BIRD OF PARADISE. 219 



like our Rooks and Crows, are great destroyers of 

 grubs and insects, though at the same time it cannot 

 be denied, that they may occasionally commit partial 

 depredations on the farmer's property. 



Some birds of the Grackle genus have a singular 

 appendage to the head, composed of a naked skin or 

 wattle, which gives them a very odd appearance, 

 as shown in the opposite figure. 



Of the Paradise-birds we know but little, for 

 they are almost entirely confined to New Guinea, 

 and a few neighbouring islands in the India seas, 

 inhabited by wild tribes, with whom travellers have 

 but little communication. These people catch the 

 Paradise-birds, and dry their skins, which they 

 barter with ships passing along the coast. It was 

 for a long time believed, by ignorant persons, that 

 they had no legs, for they were never seen alive, 

 excepting when flying across from one island to 

 another, the natives always bringing dead specimens 

 for sale, without the legs, possibly because they 

 thought they looked better without them, in many 

 species the leg being coarse, and unbecoming a bird 

 in every other respect so exquisitely beautiful. It 

 is quite impossible to describe their beauty, or give 

 even a faint idea of it without coloured representa- 

 tions; and few of the most favoured of the feathered 

 race can rival them in the gorgeous variety and sin- 

 gularity of their splendid dress. Some are orna- 

 mented with light projecting tufts, of a fine downy 

 substance, while others have plumes and tendrils 

 flying out in every direction, like pennants and 

 streamers, while their bodies glisten with the most 

 dazzling and resplendent hues, changing from crim- 



