136 
POPULAR HISTOEY Oi^^ BIHDS. 
was brougbt to him alive. This specimen had been wounded 
shghtly in the head^ but it soon became very active. He 
put it in a large wicker basket ; but as the creature was^ not 
without reason^ in a great pet^ it refused to eat. Mr. Wallace 
fed it for two days by thrusting pieces of banana down its 
throat. He found an acid fruit, about twice the size of a 
cherry ; this he gave it, and the fruit was readily taken and 
swallowed whole. This interesting bird died soon after, but 
not before giving our traveller ample opportunities of ob- 
serving its habits, and more especially its manner of open- 
ing and closing its crest and neck-plume. 
The Birds of Paradise (Paradiseid^) form a limited fa- 
mily, connecting the crows and starlings, and pre-eminently 
distinguished by the gorgeousness of their plumage. They 
are large-beaked and large-footed birds, which are said to 
live in considerable flocks in New Guinea and other islands 
to the north of New Holland. There are few naturalists 
who have seen them alive. Mr. Bennett, in his ^ Wander- 
ings in New South Wales,^ etc."^, mentions a live specimen 
of the P.apoda (Plate IX. fig. 3) which he saw at Macao, in the 
aviary of Mr. Beale, where it had been kept for nine years, 
and where its occasional caw and resounding note of whocJc, 
* Vol. ii. pp. 36-48. 
