“One of your crows,” he replied, laughing; and Ebo went on again.
Just then my uncle glanced at his compass, and saw that we were travelling in the right direction—due south—so it did not matter how far we went; but though we kept hearing the cries of the crow-birds, as I eventually called them, we saw no more, and felt disappointed for a time, but not for long; there were too many fresh objects for our notice.
At last daylight appeared ahead, and we came out from amongst the trunks, which had risen up on every side of us like pillars, into a beautiful open valley dotted with trees, some of which were green with luxuriant branches right to the ground.
We did not spend many moments gazing at the beautiful landscape, so lovely that I half expected to see houses there, and that it was the result of clever gardening; but it was nature’s own work, and in every tree there were so many birds, and of such lovely kinds, that we seemed to have come to the very place of all in the world to make our collection.
“There, Nat, look!” said my uncle, pointing to where, in the full sunshine, a great bird with a train of soft amber plumage flew across the opening, to disappear amongst the trees; “there goes one of your crows.”
“That lovely buff bird, uncle?” I said; “why, it looked like what I should think a bird of paradise would be.”
“And that’s what it was, undoubtedly, Nat,” he said, “though I never before saw one on the wing.”
“But you said crow, uncle,” I said. “Oh! of course, you said the birds of paradise belonged to the crow family. I wish you could have shot it.”
“It would have required a rifle to hit it at that distance, Nat; but wait a bit. We have learned one thing, and that is the fact that we have birds of paradise here, and that satisfies me that we cannot do better than keep to our present quarters. This place exceeds my highest hopes for a collecting ground. There, look at that bird by the great hollow-looking tree.”
“I was looking at it, uncle. It is one of those great birds with the big bill and a thing upon it like a deck-house.”