoot at such a height (for it was one of
the loftiest trees of the tropics), it was away into the forest.
They now visited the tree every morning; but they stayed so short
a time, their motions were so rapid, and it was so difficult to
see them, owing to the lower trees, which impeded the view, that
it was only after several days' watching, and one or two misses,
that I brought down my bird - a male in the most magnificent
plumage.
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