ORDER PASSERIFORMES : PERCHING BIRDS. 

 CHAPTER II. 



BIRDS OF PARADISE ORIOLES DROXGOS WOOD SHRIKES CUCKOO SHRIKES FLYCATCHERS. 



THE BIRDS OF PAEADISE Variety of Plumage Gaudily dressed Crows Points in which they differ from the Crows- 

 Two Sub-familiesMr. Wallace's Account of their Habits Their History The Great Bird of Paradise The Smaller 

 Bird of Paradise Dr. Beccari on the Birds of Paradise of the Arfaks THE ORIOLES- -THE GOLDEN ORIOLE 

 Mr. Dresser's Description of its Habits Size and Colour THE DRONGOS Distinctive Features The Marquis of 

 Tweeddale's Definition of the Family THE WOOD SHRIKES Mr. Gould's Account of the Pied Grallina THE 

 COMMON WOOD SHRIKE- THE CUCKOO SHRIKES Habitat Appearance Mr. Gould on the Black-faced Cuckoo 

 Shrike Dr. Jerdon on the Common Indian Species THE FLYCATCHERS Characters THE COMMON FLY- 

 CATCHER Habits THE FANTAILS Mr. Gould's Account of the White-shafted Fantail and the Black Fantail THE 

 PARADISE FLYCATCHERS THE RESTLESS FLYCATCHER. 



THE SECOND FAMILY OF THRUSH-LIKE PERCHING BIRDS. 



THE BIRDS OF PARADISE (Paradisiida}. 



WITH the exception of the Humming-birds, there is no family which embraces so many peculiar 

 and fantastically decorated forms as that of the Birds of Paradise. Eveiy variety of plumage is met 

 with in them, some having extraordinary plumes on the head, others being adorned with breast- 

 shields, while many have the flank feathers produced to an inordinate length, so as even to 

 hide the tail-feathers in some of the species. Strip them of their gorgeous plumage, and their time 

 affinities become at once apparent, and they stand confessed as being nothing more than gaudily dressed 

 Crows. Some of the Birds of Paradise such as the Manucodes (Manucodia), or the Brown Birds of 

 Paradise (Lycocorax) exhibit even a Corvine appearance in their plumage, the latter birds being of a 

 plain brown and black colour; but the whole family differ from the true Crows in the proportions of 

 their feet, the outer toe being a little shorter than the middle one and longer than the inner toe, the 

 hind toe, at the same time, being very large, and equalling the middle one in length. The family 

 may be divided into two sub-families, the first of which may be called the Sickle-billed Birds of 

 Paradise (Epimackince). All of these have a long curved bill, and include the Rifle Birds (Ptilorhis), 

 the Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise (Seleucides), and the Sickle-bills (Drepanornis and Epimachus], 

 The second sub-family is that of the true Paradise Birds (Paradisiince). About thirty-four different 

 kinds are known up to the present time, and the range of the family is included in a very small 

 area : for, with the exception of the Rifle Birds and Manucodes, which are found in Australia as 

 well as New Guinea, all the other members of the family are inhabitants of the latter island 

 and the adjacent Moluccas, extending as far as the Batchian and Gilolo group. Science is indebted 

 to Mr. A. R. Wallace for authentic information respecting the habits of the Paradise Birds, 

 and the following extracts ara taken from his well-known work on the Malay Archipelago. 

 Writing in 1869, Mr. Wallace observes: "As many of my journeys were made with the 

 express object of obtaining specimens of the Birds of Paradise, and learning something of their 

 habits and distribution, and being (as far as I am aware) the pnly Englishman who has seen 

 these wonderful birds in their native forests, and obtained specimens of many of them, I propose 

 to give here, in a connected form, the result of my observations and inquiries. When the earliest 

 European voyagers reached the Moluccas in search of cloves and nutmegs, which were then rare and 

 precious spices, they were presented with the dried skins of birds so strange and beautiful as to excite 

 the admiration even of these wealth-seeking rovers. The Malay traders gave them the name of 

 Jfanifk dewata, or God's Birds ; and the Portuguese, finding that they had no feet or wings, and not 

 being able to learn anything axithentic about them, called them Passaros de Sol, or Birds of the Sun ; 

 while the learned Dutchmen, who wrote in Latin, called them Avis paradiseus, or Paradise Birds. 

 John van Linschoten gives these names in 1598, and tells us that no one has seen these birds alive, 

 for they live in the air, always turning towards the sun, and never lighting on the earth till they die ; 

 for they have neither feet nor wings : as, he adds, may be seen by the birds carried to India, and 

 sometimes to Holland ; but being very costly, they were then rarely seen in Europe. More than a 

 hundred years later, Mr. William Funnel, who accompanied Dampier, and wrote an account of the 

 voyage, saw specimens at Amboyna, and was told that they came to Banda to eat nutmegs, which 

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