Réné P. Lesson was the first naturalist to observe a living bird of paradise in its natural habitat. This occurred in the coastal forest inland of Doreri (Dorey) Bay on the Bird’s Head of New Guinea in July 1824, Figure 3. There Lesson saw a Lesser Bird of Paradise in flight. Lesson described his experience as follows:

Apart from seeing and collecting specimens of the Lesser and King Birds of Paradise in the forests surrounding Doreri Bay, Lesson reputedly obtained trade skins of the Magnificent Bird of Paradise, Superb Bird of Paradise, Arfak Astrapia, Black Sicklebill, Western Parotia and Flame Bowerbird.2 In Sydney on his way to France he purchased a specimen of the Paradise Riflebird. This purchase extended the known distribution of birds of paradise to Australia.3

After Lesson’s success the ornithology of New Guinea became a serious field of research. The Director of the Natural History Museum in Leiden was so impressed by Lesson’s achievements that he sent H.C. Macklot and Salomon Müller to collect birds of paradise in New Guinea in 1828. Their expedition was not considered successful as they found only known species in the forests around Triton Bay in southwest New Guinea. They did, however, collect the White-eared Catbird (Ailuroedus buccoides), a species of bowerbird, at Lobo near Fort Du Bus in 1828, (Figure 28).4

In 1830 Rennesse van Duivenboden founded a family firm in Ternate.5 One of the main activities of this firm was acquiring new 74species and selling them to whichever museum paid the most. Any unusual birds of paradise were sent directly to European museums or despatched to one of the great plume dealers, such as Mantou, the Parisian plumassier. These dealers then sold them at premium prices to the patrons of scientific institutions. Over the years Duivenboden and his son made huge profits from this activity. They protected their interests by providing little information about the source of each specimen, and in some cases what was provided was incorrect.

In the late 1840s, John Macgillivray, who collected for John Gould, found the Queen Victoria’s Riflebird (Ptiloris victoriae) on Barnard Island in northeast Australia. In 1848 he also collected the Fawn-breasted Bowerbird (Chamydera cerviniventris) near the tip of Cape York.6

From 1854–1862 Alfred Russel Wallace spent eight years in the Malay Archipelago, now known as Indonesia. In the Aru Islands south of New Guinea he was able to observe the Greater Bird of Paradise from March to May 1857. His observations were the first to confirm the 1670s to 1680s reports of Helwig and Herbert de Jager about how the Greater Bird of Paradise was hunted and prepared for the plume trade.

Wallace’s observations that fully plumed males gathered and displayed in high trees as mating groups is considered by ornithologists to be his most important contribution to the study of birds of paradise.7 At last it was known how these birds used their beautiful plumage. He also extended the westward distribution of birds of paradise by finding Wallace’s Standard Wing (Semioptera wallacei) on Bacan in the Moluccas. Wallace also found the Spotted Catbird (Ailuroedus melanotis), a species of bowerbird, in the Aru Islands.

Wallace was disappointed that despite visiting more places and investing more time than Lesson, he was only able to acquire fully plumed, male specimens of six birds of paradise: the Greater, King, Lesser, Red, Twelve-wired and Wallace’s Standard Wing.

He could not understand why, apart from the Lesser and some female King Birds of Paradise, he did not acquire in 1858 the other birds of paradise and bowerbirds he believed Lesson obtained during his brief visit to Doreri Bay in 1824. Wallace cites these as being the Magnifica (Magnificent), Superba (Superb), Astrapia nigra (Arfak Astrapia), Epimachus magnus (Black Sicklebill), Parotia sexsetacea (Western Parotia) and Sericulus aureus (Flame Bowerbird).8

Wallace’s achievements stimulated others to follow in his footsteps. Schlegel, the new director of the Leiden Museum, sent three collectors to New Guinea in search of birds of paradise. These were H.A. Bernstein from 1861–1865, D.S. Hoedt from 1863–1868 and H. von Rosenberg from 1863–1873.

75Bernstein collected many Black Sicklebills near Sorong and Magnificent and Twelve-wired Birds of Paradise on Salawati. He also found that Waigeo and Batanta Islands were the home of the Wilson’s Bird of Paradise. On Morotai Island at the northern tip of Halmahera he was the first European to see the Paradise or Silky Crow in its natural habitat9 (Figures 1 and 3).

By 1867 the Leiden Museum had the best collection of birds of paradise. The number held of certain species is given below:

Von Rosenberg sent hunters from Andai into the Arfak Mountains of the Bird’s Head in February 1870. They returned with the Arfak Astrapia, Superb Bird of Paradise and Western Parotia and a new species of bowerbird, the Vogelkop Bowerbird (Amblyornis inornatus).

The evident success of the collectors despatched by the Leiden Museum encouraged others to search for new species. Over the next seventy years this search was to be taken up not only by those who came to New Guinea as natural history collectors, but also by those who came as government officers or were seeking their fortune.

In 1872 Odoardo Beccari, an Italian botanist, and his companion Luigi Maria D’Albertis visited Doreri Bay. From Andai village D’Albertis went into the Arfak Mountains and found the Flame Bowerbird (Sericulus aureus). It was previously known only from trade skins. He also observed and shot specimens of the Western Parotia, Superb Bird of Paradise and Black Sicklebill and a new species, the Buff-tailed Sicklebill (Epimachus albertisi). Beccari returned to the Arfak Mountains in 1875 and not only saw the species observed by D’Albertis but also a new species, the Long-tailed Paradigalla (Paradigalla carunculata).10

In 1873 the trader A.A. Bruijn, who was the son-in-law of the Ternatian business magnate, Rennesse van Duivenboden, despatched bird collectors to obtain birds of paradise. They were led by a Frenchman called Leon Laglaize. On Japen in Cendrawasih Bay they found the Jobi Manucode (Manucodia jobiensis). The Pale-billed 76Sicklebill (Epimachus bruijnii) they acquired probably came from the nearby Waropen coast of Cendrawasih Bay.

By the end of the 1870s Dutch pacification was having an impact along the north coast of Dutch New Guinea. From this time onward, we must assume that Indonesians and others were going in ever increasing numbers into inland regions to hunt birds of paradise. By the 1880s bird hunters from Ternate had extended their activities eastwards as far as the Sepik coast of what is now Papua New Guinea (see Chapters 11 and 12).

When D’Albertis went to Australia to convalesce from the rigours of fieldwork in Dutch New Guinea in 1873, the corvette he was travelling on stopped at Orangerie Bay at the eastern tip of southeast New Guinea.11 Two trade skins of a new species, the Raggiana Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea raggiana), were brought out by villagers. On a subsequent expedition in 1876–7 D’Albertis travelled up the Fly River and observed that along the Fly there was some overlap in the distribution of Raggiana and Greater Birds of Paradise.12

In 1876 Andrew Goldie came to southeast New Guinea and worked both as a collector of natural history specimens and as a gold prospector. Carl Hunstein, a German adventurer, joined Goldie as his hunter and dissector. They made plant and animal collections which were sold to the Australian and British Museums. Apart from finding many birds of paradise previously known from western New Guinea, they found Goldie’s Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea decora) and the Curlcrested Manucode (Manacodia comrii) on Fergusson Island.13

In 1883 Hunstein left Goldie and worked in Southeast New Guinea on his own. He found Lawes’ Parotia (Parotia lawesii) in the Astrolabe Mountains in 1884. On Mount Maguli in the Owen Stanley Ranges he found the Brown Sicklebill (Epimachus meyeri), Stephanie’s Astrapia (Astrapia stephaniae), the Blue Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea rudolphi) and a male of the Streaked Bowerbird (Amblgornis subalaris). Goldie had found the female of this species the previous year. These specimens were sold to Otto Finsch when Hunstein met him in Cooktown on the Queensland coast in 1884. Finsch sent them to A.B. Meyer at the Dresden Museum.14

Sir William MacGregor, the first Governor of British New Guinea, was interested in natural history. When climbing Mount Knudsford with Karl Kowald in the Owen Stanley Range in 1889 they found the Crested Bird of Paradise (Cnemophilus macgregorii) and Macgregor’s Bowerbird (Amblgornis macgregoriae). Governor Hahl of German New Guinea was also interested in collecting natural history specimens, but did not obtain any new species.15

MacGregor’s discoveries generated considerable interest in the 77southeastern ranges. In 1893 Loria’s Bird of Paradise (Cnemophilus loriae) was found in the Owen Stanley Range by Lamberto Loria, an Italian naturalist. His assistant, Amedeo Giulianetti, accompanied MacGregor to collect in the Wharton Range. They returned with Macgregor’s Bird of Paradise (Macgregoria pulchra).16

Despite considerable effort, similar successes were not quickly forthcoming in German New Guinea. Hunstein joined the New Guinea Company in 1885 and in 1887 took part in the first German Sepik Expedition as a bird collector. No new birds of paradise were found.

In 1888 Hunstein and Stefan von Kotze climbed into the Rawlinson Ranges of the Huon Peninsula from near Finschhafen. There they found the Emperor Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea guilielmi) and a subspecies of Raggiana, Paradisaea raggiana augustaevictoriae.17

Believing that birds of paradise would also be found in New Britain, Hunstein went there in 1888. He was drowned when Ritter Island off West New Britain erupted on the 13th of March 1888.18

In 1896 the Yellow-breasted Bowerbird (Chlamgdera lauterbachi) was found during the New Guinea Company expedition from Stephansort (Bogadjim) overland to the Ramu River.19

Duivenboden’s company took full advantage of the rivalry between natural history specimen collectors and played them off against each other in order to obtain higher prices. This was particularly the case with A.B. Meyer at the Dresden Museum in Germany and Baron Walter von Rothschild who established his own museum at Tring in England. Through Duivenboden’s company, Meyer obtained specimens of Carola’s Parotia (Parotia carolae) and the King of Saxony Bird of Paradise (Pteridophora alberti) in 1894. A year later Rothschild obtained the Splendid Astrapia (Astrapia spendidissima) and the Yellow-breasted Bird of Paradise (Loboparadisea sericea).20

In 1906 Carl Wahnes discovered Wahnes’ Parotia (Parotia wahnesi) and the Huon Astrapia (Astrapia rothschildi) in the Rawlinson Ranges and Sattelberg Range in German New Guinea.

In 1911 a collector from Rothschild’s museum at Tring joined a Dutch military patrol exploring the headwaters of the Eilanden River in southwest Dutch New Guinea. At 2,000 metres on the slopes of Mount Goliath he found the Short-tailed Paradigalla (Paradigalla brevicauda). He was also able to document the habitat of four species known from skins obtained by Duivenboden’s collectors. These were the Carola’s Parotia, King of Saxony Bird of Paradise, Splendid Astrapia and Yellow-breasted Bird of Paradise. As Duivenboden’s men did not collect in this part of southwest New Guinea, Mount Goliath was not the source of the type specimens. Their likely source was discovered in 1920 when the Pratt brothers went up the Wanggar River from Cendrawasih Bay into 78the Weyland Ranges.21 The source of another species collected by Duivenboden’s men continued to remain a mystery for some time. This was the Golden-fronted Bowerbird (Amblyornis flavifrons). This mystery was solved when it was found living in the Foja Mountains inland from the north coast of West Papua by Jared Diamond in 1981.22

In 1929 the Fire-maned Bowerbird (Sericulus bakeri) was found in the Adelbert Mountains by Rollo H. Beck and his wife, and A.L. Rand collected Archbold’s Bowerbird (Archboldia papuensis) on the slopes of Mount Trikora (formerly Wilhelmina) during the 1938 Archbold Expedition.23 No more bowerbirds remained to be discovered in New Guinea.

The last bird of paradise to be scientifically named and described was the Ribbon-tailed Astrapia (Astrapia mayeri). In 1938 Fred Shaw Mayer received two unusual feathers from a missionary. These had been obtained from a man in Mount Hagen who was wearing them in his hair. He in turn had acquired the feathers by trade from their source area some 130–160 kilometres to the west of the Hagen Ranges. These feathers resulted in the preliminary identification of the species and a complete skin was obtained soon afterwards.24 It thus took from 1758 until 1939 for natural historians to discover all the birds of paradise and bowerbirds. Subsequent taxonomic work has determined that there are 42 species of birds of paradise. These are listed in Table 4.