26o THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



herons and pelicans. Native song-birds seem 

 now immune. Recently, however, the wilds and 

 fastnesses of New Guinea have been levied on 

 for the plumes of those exquisite birds, so long 

 mythical even to naturalists, " the birds of para- 

 dise." These are of such incredible beauty in 

 color, in texture, and in form, that when the first 

 skins of birds of paradise came to the notice of 

 naturalists, the myths connected with these birds 

 (which no scientific man had then seen alive) 

 were readily believed ; a fact which is illustrated 

 by the name of the first kind of bird of paradise 

 which was described by science. It was called 

 apoda, the footless bird, the bird without legs. 

 So glorious was the color, texture, and harmony 

 of the plumage, that the stories of the native 

 hunters that the birds never alighted on earth or 

 tree, but always flew with feathers extended to 

 the sun, was not only credited, but formed a basis 

 for the name which they bear to this day. 



The following passage is taken from " The 

 Malay Archipelago." Wallace, whose acquaint- 

 ance, with these wonderful birds in life is more 

 intimate than that of any other naturalist, says : — 



" When the earliest European voyagers reached the Moluccas 

 in search of cloves and nutmegs, which were then rare and pre- 

 cious spices, they were presented with the dried skins of birds 

 so strange and beautiful as to excite the admiration even of 

 those wealth-seeking rovers. The Malay traders gave them the 



