PARADISEA MINOR. 



LESSER BIRD OF PARADISE. 



LESSER BIRD OF PARADISE, Lath. Gen. Syn. (1782) p. 474, vol. ii Id. Gen. Hist. Birds (1822), vol. iii. p. 184. 



LE PETIT EMERAUDE, Vieill. Ois. Dor. (1802) vol. ii. p. 12, pi. 2. 



PARADISEA MINOR PAPUANA, var. /3., Lath. Ind. Ornith. (1790) vol. ii. p. 194.— Less. Traite d'Ornith. (1831) p. .336. 

 PARADISEA MINOR PAPUANA, Forst. Zool. Ind. vol. i. (1781) p. 34. 



PARADISEA MINOR, Shaw, Gen. Zool. (1809) vol. vii. p. 486, (1826) vol. xiv. p. 76— Wagl. Syst. Av. (1827) sp. 2.-J. E. Gray, Illust. 



Ind. Zool. (1832) vol. i. pi.— Less. Ois. Parad. (1835) Syn. p. 3. sp. 1.— Hist. Nat. p. 132, pis. 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5.— Id. Man. d'Ornith. 



t. i. p. 392.— G. R. Gray, Hand-list of Birds (1870), pt. ii. p. 16. no. 6248. 

 LE PETIT OISEAU DE PARADIS EMERAUDE, Levaill. Hist. Nat. des Ois. Parad. (1806) vol. i. pis. 4 & 5. 

 L'OISEAU DE PARADIS PETIT-EMERAUDE, Less. Voy. Coquille, (text) vol. i. (1826) p. 654.— Vieill. Ois. Dor. t. ii. pi. 11. 

 PARADISEA PAPUANA, Bechst. Kurze Uebersicht (1811), p. 131. sp. 2.— G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 323. sp. 2— Bon. Consp. Gen. 



Av. (1850) -p. 413. sp. 2 — Sclat. Proc. Zool. Soc.(1862) p. 123.— G. R. Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1859) p. 157. sp. 48.— Wall. Proc. Zool. 



Soc. (1862) p. 160— Id. Ibis, (1859) p. ill, (1861) p. 287.— Schleg. Mus. Pays Bas, (1867) p. 82.— Wall. Malay Archip. vol. ii. p. 240.— 



Schleg. Journ. fur Orn. (1861) p. 385.— Von Rosenb. Journ. fur Orn. (1864) p. 129.— Schleg. Tijdsch. Dierk. parts 4 & 5, pp. 17 & 49. 

 PARADISEA BARTLETTII, Goodwin, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1860) p. 243. 



Hab. New Guinea, Waigiou, Mysol, Salwatty, Jobie, Mysory, Biak, Sook (Wallace ; Bernstein). 



The Lesser Bird of Paradise is, as its name implies, smaller than the P. apoda, to which, however, it hears 

 some resemblance ; and by those who are not familiar with the two species, the present one is not unfrequently 

 confounded with its larger relative. But, besides having a much larger extent of yellow upon the back, the 

 plumes of the two birds are very different both in structure and colour. The P. minor has been known for 

 a long time to naturalists, having been mentioned by Latham, in his ' General Synopsis of Birds,' as far back 

 as the year 1782. Among ornithologists it has generally been known as Paradisea papuana ; but this name 

 will have to give place to that of P. minor, conferred upon it by Shaw in 1809. In the ■ Zoology of the 

 Voyage of the Coquille,' Lesson, who procured specimens of this bird while the ship was visiting the Moluccas, 

 gives an account of it, a translation of which I here insert : — 



"The small Emerald Bird of Paradise feeds, without doubt, upon various things in its state of freedom. We 

 can affirm that it lives on the seeds of the teak and on a fruit named amihou, of a pinkish white colour, 

 delicate flavour, and glutinous, of the size of the small European fig, and which grows on a tree of the 

 genus Ficus. Many birds are very fond of these fruits ; for they are also sought for by the Calaos, the 

 Manucodes, and the Phonygames, Calybe and Keraudren. We have seen two Birds of Paradise kept by 

 the Chinese at Amboina : they were always in motion ; they were fed with boiled rice, but liked above every 

 thing the moths or kakerlacs. A trader asked five hundred francs a-piece for them. We regretted that 

 we were not able to take them to France, where doubtless they would have lived ; for their habits being 

 analogous to our Magpie promised us many chances of success. This beautiful bird fives in bands in the vast 

 forests of the Papuan archipelago, situated south of the Equator, and which is composed of the islands of 

 Arou and Waigiou and of the large one called New Guinea. They are birds of passage, changing their 

 abode according to the monsoon. The females assemble in large troops on the summits of the largest trees 

 in the forest, crying altogether to call the males, who appear in small numbers amongst them and seem to 

 form a harem after the manner of the Gallinaceous birds." 



The same author, in his work on the Birds of Paradise, writes as follows concerning this species: — "The 

 small Emerald Bird of Paradise has the quick and agile movements and the manners of the Coraces. In the 

 forests that it inhabits it seeks the summits of the tallest trees; and when it descends to the lower branches, 

 it is to search for food, or to protect itself from the rays of the sun when that orb is at its meridian. It 



