54 THE BIRD OF PARADISE. 



themselves in the trees where they resort, and shoot them with 

 arrows made of reeds, in order to damage as little as possible 

 their beautiful plumage. When they have killed a number of 

 these birds, they take out every part of their entrails, and run a 

 hot iron up their bodies, which dries up the juices. They then 

 stuff them with salts and aromatic spices, and offer them for 



The inhabitants of the Molucca islands pretend that each 

 flock of these birds is headed by its king, who, as they say, is 

 distinguished from his subjects by the superior beauty of his plu- 

 mage, and the voluntary homage which he receives. They also 

 assert, that if they have the good fortune to shoot the king, the 

 greatest part of the flock becomes an easy and certain prey. It 

 is, however, highly probable, that this, like the other stories 

 above mentioned, has been invented by the Malayans to excite 

 the curiosity of the Europeans, and render them the dupes of 

 their credulity. 



These birds are supposed to migrate into other regions at the 

 time of the monsoons ; as during the periodical storms of thunder 

 and rain which prevail at those seasons, they are scarcely ever 

 seen ; a circumstance which renders the opinion, if not certain, 

 at least extremely probable. 



Among the many different species of this bird, that called the 

 king-bird of paradise, is difficult to recognise in the variety of 

 description, and the confusion of names. Buffbn distinguishes 

 two species, by the appellations of the king-bird, and the mag- 

 nificent bird of paradise ; but, as they are both described of the 

 size of a black-bird, it is probable that they are the same, and 

 that the difference is only nominal or imaginary. The descrip- 

 tion, accompanied with a coloured plate, given in " The Young 

 Gentleman and Lady's Magazine, for March 1799," represents 

 Jie greatest part of the plumage of the king-bird of paradise, as 

 being of a beautiful and vivid carmine, all his colours of a soft 

 and silky appearance, having the gloss of polished metal. The 

 two shafts proceeding from the rump, are blackish, and not 

 bearded, and extend very far below the tail and wings. Near 

 the extremities, these singular appendages become bearded, and 

 by an elegant convolution, form a pretty large circle, of a bright 

 emerald colour, varying according to the shade in which it is 

 viewed. 



We have endeavoured to give, from the best authorities, as 

 accurate a delineation as possible of this singular bird, which 

 has so long excited the curiosity of this part of the world, and 

 produced a puzzling enigma to European ornithologists. Hav- 

 ing exhibited to view the most striking display of the beauties 

 Of Nature in the pie tribe, we shall close our description of that 



