122 



THAT 3 IT ; 



most magnificent plumage. The 

 habits of these beautiful creatures 

 are very little known. They 



14 



they migrate from the larger 

 island to the smaller ones. These 

 islands are subject to alternations 

 of rain and drought, though not 

 so violent, nor of such long con- 

 tinuance, as in the tropical re- 

 gions. When one island in which 

 they have made their haunts 

 becomes parched, and food and 

 drink fails them, they rise upon 

 the wing to seek another : 



On which side soever there happens to he a 

 place more humid and more abounding in those 

 creatures on which they feed, and on this ac- 

 count is better suited to them for the time, 

 there is a wind which blows from that side 

 toward the island which is parched and heated ; 

 and as the action of that wind upon their flo<s 

 culent feathers turns them round on their centre 

 of gravity like weathercocks, their heads are, as 

 they fly, turned to the wind, and their progress 

 is, of course, against its current. Their fea- 

 thers thus assist the birds in finding out the di- 

 rection of those places where they can feed ; 

 and though this is more remarkable in case of 

 Birds of Paradise than any other species, it is 

 probable that man)' of the softer-feathered 

 bird3 are also assisted in their tropical migra- 

 tions by the direction of the wind.* 



The golden bird of paradise, 12, 

 is remarkable for having long 

 slender feathers, 13, ending in a 



425. 



live in troops in the vast forests 

 of the islands they inhabit. Their 

 colours are much more brilliant 

 when living than when dead ; 

 therefore, from the skins and 

 feathers sent to this country only 

 an imperfect idea of their magni- 

 icence can be formed. M. Lenon, 

 small ova) vane, on either side of iavin S visi >? New Guinea, and 

 the head 5een one them upon the wing, 



The' incomparable, 14, is dis- tlius describes his emotions :— 



tincmUhprl hv « tail fhrpp tirnpc; Scarcely had I walked some hundred paces in 



tmguibnea Dy a xau xnree ximes , thoge ancient forestg} the daughters of time> 



longer than the body, and by the | whose sombre depth was perhaps the most 



i magnificent and stately sight I had fver seerx, 

 * Paitinjcton's British Cyclopaedia. when a Bird of Paradise struck wov view. It 



