THE LYllE-BIllD-BIKDS OF PARADISE. 



G53 



of India. Another species, nearly similar io size and proportions, but distinguished by 

 a much longer crest, inhabits the Javanese forests. 



Though of less dazzling splendor than this peacock's tail, that of the Menura, or 

 Lyre-bird, is unrivalled for its elegance. Fancy two large, broad, black and brown- 

 striped feathers, curved in the form of a Grecian lyre, and between botli, other feath- 

 ers whose widely-distanced silken barbs e^ivelcpe and surmount them with a light and 

 airy gauze. No painter could possibly have imagined anything to equal this master- 

 piece of nature, which its shy possessor conceals in the wild bushes of Australia. 



The lyre-bird is constantly engaged in traversing the brush from mountain top 

 to the bottom of the gullies, whose steep and rugged sides present no obstacle to 

 its long legs and powerful muscular thighs. When running quickly through the 

 brush, it carries the tail hoiizontally, that being the only position in which it could be 

 borne at such times. Besides its loud, full cry, which may be heard at a great distance, 

 it has an inward and varied song, the lower notes of which can only be heard when 

 you have stealthily approached to within a few yards of the bird when it is singing. 

 Its habits appear to he solitary, seldom more than a pair being seen together. It 

 constructs a large nest, formed on the outside of sticks and twigs, like that of a magpie, 

 and lined with the inner bark of trees and fibrous roots. 



But of all the tropical birds there are none so absolutely distinctive of the equatorial 

 regions as the Birds of Paradise, which are found only in some of the islands of the 

 Malay Archipelago. Until about 18G8 really nothing was known to Europeans 

 respecting these birds, which in gorgeousness of coloring and elegance of form and 

 plumage surpass all others. Stuffed skins of these birds, curiously prepared, have 

 long been found in European museums, and from these the strangest descriptions have 

 been given, which still find place in books upon Natural History. When the early 

 navigators reached the Moluccas in search of cloves and nutmegs, they were presented 

 with dried skins of a kind of bird so beautiful as to excite even their wonder and 

 admiration. Malay traders called them 'God's Birds,'' and the I'ortuguese renamed 

 them " Birds of the Sun." A learned Dutchman, who wrote in Latin, gave them the 

 name which they now bear. These skins were always without feet or wings, and it 

 was said, and currently believed, that no one had ever seen one of them alive ; that 

 they lived only in the air, and, being destitute of feet, never alighted ; but as they 

 were equally without wings, how they managed to keep afloat in the air was a mystery 

 of which no solution was attempted. It was not till generations had passed that it 

 was discovered that the natives, in preparing the skins, cut off their very serviceable 

 legs and wings, and so arranged what was left as to give the greatest possible promi- 

 nence to their flowing tail-plumage. One fable was thus displaced; but everything 

 else remained unknown. 



In 1862 Mr. Alfred Russell Wallace, an English naturalist, set himself seriously at 

 work to investigate the Natural History of the iNIalay Islands; and to his work,* 

 published in 18G8, which we have already had frequent occasion to cite, we are 

 indebted for about all that is really known respecting the Birds of Paradise ; and this 

 cost him five successive voyages, each occupying in preparation and execution nearly a 

 year. He describes and illustrates eighteen difl"erent species. In all of these, it must 

 be borne in mind that the brilliant colors and remarkable plumage belong to the 



* The Malay Archipelago. 



