BIRD-OF-PARADISE 37 
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, shewing that plumage was worn 
by animals which had not yet dropped all the characters that now 
distinguish Reptiles from Birds. The two Classes (Reptilia 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 RatTIT# especially. On 
the other hand, the earliest known Bird, Archxopteryz, is less like 
the Dinosaurs than are the modern futitw. The gulf between 
Birds and Mammals is much wider than between the former and 
Reptiles, notwithstanding that the lowest of existing Mammals, the 
Monotremata, possess several bird-like characters in their structure, 
and, as is now proved, lay eggs (see ANATOMY, FossIL Birps, 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 offered 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 ;! 
415, ‘In temperat yeres ben fewe byrdes of been” [=bees], and op. cit. xiii. xxvi. 
458 ‘* All fysshe .. . fede and kepe theyr byrdes” ; Scots Acts, 7 Jac. I. ‘‘ The 
Woolfe and Woolfe-birdes [7.e. cubs] suld be slaine.’”’ The connexion formerly 
thought to exist between bird and breed or brood is now denied (New English 
Dictionary, sub voce), but no approach to the derivation of the first has been 
made. 
1 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 
