1862. | ACQUISITION OF A PAIR OF PARADISE BIRDS. 123 
in the middle of the row are separated from the rest by a space 
double the size of that which is between the other hooks (figs. 9, 
SSeS od 
er Seeiahis 4 
10, 11) ; and if this is found to be in all the species, it is a distinction 
easy to observe. 
April 8, 1862. 
Dr. J. E. Gray, V.P., in the Chair. 
The Secretary announced the acquisition by the Society for their 
Menagerie of a pair of living Paradise-birds (Paradisea papuana). 
Mr. A. R. Wallace (the well-known traveller and naturalist, who 
had been engaged these last eight years in exploring the more little- 
known islands of the Indian Archipelago) had for some time held a 
commission to obtain living Birds of Paradise for the Society. 
But though Mr. Wallace had visited in person the islands inhabited 
by several species of this magnificent group of birds, he had failed 
in his efforts to preserve the birds alive when captured, and had 
given up all hopes of being successful in his object. A short 
time before Christmas 1861, when in the interior of Sumatra, Mr. 
Wallace had received information of two specimens of the Lesser 
Birds of Paradise (Paradisea papuana) being alive in captivity at 
Singapore. Mr. Wallace immediately proceeded to that place, pur- 
chased the birds, which were then in the hands of a European mer- 
chant, and left by the following mail for England, arriving in safety 
in London with his valuable burden on the Ist of the month. 
The two Paradise-birds had been lodged in the upper part of the 
Zoological Society’s old museum, a room having been fitted up for 
their reception with a large cage of galvanized wire, 20 feet long by 
llin width. As they were both males, it had been found necessary 
to keep them apart, the sight of one another, or even of a Paradise- 
bird’s plume waved near them in the air, producing in them great 
excitement. The cage had been, therefore, divided by a screen 
which excluded the light, and the two birds placed in the separate 
compartments. The remarkable side-plumes which ornament the 
males of the true Paradisee when in full dress were as yet but par- 
tially developed in these specimens, but in a few weeks, if the birds 
continue to thrive, would probably attain their full dimensions. 
