BIRD-OF-PARADISE 39 
lib. xii.), rejoicing of course in these absurd fables; severely took 
to task some of those who doubted them—among them Pigafetta 
himself, who is rated for declaring that Birds-of-Paradise had legs, 
for it was clear from the authorities cited that they had or ought 
to have none. Aldrovandus professedly figured five species, but only 
three of them can be referred with any certainty to the genus 
Paradisea. 
There would be little use in dwelling upon the many false 
assertions made by some of the older writers concerning these 
gorgeous and singular birds, nor is space here available to 
recount the way in which species after species has been discovered. 
The first naturalist who was able to observe anything of them in 
their own haunts seems to have been Lesson, who in July and 
August 1824 passed a fortnight at Dorey in New Guinea (Voy. 
Coquille, Zoologie, ii. p. 436); but, though his remarks have in- 
terest, his opportunities are not worthy to be named with those 
enjoyed by Mr. Wallace, who in the course of his long sojourn 
and wanderings in the Moluccas and neighbouring islands made 
the personal acquaintance of nearly every species then known, and 
indeed first brought to the notice of naturalists one most curious 
form, Semioptera wallacii. His admirable account of their habits 
may be read in one of the most accessible of books, his Malay 
Archipelago. Varied as is the appearance of the several forms 
of Paradiseidx, most of them are sufficiently well known to require 
no description here. In 1873 Mr. Elliot completed a fine Jono- 
graph of the Family, which he divided into 3  subfamilies— 
Paradiseinx, with 10 genera and 17 species ; Epimachinxy, with 4 
genera and 8 species ; and Tectonarchine—the last comprising the 
BowWER-BIRDS, and including in all 36 species, of which 22 inhabit 
New Guinea. In 1881 Prof. Salvadori enumerated 39 species, 
which he disposed of in 21 genera, as occurring within the scope 
of his elaborate Ornitologia della Papuasia e delle Molucche. Recent 
explorations, mostly by German naturalists, and especially by Dr. 
Hunstein, have considerably increased this number, and the repre- 
sentatives of two very distinct and beautiful new forms Astrarchia 
stephanix and Paradisornis rudolphi, to say nothing of two fine species 
of the old genus Paradisea, P. gulielmi-it., and P. augustex-victoriz, 
by their names testify to the loyalty of Drs. Finsch, A. B. Meyer, 
and Cabanis, who have described them (Zeitschr. ges. Orn. 1885, 
pp. 369-391, pls. xv.-xxii.; transl. [bis, 1886, pp. 237-258, pl. vii. ; 
and Journ. f. Orn. 1888, p. 119, 1889, pls. i. ii.) 
The Paradiseide are admittedly true PASSERES, but their exact 
position cannot be said to have been absolutely determined, though 
there can be little doubt of their forming part of the group 
indefinitely known as “‘ Austrocoraces ”'—to which so many forms 
1 The Noto-Coracomorphex of Parker (Trans. Zool. Soc. ix. p 327). 
