PARADISEA APODA. 



GREAT BIRD OF PARADISE. 



THE GREATER BIRD OF PARADISE, Edw. Birds (1750), vol. iii. pi. 110— Lath. Gen. Syn. (1782) p. 471, vol. ii— Id. Gen. Hist. (1822) 



vol. iii. p. 182. 

 PARADISEA CASTANEA, Lath. Synops. sp. 1. 



L'OISEAU DE PARADIS, Briss. Ornith. (1760) vol. ii. p. 130, pi. xiii. 



L'OISEAU DE PARADIS DES MOLUQUES, Buff. Planch. Enlum. (1774) p. 190. t. 254.— Briss. Hist, des Ois. (1775) vol. iii. p. 151, 1. 12. 

 PARADISEA APODA, Linn. Syst. Nat. (1766) vol. i. p. 166.— Gmel. Syst. Nat. (1788) vol. i. pt. i. p. 399.— Lath. Ind. Ornith. (1790) vol. ii. 



p. 194.— Wagl. Syst. Av. (1827) sp. 1.— Bon. Consp. Gen. Av. (1850) p. 412. sp. 1.— G. R. Gray, List Gen. Birds (1855), p. 65.— Id. 



Hand-1. Birds (1870), pt. ii. p. 16. sp. 6247 — Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. (1861) p. 436.— Id. Gen. Birds (1845), vol. ii. p. 323. sp. 1.— Wall. 



Proc. Zool. Soc. (1862) p. 160.— Id. Ibis (1859), p. Ill (1861), p. 289.— Id. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (1857) vol. xx. p. 411. — Vieill. 



Ency. Meth. t. iii. p. 906.— Bechst. Kurze Uebersicht (1811), p. 130. sp. 1— Schleg. Mus. Pays-Bas (1867), p. 78.— Cuv. Regne Anim. 



(1829) vol. i. p. 426.— Wall. Malay Archip. vol. ii. p. 238 (1869).— Schleg. Journ. fur Ornith. (1861) p. 384.— Von Rosenb. Journ. fur 



Ornith. (1864) p. 42.— Id. Tidsch. Dierk. pt. xii. p. 342. 

 PARADISEA MAJOR, Shaw, Gen. Zool. (1809) vol. vii. pt. ii. p. 480, pi. 58, and (1826) vol. xiv. p. 76— Less. Ois. Parad. (1835), Syn. p. 6 ; 



Hist. Nat. p. 155. pi. 6.— Id. Ornith. p. 336 (1831). 

 LE GRAND OISEAU DE PARADIS EMERAUDE, Levaill. Hist. Nat. des Ois. Parad. vol. i. (1806) pis. 1, 2, 3. 

 L'EMERAUDE, Vieill. Ois. Dor. t. L, vol. ii. (1802) p. 9. 



PARADISEA APODA. var. WALLACIANA, G. R. Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1858) p. 181. sp. 73. 

 Hab. New Guinea, Aru (Wallace). 



For many years the Birds of Paradise have been known to all persons whose avocations called them to the 

 Moluccas ; and the earlier voyagers among those islands entertained strange views regarding these attractive creatures. 

 Their beautiful plumage excited the admiration of the most indifferent person ; and the strange stories related of them 

 aroused the fears of the more superstitious of even the reckless mariners. Wallace says that the Malay traders gave 

 them the name of " Manuk dewata," or " God's birds ; " and the Portuguese, finding them without feet or wings, and 

 not being able to learn any thing authentic about them, called them " Passaros do Sol," or "birds of the sun;" 

 while the learned Dutchmen who wrote in Latin, called them "Avis paradiseus," or "Paradise-bird." John Van 

 Linschoten gives these names in 1598, and states that no one has seen these birds alive ; for they live in the air, 

 always turning towards the sun, and never alighting on the earth until they die ; for he says that they have neither 

 feet nor wings, as may be seen by the birds carried to India, and sometimes to Holland. "More than a hundred years 

 later," says Wallace, " 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, when they were killed by ants." As no perfect specimen of tbis beautiful bird had been 

 seen in Europe at the time of Linnaeus, that naturalist gave the present species, one of the longest-known, the name 

 of apoda or footless, although it really is possessed of those members very respectable in size. The Great Bird of 

 Paradise, as its name imports, is the largest known species, and is an inhabitant of the Aru Islands. Mr. Wallace 

 whose opportunities for observing it in its native wilds have been most favourable, gives the following account of it 

 in his work on the Malay archipelago : — " The Great Bird of Paradise is very active and vigorous, and seems to be 

 in constant motion all day long. It is very abundant, small flocks of females and young males being constantly met 

 with; and though the fuU-plumaged birds are less plentiful, their loud cries, which are heard daily, show that they 

 also are very numerous. Their note is ' Wawk-wawk-wawk wok- wok- wok,' and is so loud and shrill as to be heard 

 a great distance, and to form the most prominent and characteristic animal sound in the Aru Islands. The 

 mode of nidification is unknown; but the natives told me that the nest was formed of leaves placed on an Ant's 

 nest, or on some projecting limb of a very lofty tree ; and they believe that it contains only one young bird. 

 The egg is quite unknown ; the natives declare that they have never seen it ; and a very high reward offered 

 for one by a Dutch official did not meet with success. They moult about January or February; and in May, 

 when they are in full plumage, the males assemble early in the morning to exhibit themselves in the singular 

 manner already described on page 151. This habit enables the natives to obtain specimens with comparative 

 ease. As soon as they find that the birds have fixed upon a tree on which to assemble, they build a little shelter 

 of palm-leaves in a convenient place among the branches; and the hunter ensconces himself in it before daylight, 



