BIRDS OF P A K A D I S E 



feathers, must Hit along the courses of the streams as 

 the drought invades their dwellings at particular 

 parts of them ; and we shall see presently that the 

 produced feathers, besides enabling the birds to ride 

 more easily and descend more softly on their shorter 

 excursions, in consequence of the hold which their 

 countless flocculi take of the air, assist the birds in 

 finding their way to those other places where there is 

 food for them. 



At those places where the earth and the upper part 

 of the forest are parched, and the ardour of the 

 unclouded sun continues to beat, there is a constant 

 rarefaction and consequent ascent of the whole mass 

 of the atmosphere ; and in consequence of this the 

 winds from the more humid surfaces must blow toward 

 those parched places with velocities proportional to 

 the differences between the one and the other. It is 

 this which produces the seasonal winds of the tropical 

 countries ; and it. is this, acted on by the changing 

 declination of the sun which produces the changing 

 monsoons or alternations of the tropical seasons : and 

 here we have an instance of that beautiful arrangement 

 in nature in which, from the motion of a planet in its 

 orbit, to the action of an insect or a microscopic 

 fungus upon a leaf, what seem to us to be the aber- 

 rations of nature, all contain in themselves the means 

 of their own correction and reversal when they have 

 reached their limit, which proves so clearly that the 

 wisdom of design which is in nature is infinite. 



This, when it arises naturally from the immediate 

 subject of our contemplation, as it unquestionably 

 does in the present instance, is always worthy of 

 something more than a mere passing expression of 

 wonder. For, as is the case with the Creator himself, 

 space and time are so small impediments in the way 

 of -those laws which he has given to his works, that 

 we may fetch from the most distant point of obser- 

 vable space, or the remotest one of known history, an 

 illustration of that which is before us at the moment. 

 As the earth rolls along from its perihelium or point 

 nearest to the sun, its motion along the elliptic path 

 contains the element, by means of which it shall again 

 approach nearer to that luminary; and in like manner 

 its approach as it rolls onward from the point of 

 aphelion, contains in it the element by means of 

 which it shall again recede. It is so with the different 

 seasons in all regions of the globe, and it js so with 

 all those creatures which the seasons put into motion,, 

 whether the motion of life or that of migration. But 

 to return to the birds of paradise. 



When the forest which is their haunt at any parti- 

 cular time becomes parched, their food lessens, and 

 they are compelled to be more on the wing in their 

 search after it. But on which side soever there then 

 happens to be a place more humid and more abound- 

 ing in those creatures on which they feed, and which 

 on this account is better suited to them for the time, 

 there is a wind which blows from that side toward the 

 place which is parched and heated ; and as the action 

 of that wind upon their flocculent feathers, turns them 

 round on their centres of gravity like weathercocks, 

 their heads are, as they fly, turned to the wind, and 

 their progress is, of course, against its current. Their 

 feathers must thus in so far assist the birds in finding 

 out the direction of those places where they can feed; 

 and though this is more remarkable in the case of 

 birds of paradise than any other species, it is probable 

 that many of the softer-feathered birds are also assisted 

 in their tropical migrations by the set of the wind. 



We must not suppose that this is loo mechanical t 

 and that the whole is performed by that to which we 

 give the name of instinct ; tbr of i.islinct we know, 

 and can know nothing further than that it is a name 

 which we give to those movements and actions of 

 animals of which we can give no explanation. The 

 word instinct, though we can hardly avoid using it, is 

 never anything else than a subterfuge for our igno- 

 rance of the means by which any action of an animal 

 is brought about; and we may rest assured that 

 natural actions are no more performed without means 

 in the unexplained cases than in the explained ones. 



It we analyse the matter downward to the primary 

 impulse of life in the creature, the more fact of flying 

 at ail is just as much an instinct (that is, a matter of 

 which we are ignorant) as the impulse of life which 

 originates its rliu'ht in a. particular direction at a par- 

 ticular season. The act of flying cannot be performed 

 by the instinct alone, and indeed in till that part of 

 the act which can be made matter of science, the 

 instinct has no concern; we invariably find wings as the 

 motive organs, anil those wings are always fitted to the 

 average style of flight which the habit of the bird ren- 

 ders uecessary, with such perfect unity, that we would 

 at first sight suppose that the one were the cause of the 

 other. When, however, we examine them, we find 

 that they both answer so equally either for the cause 

 or the effect, that we are unable to select either of 

 them without feeling that we are in error and have 

 done injustice to the other ; and then 'fore we either 

 fall into absurdity and nonsense which bitterly, though 

 secretly, reproves ourselves, as well as tends to mislead 

 others, or we at once and frankly refer both to the 

 same source, and confess that Maker who thus stands 

 demonstrated in his works. 



In the countries which these birds inhabit there 

 are some races of insects which migrate on the wing 

 en masse, but they float before the light winds and 

 not against them ; and the produced feathers 

 by means of which the birds move slowly to wind- 

 ward, may thus enable them to meet their food, and 

 seize it with the bill. Too little is, however, known 

 relative to their manners for enabling us to speak with 

 precision on this point ; but those feathers which do 

 not serve for clothing, or answer any of the ordinary 

 purposes of flight, are well worthy of further investi- 

 gation, as among the most, curious parts in the struc- 

 ture of birds. 



Night feeders, in all the races of birds with which 

 we are well acquainted, are remarkable for having 

 their feathers more soft and downy at the margins, 

 and more loose in their whole texture and application, 

 than day feeders. This holds good of many of the sof't- 

 plumaged birds, such as some genera of gallinidae, 

 which, though they find their food by the eye, and 

 thus cannot find it in the dark, or even in the dim 

 twilight, yet feed early in the morning and late in the 

 evening, and squat and repose during the greater 

 part of the day. Birds which have feathers thus 

 formed are unable to contend with strong winds, and 

 they are equally liable to injury from rain. This 

 must apply in an especial manner to the birds ot 

 paradise. They are unable to contend with the blasts 

 or endure the heavy rains which occur about the 

 changes of the monsoons in those seas ; and indeed 

 these are often so violent that no bird can keep the air 

 or remain on an exposed perch. Birds of paradise do 

 not of course remain in the air at those times ; but how 

 or where they then find shelter has not been ascer- 



