ORDER PASSERES. 339 



moment's reflection on the ordinary mode in which the ope- 

 rations of Nature are performed, would have checked the 

 propagation of such folly. Nature, always wise and regular 

 in her productions, could not have formed any species desti- 

 tute of the means of living and perpetuating itself. Mon- 

 sters are only accidental deviations from the prescribed and 

 customary succession of phenomena. 



The first birds of Paradise transported from the Austra- 

 lasian regions had no feet, because the natives of New 

 Guinea and the neighbouring islands, where these birds 

 appeared exclusively to exist, used to make certain ornaments 

 of them, and deprive them of those limbs which covdd not 

 answer that especial purpose. The quantity of superabun- 

 dant feathers with which the sides of these birds are covered, 

 must have necessarily concealed over the dried skin, the 

 places whose parts had been mutilated. A little attention, 

 however, might have discovered the traces of them, in raising 

 the sub-alar feathers ; but the love of the marvellous, and 

 the fondness for conjecture prevailed, and absurd theories 

 were formed, to explain how these birds could live and 

 propagate in the air. As they were rarely seen at the epochs 

 of incubation, they were dismissed to nestle in the terres- 

 trial Paradise, from which, without doubt, their name was 

 derived ; as in the same way, from certain virtues attributed 

 to them by the soothsayers and priests of the country, was 

 derived their native name of Manucode, which signifies Bird 

 of God. 



Pigafetta, who embarked in the fleet of Magellan in 1825, 

 was the first navigator who ascertained that these birds had 

 wings and feet like all other birds. When the islanders 

 were informed that the Europeans were so tasteless as to 

 prefer them in a perfect state, they began to preserve 

 them accordingly. But, as for want of other means, they 

 have continued to dry them, either in ovens, or hot sand, it 



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