Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/446

 480 COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTION OF its softness and abundance. They afford, therefore, no down for commerce, but ornamental feathers of singular beauty. The principal are the featiiers of several species of the jay tribe, called Birds of Pa- radise, and those of the Argus pheasant, respec- tively found, the first in the countries of the east- ern, and the last of the western, extremity of the Archipelago ; the one being found only in New Guinea and the adjacent islands, and the other no where but in Sumatra and the Malayan Peninsula. The bird of paradise is an article of commerce to China and Europe. To prepare it for the market, the bird is embowelled, smoked, and deprived of the legs. The bird is abundant ; and the Papuas, of whose country it is an inhabitant, are dexterous in shooting or taking them. It is, in consequence, cheap in its native country, and would be abun- dant every where, if the want of confidence which exists between the seller and the buyer, with the restrictions on the intercourse between the rest of the world and the emporia to which they are brought, did not unnaturally enhance their cost. The usual price at Banda is about 4s. ^hd. a bird. The' nest of a species of swallow peculiar to the Indian Islands, Hirundo esculentOy is well known to constitute an important article of their com- merce, owing to the very whimsical luxury of the Chinese. The natural history of this bird is far from being as yet acGurately understood, and it