473 



BIRDS. 



BIRDS OF PARADISE. 



474 



Swainson, Sweet, Syme, Vieillot, Vigors, Wagler, Waterton, Whitear, 

 N. Wuod, Yarrell. 



fossil Birds. 



Although the remains of birds in a fossilised condition are not 

 numerous, yet recent discoveries have given an interest to them not 

 less than to that of any other class of animals. Sir Charles Lyell, in 

 his 'Principles of Geology,' aays that "the imbedding of the remains of 

 birds in new strata must be of very rare occurrence, for their powers 

 of flight insure them against perishing by numerous casualties to 

 which quadrupeds are exposed during floods ; and if they chance to 

 be drowned, or to die when swimming on the water, it will scarcely 

 ever happen that they will be submerged so as to become preserved 

 in sedimentary deposits. In consequence of the hollow tubular 

 structure of their bones, and the quantity of then: feathers, they are 

 extremely light in proportion to their volume, so that when first 

 killed they do not sink to the bottom like quadrupeds, but float on 

 the surface until the carcass either rots away or is devoured by 

 predaceous animals." Nevertheless remains of birds have been found. 



The earliest indications of the existence of birds are certain foot- 

 tracks discovered by Professor Hitchcock, of Amherst, in the Triassic 

 or New Red Argillaceous Sandstones of the valley of the Connecticut 

 River. These foot-prints occur in considerable numbers in the district 

 mentioned, and have been described by geologists under the name of 

 Ornithicnitet. A slab on which these remarkable markings are to be 

 seen is in the collection of the British Museum. They evidently 

 belong to birds of a large size, but unfortunately none of the remains 

 of the creatures to which they belong have yet been discovered. Sir 

 Charles Lyell has recently examined the district in which these 

 impressions occur, and agrees with Professor Hitchcock in regarding 

 them as the production of the feet of birds. 



Some remains found by Dr. Mantell in the Wealden Strata of Tilgato 

 Forest, were supposed by Baron Cuvier and Professor Owen to belong 

 to a species of wading bird, but subsequent investigations have shown 

 that these specimens were portions of the skeleton of a species of 

 Pterodactyl. A microscopic examination however by Mr. Bowerbank 

 and Professor Quekett of specimens since discovered by Dr. Mantell, 

 has led these gentlemen to conclude that they belong to birds, leading 

 to the inference that these animals did exist at the period of the 

 deposit of tln^ \VeaMeii Beds. 



In the ' British Fossil Mammals and Birds ' Professor Owen has 

 described the remains of a gigantic bird obtained by the Earl of 

 Enniskillen from the Chalk near Maidstone. The portion described is 

 regarded by Professor Owen as the shaft of the humerus, and he 

 concludes that it belonged to a bird closely allied to the Albatross of 

 the present day. He has named it Cimolivrnis Diomedeiu. 



As we approach nearer the historic period of the earth's surface, the 

 remains of the bones of birds become more decisive and more 

 numerous. In most of the ancient Tertiary Strata remains of several 

 genera of birds occur. In the Sevalik hills of India they are 

 associated with the remains of several species of proboscidiform 

 animals. In the basin of Paris they have been found in conjunction 

 with the bones of the Palceotherium, &c. In the Tertiary deposits of 

 Auvergne they have also been found, and the ossiferous caverns of 

 ntineut of Europe and of Great Britain have presented the bones 

 of numerous species of animals now living, with here and there an 

 extinct species. These remains however have been sufficiently scarce 

 to be greatly prized by the collectors of fossils. 



In the year 1839 Professor Owen received from Mr. Rule a specimen 

 of the femur of a gigantic bird, allied to the ostrich and other 

 struthious birds now in existence. To the bird to which this bone 

 belonged Professor Owen gave the name of Dinornit. [DiNORNis.] 

 This specimen was obtained from New Zealand, and was quickly 

 followed by a large collection of the bones of other extinct birds, 

 made by Mr. Walter Mantell of Wellington, son of the late Dr. 

 Gideon Mantell. In this collection, not only were there the bones 

 of Dinornit, confirming all the anticipations which had been formed 

 by Professor Owen of this gigantic bird, but also the remains of 

 several other species of Dinornit, and other genera. The character of 

 some of these remains, and their having been found in fire-heaps in 

 conjunction with human bones, and allusions in the traditions and 

 songs of the natives, lead to the undoubted conclusion that within the 

 historic period the Dinornu, under the name of ' Moa,' was known to 

 the Maoris, the native inhabitants of New Zealand. Amongst the 

 remains is that of a genus called Notornis; and during his excursions 

 into the interior for the purpose of ascertaining if any of these birds 

 still existed, Mr. W. Mantell had the good fortune to capture a living 

 sj>ecimen. [NoTOKNis.] This bird has been deacribed and figured by 

 Mi. Uould in his ' Birds of Australia,' and an engraving is also given 

 by the late Dr. Mantell in his popular work descriptive of the organic 

 remains of the British Museum, entitled ' Petrifactions and their 

 Teachings.' 



From these facts we are led to conclude that long before New 

 Zealand was inhabited by man it was densely peopled by colossal 

 truthious birds, of which the Apteryx [Ai-iEKYx], Hrachi//,/' ri/.r 

 [HKACIIYITKRYX], and Nolomit are but the degenerate representatives. 

 It is probable also that New Zealand, together with Chatham Island, 

 Norfolk Island, and others, are but the mountain-tops of a continent, 

 which was probably covered with these creatures, presenting a remark- 



able feature in the history of the earth's surface, and affording inter- 

 esting matter for speculation with regard to the progression of organised 

 life upon the globe. 



The history of the New Zealand birds is also one of special interest in 

 connection with a group of birds, some of which also, as the Dodo and 

 Solitaire [Dooo], have existed within the historic period, but are now 

 no longer to be found, and which had their principal seat of existence 

 in the Mauritius. 



(Ansted, Geology ; Owen, British Potiil Mammals and Birds ; Owen, 

 Transactions of the Zoological Society, 1839, 1844, 1846, 1848, 1850; 

 Colenso, Annals of Natural History ; Mantell, Petrifactions and their 

 Teachings ; Strickland and Melville, Tlte Dodo and, its Kindred.) 



BIRDS' NESTS, EDIBLE. [Am..] 



BIRDS OF PARADISE. With no family of birds has fiction been 

 more busy than with the Birds of Paradise. From one fabulist to 

 another came the tradition (losing nothing, aa is usual with traditions, 

 in its descent), that these "gay creatures of the element" passed their 

 whole existence in sailing in the air, where all the functions of life 

 were carried on, even to the production of their eggs and young. The 

 dew and the vapours were said to be their only food, nor were they 

 ever supposed to touch the earth till the moment of their death, never 

 taking rest except by suspending themselves from the branches of trees 

 by the shafts of the two elongated feathers which form a characteristic 

 of this beautiful race. The appellations of Lufft-Vogel, Paradyss- 

 Vogel, Passaros de Sol, Birds of Paradise, and God's Birds (to say 

 nothing of Phoenix, a name which was applied to one of them), kept 

 up the delusion that originated in the craft of the inhabitants of the 

 eastern countries where they are found ; for the natives scarcely ever 

 produced a skin in former times from which they had not carefully 

 extirpated the feet. Nor was it only the extreme elegance and rich- 

 ness of their feathers that caused these birds to be sought as the 

 plume for the turbans of oriental chiefs ; for he who wore that plume, 

 relying implicitly on the romantic accounts of the life and habits of 

 the bird, and impressed with its sacred names, believed that he bore a 

 charmed life, and that he should be invulnerable even where the fight 

 raged most furiously. 



In vain did honest Pigafetta, who is supposed to have been the first 

 who introduced these birds to the notice of Europeans, represent them 

 as being furnished with legs ; in vain was the same truth attested by 

 Marcgrave, John de Laet, Clusius, Wormius, and Bontius (the last of 

 whom observes on their crooked claws, and even asserts that they 

 devour little birds, such as greenfinches), and referred to by Hernandez. 

 A fairy tale was not to be so put down. Aldrovandus himself was 

 deceived by the birds brought over in the mutilated state above 

 described, and joined in the cry against poor Pigafetta, chargiug him 

 with falsehood. Johnston, in 1657, writes thus oracularly of the Birds 

 of Paradise : " It is peculiar to them all to be without feet (although 

 Aristotle asserts that no bird is without feet, and Pigafetta assigns to 

 them feet a hand breadth hi length) ;" and this he declares after Clusius 

 had refuted the absurdity, and had stated that they had been brought 

 to Holland (where Johnston's book was printed) with their feet on ; and 

 after the publication of Tradescant's Catalogue, wherein are mentioned 

 among the ' whole birds' of his museum "Birds of Paradise, or Manu- 

 codiata, whereof are divers sorts, some with, some without leggs." And 

 yet this same Johnston has no mercy on that part of the fable which 

 asserts that they live on dew, are perpetually flying, and that their eggs 

 are hatched in a natural cavity on the back of the male. " Of a verity," 

 says the sage, " they must necessarily require rest, and are with ease 

 suspended to the branches of trees by those threads in their tails." 



Willughby and Ray treat these nonsensical stories as they deserve, 

 and as was to be expected from their reputation as observers. 



The high value let upon these birds awakened the cupidity and the 

 fraud of the Chinese, who made up from parrots, parakeets, and others, 

 artificial Birds of Paradise, so clumsily however that it is difficult to 

 suppose that Seba, who figures three of them in the 60th plate of his 

 first volume, could have been taken in by the manifest imposition. 

 But there is nothing in the text to show that his suspicion was even 

 excited ; and this is the more extraordinary, as he figures two of the 

 real species (plate 38 and plate 63) with sufficient accuracy. 



Linnaeus, who has commemorated the fable of the want of feet in 

 these birds by bestowing upon the species most extensively known the 

 name of ' apoda,' because, as he observes, " the older naturalists called 

 it footless," says that the food of this species consists of the largest 

 butterflies. 



In the last edition of the ' Systema Natura; ' Linnaeus gives but two 

 species of the Birds of Paradise, to which he applies the generic name, 

 Paradisea. These two species are Paradisea apoda and Paradisea 

 fii/;,i. In Gmelin's edition the number of species is increased to eight, 

 but one of them is the Paradise-Grakle. 



Ornithologists seem to agree in placing these birds either among the 

 Crows (Corvidce) or in their immediate neighbourhood ; and this, from 

 the form of their beak and legs, and from their habits, to which we 

 shall presently allude, appears to be their proper place. 



Vieillot has divided the Linmuau genus Paradisea into the following 

 genera : 



Parotia. Beak furnished with short feathers to just beyond the 

 middle, slender, compressed laterally, notched and curved at the tip ; 

 hypochondrial plumes long, broad, and loose. 



