ORDER PASSERES. 343 



snares, bird-lime, &c. When taken alive they defend them- 

 selves courageously, giving violent blows with their bill. 

 The Moors with these birds make plumes for their helmets, 

 and sometimes suspend them to their sabres. The islanders 

 of Aroo say that the tails of these birds, that is, their sub- 

 alar and accessory feathers, fall during the eastern monsoon, 

 and are not seen for four months. 



The King Paradise Bird is solitary ; does not perch, it is 

 said, on large trees, but hovers from bush to bush, feeding 

 on the red berries which certain shrubs produce. All this 

 very ill accords with the quality of chief, or king, of the 

 birds of Paradise, which nestle on the lofty trees of moun- 

 tains. The islanders take him with a bird-lime or glue 

 drawn from the autocorpus communis. His general habitat 

 is New Guinea, except during the western monsoon, when he 

 remains in the Aroo islands. 



Of the habits of the other species of the birds of Paradise, 

 nothing is known. 



We now resume the text of Cuvier. 



