They drank plenty of water, and were in constant motion, jumping about the cage from perch to perch, clinging on the top and sides, and rarely resting a moment the first day till nightfall.

The second day they were always less active, although they would eat as freely as before; and on the morning of the third day they were almost always found dead at the bottom of the cage, without any apparent cause.

Some 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.