110 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



perch upon the highest trees of the forest, par- 

 ticularly one which bears a red berry, upon 

 which they sometimes feed, when other food 

 fails them. In what manner they breed, or 

 what may be the number of their young, as 

 yet remains for discovery. 



The natives, who make a trade of killing 

 and selling these birds to the European, ge- 

 nerally conceal themselves in the trees where 

 they resort, and having covered themselves up 

 from sight in a bower made of the branches, 

 they shoot at birds with reedy arrows ; and, 

 as they assert, if they happen to kill the king, 

 they then have a good chance for killing the 

 greatest part of the flock. The chief marks 

 by which they know the king is by the ends 

 to the feathers in his tail, which have eyes 



they are surprised by a heavy gale, they instantly soar to 

 a higher region, beyond the reach of the tempest. There, 

 in a serene sky, they float at ease on their light flowing 

 feathers, or pursue their journey in security. During 

 their flight they cry like starlings ; but when a storm 

 blows in their rear, they express their distressed situa- 

 tion by a note somewhat resembling the croaking of a 

 raven. In calm weather, great numbers of these birds 

 may be seen flying, both in companies and singly, in pur- 

 suit of the large butterflies and other insects on which 

 they feed. The general colour of these birds is chest- 

 nut, with a neck of a golden green, beneath. The fea- 

 thers of the back and sides are considerably longer than 

 those of the body. They have two long tail feathers, 

 which are straight, and taper at the tip. 



There have been ten species of this bird lately dis- 

 covered. (For the red-tailed bird of Paradise, see Plate 



XV. fig. 16; for the gorget bird of Paradise, see Plate 



XVI. fig. 4.) 



The Grakle bird of Paradise. It has a triangular 

 naked space behind the eyes; the head and neck are 

 brown; the bill and legs are yellow; the body brownish ; 

 the first quill feathers white, from the base to the middle; 

 the tail feathers, except the middle one, are tipt with 

 white. It inhabits the Philippine islands ; is nine and 

 a half inches long; feeds on fruit, insects, mice, and 

 every kind of grain. It builds twice a year, in the 

 forked branches of trees, and lays four eggs. When 

 young it is easily tamed, and becomes docile and imita- 

 tive. This bird has a great affinity in all its habits to 

 the grakle genus ; yet, on account of the downy feathers 

 at the base of the bill, it is placed here. 



The magnificent Bird of Paradise. This elegant spe- 

 cies, so remarkable for the splendour and variety of its 

 colours, is principally found in the Molucca islands, and 

 is somewhat smaller than the common bird of paradise. 

 The bill is surrounded at the base with velvet- like fea- 

 thers; the chin is green, with golden lunules; crown 

 wi'h a tuft of yellow feathers; the first quill feathers 

 are brown, and the secondary of a deep yellow; the mid- 

 dle tail feathers are very long, with a very short fringe ; 

 its legs and bill are yellow, the latter black at the tip. 

 This beautiful bird inhabits New Holland, and is nine 

 inches long. 



The Lyre bird, or Superb Menura.New Holland, 

 which affords so rich a harvest to the student of nature, 

 and which produces the most singular and anomalous 

 beings with which we are at present acquainted, is the 

 native country of this rare and beautiful bird, the habits 

 and manners of which are yet but little known. (See 

 Plate XVII. fig. 3.) Considered by many naturalists as 

 allied to the paradisese, or birds of Paradise, it exhibits 

 in its general form, and especially in the figure of its 



like those of a peacock. When they have 

 taken a number of these birds, their usual 

 method is to gut them, and cut off their legs ; 

 they then run a hot iron into the body, which 

 dries up the internal moisture; and filling the 

 cavity with salts and spices, they sell them to 

 the Europeans for a perfect trifle. 



CHAP. VI. 



THE CUCKOO, AND ITS VARIETIES. 1 



FROM a bird of which many fables have 

 been reported, we pass to another that has not 



large elongated nails, which are evidently adapted for 

 scratching up the soil, a certain degree of approximation 

 to the gallinaceous tribe, to which others are inclined to 

 refer it ; but there is, however, a group of ground thrushes 

 as they are expressively called, to which, in the charac- 

 ters of the plumage and in habits, it would appear, we 

 think, to be still nearer related. 



In size, the menura is about equal to a pheasant. Its 

 general plumage is of a dull brown, inclining to rufous 

 on the quill-feathers ; the tail, which is much longer 

 than the body, consists of feathers so arranged, and of 

 such different sorts, as to form, when elevated, a figure 

 bearing no unapt resemblance to an ancient lyre ; the 

 position of these feathers will be better conveyed by 

 the figure in the plate than by description: the bill is com- 

 pressed, the nostrils forming a longitudinal slit, covered 

 with bristle-like feathers ; the legs are strong, the toes 

 completely divided, and armed with powerful blunted 

 nails, those of the hind claws being especially developed. 



1 Perhaps few birds have excited more curiosity amongst 

 naturalists than the Cuckoo, and some rather contradic- 

 tory accounts have from time to time been published re- 

 specting it. Dr Jenner was the first who threw any 

 light on the natural history of this extraordinary bird : 

 and his account is most interesting and satisfactory. 

 The fact of the young cuckoo turning out its weaker 

 companions, the natural inmates of the nest, is now un-< 

 disputed. This operation is, I believe, generally per- 

 formed on the second day after the birds are hatched, 

 at least, I have found it to be so in the cases which have 

 come under my own observation. The young intruder 

 seems to confine his dislike to his nestling companions 

 to the act of discharging them from the nest. In one 

 instance, which I had an opportunity of observing, the 

 young birds, which had only been hatched two days, 

 were so little hurt by a fall of four feet from the nest to 

 the ground, that two of them contrived to crawl a dis- 

 tance of eight or nine feet from the place on which they 

 had fallen. Sometimes the young cuckoo is hatched be- 

 fore the other birds: in which case he proceeds to dis- 

 card the eggs, which he is enabled to do by means of a 

 depression in the middle of his back. It seems, how- 



