The rest take no notice, and fall one after another till some of them take the alarm.

(See Frontispiece.) The native mode of preserving them is to cut off the wings and feet, and then skin the body up to the beak, taking out the skull.

A stout stick is then run up through the specimen coming out at the mouth.

Round this some leaves are stuffed, and the whole is wrapped up in a palm spathe and dried in the smoky hut.

By this plan the head, which is really large, is shrunk up almost to nothing, the body is much reduced and shortened, and the greatest prominence is given to the flowing plumage.
Some of these native skins are very clean, and often have wings and feet left on; others are dreadfully stained with smoke, and all hive a most erroneous idea of the proportions of the living bird.
The Paradisea apoda, as far as we have any certain knowledge, is confined to the mainland of the Aru Islands, never being found in the smaller islands which surround the central mass.