JO Wonders of the Bird World 



threads : hence its name of Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise 

 {Seieiictdes nigricans). 



The majority of the Paradiscida have shorter and more 

 Crow-Hke bills than those above mentioned, and to the true 

 Birds of Paradise, of the sub-family ParadiseincF^ belong 

 those beautiful birds with red or yellow streamers with 

 which we are accustomed to connect the name of the 

 Family, These yellow-plumed birds were brought as 

 curiosities from the Spice Islands by the ancient traders to 

 the Moluccas, and as the sun-dried skins were given to 

 them by the natives, who tore off the legs and also 

 frequently the wings as well, the belief got abroad that the 

 birds had no feet, and Linnaeus actually named one species 

 Paradisea apoda on account of this tradition. Perfect 

 specimens, however, were procured by Dr. A. R. Wallace 

 during his celebrated expedition to the Malay Archipelago, 

 and of late years it has become rare to see other than com- 

 plete specimens of these beautiful birds, as they are now 

 procured by well-trained hunters. It is a curious fact that, 

 however beautifully the skins may be preserved, and how- 

 ever carefully they may have been dressed with arsenic, the 

 yellow flank-plumes retain their colour better in the skins 

 of native manufacture which have never been properly 

 cured, but only dried in the sun. Even when preserved in 

 cabinets and kept from the light, these yellow plumes seem 

 to fade, and when exposed as mounted specimens, the 

 colour entirely leaves them in a few years. Although 

 yellow, orange, crimson, and green, are colours which 

 frequently occur among the Birds of Paradise, blue is com- 

 paratively rare and is found only occasionally, as on the bald 

 head of Sclilegelia rcspublica, a bird from the island of 

 Waigiou, which has a yellow mantle, a green breast-shield, 

 and two long centre tail-feathers, which curl round in a 

 half circle at the ends ; the principal feature of the species, 

 however, is its blue head, which is naked, save for a few 



