THE KINGBIRD OF PARADISE. 



Wouldn't you little folks like 

 to see a number of us brilliant, 

 gem-like Birds of Paradise flit- 

 ting among the trees as do your 

 Robins and Woodpeckers and 

 Jays? To see us spreading our 

 wings in the sun, and preening 

 our ruby and emerald and topaz 

 and amethyst tinted plumes, rib- 

 bons, and streamers? 



Ah, that would be an aston- 

 ishing sight, but you will have 

 to journey to an island in the 

 South Pacific Ocean to see that; 

 an island whose shores are 

 bathed by a warm sea, and where 

 the land is covered with the most 

 luxuriant tropical vegetation. 



It was about three hundred 

 years ago that the people of 

 Europe first knew that such 

 superb birds existed on this 

 earth. Traders visited one of 

 the Malayan islands in search of 

 cloves and nutmegs, and upon 

 leaving, the natives presented 

 them with a few dried skins of 

 a wonderfully beautiful bird. 

 The natives called them '' God's 

 Birds," and in order to propitiate 

 heaven for killing them, cut off 

 the feet of the dead birds and 

 buried them beneath the tree 

 upon which they were found. 



The dried bodies of the birds 

 were exported as time went on, 

 and as the people of Europe had 

 never seen one alive, but always 



the skin without legs and feet, 

 they came to consider them as 

 heavenly birds, indeed, formed 

 to float in the air as they dwelt in 

 the Garden of Eden, resting 

 occasionally by suspending 

 themselves from the branches of 

 trees by the feathers of their 

 tails, and feeding on air, or the 

 soft dews of heaven. Hence they 

 called us the Birds of Paradise. 



It was not till one hundred 

 years after, when a writer and 

 collector of birds visited the 

 island, and spent years in watch- 

 ing and studying us, that the 

 truth became known. Certainly, 

 the gentleman must have 

 laughed, when, instead of heaven- 

 ly dew, he saw a Bird of 

 Paradise catch a Grasshopper 

 and holding it firmly by his 

 claws, trim it of wings and 

 legs, then devour it, head first. 

 Fruit and insects of all kinds 

 we eat instead of dew and air. 



He also saw a party of twenty 

 or thirty males dancing on the 

 branches of huge trees, raising 

 their wings, stretching out their 

 necks and elevating their plumes 

 all for the purpose of admiring 

 themselves or being admired. 

 Some of them have finer plumage 

 than I, but only the Kingbirds 

 OF Paradise have those two dear 

 little rings which you see in my 

 picture. 



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