22 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



intoxicated them and made them fall down senseless, when they were killed by Ants. Down to 1760, 

 when Linnaeus named the largest species Paradisea apoda (the Footless Paradise Bird), no perfect 

 specimen had been seen in Europe, and absolutely nothing was known about them. And even now, 

 a hundred years later, most books state that they migrate annually to Ternate, Banda, and Amboyna ; 

 whereas the fact is that they are as completely unknown in those islands in a wild state as they are 



TWELVE-WIRED BIEB OF PARADISE. 



in England. Linnaeus was also acquainted with a small species, which he named Paradisea reyia 

 (the King Bird of Paradise), and since then nine or ten others have been named, all of which were 

 first described from skins preserved by the savages of New Guinea, and generally more or less im- 

 perfect. These are now all known in the Malay Archipelago as Burony mati, or dead birds, indicating 

 that the Malay traders never saw them alive." 



"The Great Bird of Paradise (Paradisea apoda* of Linnaeus) is the largest species known, being 

 generally seventeen or eighteen inches from the beak to the tip of the tail. The body, wings, and tail 

 are of a rich coffee brown, which deepens on the breast to a blackish-violet or purple brown. The 



* Apoda, without feet. 



