With all these extraordinary opportunities, it is a curious fact that, as regards shipping, the island is in a worse position for trade than it was twenty years ago. Even as recently as 1902, the _Moresby_ was calling every five weeks at Port Moresby, but now her route has been changed, and she sails from Sydney to Singapore, calling at Port Moresby only once every two and a half months. In the interval goods and mails are carried in an erratic manner by a little steamer called the _Parua_, by the _Merrie England_ (a Government survey boat), or by the _St. Andrew_, the Sacred Heart Mission boat. Two small sailing vessels, it is true, sail between Cook Town and Samarai, but this does not improve the communication with Port Moresby, the seat of Government, as these vessels make no call there. It is almost incredible that the second largest island in the world—the “Pearl of the East,” probably the richest region in proportion to its size that Great Britain has the option of developing—is thus left hermit-like in the midst of the eastern seas. It is the more surprising when it is remembered that New Guinea lies directly on the trade route between Sydney and the great commercial centres of China and Japan. We might have had a magnificent coaling station on the east coast of the island, in the Dampier Strait, but for the action of Lord Derby, when he permitted the Germans to extend their possessions so as to occupy almost a quarter of the eastern peninsula of the island. As matters stand now, a coaling station could only be established at such a point on the south-eastern coast that vessels coming and going from Sydney would have to double the south-east cape, thus making an awkward and almost impossible détour in these days when time is more than ever the essence of every shipping contract. CHAPTER XVIII _NOTES ON SOME BIRDS OF NEW GUINEA_ The Birds of Paradise—Remarkable Species observed—Native Names— Play-Places—Curious Habits—The Bower-Bird: Artist, Architect, and Gardener. CHAPTER XVIII NOTES ON SOME BIRDS OF NEW GUINEA New Guinea is remarkable for its paucity of mammals and its richness in birds. As we have already noted, at least 770 different species of birds are known, and to these doubtless many more will be added as the explorer ventures farther into the interior. The chief haunts of the blue bird of paradise, the _Paradisornis Rudolphi_, are in Central British New Guinea, at an altitude of from 4000 to 6000 feet. There are about a dozen species of the bird of paradise, and at Mafulu we obtained the following, of which I give, where possible, the native name:—