THE BIRD OF PARADISE. 



The beauty and the rarity of this bird, has given 

 rise to a number of tietitious tales, and a mass of fabu- 

 lous description. The natives of the countries where 

 they are found, observing the avidity with which Eu- 

 ropeans purchased these birds when stuffed, .having 

 adopted the custom of cutting off their legs, asserted, 

 that nature had not furnished them with those mem- 

 bers, as they were inhabitants solely of the air, and 

 nourished entirely by the dew of heaven. And what 

 is astonishing, all these absurdities were for a long 

 time believed. 



The Malayans,, who make a trade of killing, stuff- 

 ing, and selling these birds to the curious Europeans, 

 generally conceal themselves in the trees, where 

 they resort, and shoot them with arrows made of 

 reeds, in order to damage as little as possible their 

 neautiftil plumage. When they have killed a rram- 

 toer of these birds, they take out every part of thvir 

 entrails, and run a hot iron up their bodies, which 

 dries up the juices. They then stuff them with salts 

 and aromatic spices, and offer them for sale. 



Among the many different species of this bird, that 

 called the king bird of paradise, is difficult to recog- 

 nize in the variety of description-,, and the confusion 

 of^names. Buffon distinguishes two species, by the 

 appellations of the king bird, and the magnificent 

 bird of paradise ; but, as they are both described of 

 the size of a black-bird, it is probable that they arc 

 the name, and that the difference is only nominal or 

 imaginary. The description, accompanied with a 

 coloured plate, given in " The Young Gentleman 

 and Lady's Magazine for March, 1799," represents 

 the greatest part of the plumage of the king bird of 

 paradise, as being of a beautiful and vivid carmine, all 

 his colours of a soft .and- silky appearance, having the 

 gloss of polished metal, The two shafts proceeding 

 from the rump, are blackish-, a;xi not beard ci,, and 

 extend very far below the tail and wings. Near the 

 extremities, these singular appendages become beard- 

 ed, and by an elegant convolution, form a pretty 

 o 6, 



