BIRD-OF-PARADISE yj 



ancient word Fowl became specialized in meaning, taking its place 

 to signify what cannot be more tersely expressed than by the saying 

 that " A bird is known by its feathers." This proverb is, accord- 

 ing to our present knowledge, also a scientific definition, for no 

 other group in the Animal Kingdom has the same kind of clothing 

 (see Feathers), though, regarding as almost certain the evolution 

 of Birds from Reptiles, it must be that at one time there existed 

 creatures intermediate between them, and it may be that remains of 

 some of them will yet be discovered, sheAving that plumage was worn 

 by animals which had not yet dropped all the characters that now 

 distinguish Eeptiles from Birds. The two Classes [Ecptilia and Aves) 

 have been brigaded together by Prof. Huxley under the name of 

 Sauropsida, and there can be no doubt that they are essentially 

 much more closely allied to each other than either is to the rest of 

 the Vertebrates. It has of late years become manifest that among 

 Reptiles the forms which approach most nearly to Birds are those 

 known as the Dinosauria ; but of them there is not one yet dis- 

 covered respecting the rank of which any reasonable doubt may 

 be entertained, though certain parts of the skeleton, and particu- 

 larly of the pelvic arch, present a remarkable resemblance to the 

 corresponding parts of certain Birds, of the Ratit.e especially. On 

 the other hand, the earliest known Bird, Archseoj)teryx, is less like 

 the Dinosaurs than are the modern Ratitx. The gulf between 

 Birds and Mammals is much wider than between the former and 

 Reptiles, notwithstanding that the lowest of existing Mammals, the 

 Monotvemata, possess several bird-like characters in their structure, 

 and, as is noAv proved, lay eggs (see Anatomy, Fossil Birds, and 

 Introduction). 



BIRD-OF-PARADISE, a phrase used in many European lan- 

 guages since the return (6 Sept. 1522) of the first expedition for 

 circumnavigating the globe, commonly known as Magellan's. In 

 December 1521 the voyagers, then at Tidore, one of the Moluccas, 

 were off'ered by the ruler of Batchian, as a gift to the King of Spain, 

 two very beautiful dead birds, as we are told by Antonio Pigafetta 

 the chronicler of the voyage (Primo Viaggio intorno al Globo, ed. 

 Amoretti, Milano : 1800, p. 156), who is generally believed to have 

 been the first to introduce these birds to the notice of Europeans ; ^ 



41.0, " In temperat yeres ben fewe byrdes of been " [ = bees], and o^a cit. xiii. xxvi. 

 458 "All fysshe . . . fade and kepe tlieyr byrdes " ; Scots Acts, 7 Jac. I. " The 

 Woolfe and Woolfe-birdes [i.e. cubs] suld be slaine." The connexion formerly 

 thought to exist between bird and bj-eed or brood is now denied {JVeto English 

 Dictionary, sub voce), but no approach to the derivation of the first has been 

 made. 



^ Pigafetta's account contains some details worthy of attention. It describes 

 the birds as being as big as Thrushes, with a small head, a long bill, and slender 

 legs like pens used for writing, about as long as a palm. They had no wings 



