1 34 PASSERES. PARADISEAD^E. 



ous. So the Ravens built on, nest upon nest, 

 in perfect security, till the fatal day arrived in 

 which the wood was to be levelled. It was in 

 the month of February, when those birds usually 

 sit. The saw was applied to the butt, the wedges 

 were inserted in the opening, the wood echoed 

 to the heavy blows of the beetle or mallet, the 

 tree nodded to its fall; but still the dam sat on. 

 At last, when it gave way, the bird was flung 

 from her nest ; and though parental affection de- 

 served a better fate, was whipped down by the 

 twigs, which brought her dead to the ground." * 



FAMILY II. PARADISEAD^E. 



(Birds of Paradise.) 



The Family which we come now to describe, 

 though very limited in extent, contains the most 

 singular and the most magnificent of the feathered 

 tribes. Natives of the remote island of New 

 Guinea, to which they are almost confined, for a 

 long time they were known to Europe only by the 

 mutilated skins which from time to time found 

 their way hither, among the rarities of Indian 

 commerce, and by the strange and extravagant 

 fables with which tradition had embellished their 

 history. Natural history with our forefathers was 

 very largely fabulous, but with no animals had 

 fiction been more busy than with these Birds of 

 Paradise. " From one fabulist to another came 

 the tradition (losing nothing, as is usual with tra- 

 ditions, in its descent), that these 'gay creatures 

 of the element ' passed their whole existence in 



* White's Selborne, Letter I. First series. 



