ORNITHOLOGY. 



that the Greeks and Romans were wholly unacquainted with 

 this very interesting tribe of birds. 



Dr Foster has presented the learned world with a 

 classical Dissertation on the fabulous Phoenix of Antiquity, 

 a bird of the size of an Eagle, decorated with gold and 

 purple plumage, and more particularly described by Plin y, 

 as having the splendor of gold round the neck ; and the 

 rest of the body and tail consisting wholly of a prismatic 

 mixture of different colours. 



The names of these Indian birds, both in their own and 

 the European languages, appear to attribute something of 

 a celestial origin to them. The Portuguese navigators call 

 them the Passeros du Sol, or birds of the Sun; in the same 

 manner as the Egyptians had regarded the Phoenix as a 

 symbol of the annual revolution of the Sun. The Inhabi- 

 tants of the Island of Ternatc call them Manu co dewala, 

 or Birds of God; from this Indian name, the Count de 

 Buffon has derived the modern name, Manucode. 



The Royal, or King Bird of Paradise, is of a bright 

 orange colour on the neck and shoulders, and is perhaps 

 more destitute of extended feathers than any other of the 

 species. It is also the smallest of the Paradise Birds, and 

 usually measuring about five inches and a half in length, 

 without reckoning the two middle feathers of the tail, which 

 are most generally six inches long. The colour of the 

 upper part of the back is in general scarlet; the bill of a 

 pale yellow, and about an inch in length ; its base, as well 

 as the fore part of the head, surrounded with silken plumes; 

 the throat and part of the breast are of a deep red, and 

 there is a flap affixed to the side of the body, consisting 

 of feathers elegantly fringed, with white and green ends. 





