214 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



lar fancies formerly maintained respecting the circum- 

 stance in question. 



It was evident, according to these authors, that 

 the bird of paradise was without feet ; for none had 

 them of the great numbers imported to Europe*. 

 It was even alleged that the inhabitants of Aron 

 believed the bird to be hatched with legs, but apt to 

 lose them, either from disease or old age, which, if 

 true, would both explain and excuse the error f. 

 M. Barere, again, who speaks of course from pure 

 conjecture, asserts, that they have legs so short and 

 so thickly clothed with feathers to the toes, that they 

 may readily be overlooked ; thus, as Buffon remarks, 

 falling into as great a mistake as the one he was 

 endeavouring to correct J. It is no less anomalous 

 and improbable, that each of the toes has three 

 joints ; for in almost all birds, the number of joints is 

 different in each toe, the hind one having two, in- 

 cluding that of the nail and of the fore toes, the 

 inner having three, the mid one four, and the outer 

 five . 



Trusting to Nieremberg||, who had heard from a 

 person that found a bird of paradise dead, of its 

 having no feet, and fortifying this with his own ob- 

 servation of specimens, he boldly pronounces upon 

 the mendacity of Pigafetta, who had sailed with the 

 circumnavigator Magellan in the ship Victoria, and 

 having seen the birds of paradise alive, asserted 

 that their legs were slender, and about a palm in 

 length ^f. Clusius, anxious to investigate the point, 

 made diligent inquiry among the Dutch navigators 

 who had sailed in the Oriental seas, and though he 



* Scaliger, Exercit. ccxxviii. 2. 



t Helbigius, Collect. Acad. Etrang. iii. 295. 



J Oiseaux, Art. 1'Ois. de Paradis. Ibid. note. 



|j Hist. Nat. x. 13. 

 ^f Physicse Curiosae, p. 1203. 



