THE GULF COAST OF FLORIDA 261 



name ai ManuUdewata, or God's birds ; and the Portuguese, find- 

 ing they had no feet or wings, and not being able to learn any- 

 thing authentic about them, called them Passaros de Sol, or birds 

 of the sun ; while the learned Dutchmen, who wrote in Latin, 

 called them Avis paradiseus, or paradise bird. John van Lin- 

 schoten gives these names in 1598, and tells us that no one has seen 

 these birds ahve, for they live in the air, always turning toward the 

 sun, and never lighting on the earth till they die ; for they have 

 neither feet nor wings, as, he adds, may be seen by the birds 

 carried to India, and sometimes to Holland ; but being very 

 costly they were then rarely seen in Europe. More than a hun- 

 dred years later Mr. William Funnel, who accompanied Dampier, 

 and wrote an account of the voyage, saw specimens at Amboyna, 

 and was told that they came to Banda to eat nutmegs, which 

 intoxicated them and made them fall down senseless, and they 

 were killed by ants. Down to 1760, when Linnaeus named the 

 largest species Paradisea apoda (the footless Paradise bird), no 

 perfect specimen had been seen in Europe, and absolutely 

 nothing was known about them." 



It does not seem too late, even at this date, to 

 repair some of the damage, and much wise legis- 

 lation has been enacted to that end. Another 

 factor is, however, more essential, public opinion ; 

 the cultivation of the sensibilities, the discourage- 

 ment of taking life of any kind needlessly, the 

 establishment of friendship between man and 

 beast. The consummation of civilization in this 

 direction, and the knowledge that much greater 

 aesthetic satisfaction is to be derived from that 

 which is alive rather than from that which is 

 dead, is the result to be worked for. 



