B I R 



420 



in the mutilated ttatc above described, and joine<l in the 



cry against poor Pigafelta. charging him with falsehood 



iton, in 1657, writes thus oracularly of the birds of Pa 



t u peculiar to them all to b without fee 



Hough Anstotlc awrts that no bird is without feet, and 



tl^etta assigns to them feet a hand breadth in length): 



aria this he declares aaer Clusius had refut. -d thi- i.l.-urdit) 



had stated that they had been brought to Holland 



(where Jonston's book was printed) with their feet on ; ant 



niter the publication of Tradescant'g catalogue, wherein arc 



mentioned among the ' whole birds' of his museum 'birds 



of Paradise, or Manucodiata, whereof divers sorts, some 



win. some without leggs. 1 And yet this same Jonston has 



no mercy on that part of the fable which asserts that they 



live on dew, arc per|etually (lying, and that their eggs are 



hatched in a natural cavity on the back of the male. O 



a verity,' says the sage, 'they must necessarily require rest 



and afe with case suspended to the branches of trees by 



tho<c threads in their tail*.' 



Willughby and Ray treat these nonsensical stories as 

 they deserve, and as was to be expected from their reputa- 

 tion as observers. 



The high value set 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 clum- 

 tily, 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 ; bul 

 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. 



Linnams, 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 ob- 

 serves, ' the older naturalists called it footless,' says that the 

 food of this species consists of the largest butterflies. 



1>\ the last edition of the Systema Naturte Linnajus 

 gives bul two species of the birds of Paradise, to which he 

 applies the generic name, Paradisea. These two species 

 are Paradisea apoda and Paradisea resia. 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 (Corvidie) or in their immediate neigh- 

 bourhood ; and this, from the form of their beak and legs and 

 from their habits to which we shall presently allude, ap- 

 pears to be their proper place. 



Vieillot has divided the Lmnaean genus Paradisea into 

 the following genera 



1. PAROTIA. 



Beak furnished with short feathers to just beyond the 

 middle, slender, compressed laterally, notched and curved 

 at the tip ; hypochondria) plumes long, broad, and loose. 



Of this genus, Parotia sexsetacea, Paradisea aureaof 

 Gmehn, Paradisea sexsetacea of Latham, the Sifllet of 



(Ton, is an example. The figure represents a male. 





[Parotia 



B I K 



1. Loi'HOKINA. 



Beak furnished with elongated feathers to just beyond 

 the middle, narrow above, slender, straight, notched and 

 bent at the tip; feathers of the nn k loin; and di -posed in 

 a wing-form. Of this genus, Lophorina tuperba, Paradivn 

 tuperba of Latham, Le tuperbt, Buflbn, is an example. 





[Lophorina luprrba.] 



3. ClNClNNURUS. 



Beak furnished at the base with small feathers directed 

 forwards, slender, convex above, a little compressed at the 

 sides, finely jagged and bent towards the tip; hypochon- 

 drial feathers broad, elongated, and truncated. 



Of this genus, Cincinnuna rrftiux, A. _-i a of 



Linna-us, King-bird of Paradise of Petiver, who li 

 note, ' brought from the Molucca Islands, and rarely to be 

 seen here but in the cabinets of the most curious, as with 

 Dr. Sloan, and in the repository of the Royal Society,' and 

 Le Manucode of Buflbn, is given as an example : the figure 

 represents a male. 



a W 



[Cincinnunu regiui.J 

 4. SAMALIA. 



robust, convex above, furnished at the base with 

 i-lvi-t (ntben, ftrdgfal >>d laterally, jagged towards 



In- tip: hypochondria] feathers, very lonr, flexible, decom- 

 posed, or cervical plumes moderate and stiff. Of this there 

 are two sections, the type being Paradisea magnified of 

 ^atham, Lt magnijique of Buflbn. 



