138 
POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. 
Through seas of ether, where the ruffling sway 
Of nether air's rude billows is unknown ; 
"Whom sylphs, if e'er for casual pastime they 
Through India's spicy regions wing their way, 
Might bow to as their Lord." 
This species acquired its specific name of apoda, or the 
footless/^ from the skins having been formerly sent to Europe 
without the legs. They were procured from the natives, 
who, to enhance the value of the birds, described them as 
being destitute of legs, and as continually flying about in 
the air. Tennyson, in the epilogue of the ^ Day-dream,^ 
alludes to 
"long-tail'd Birds of Paradise, 
That float through Heaven, and cannot light." 
In the Arru Islands the Birds of Paradise form an article 
of traffic : the natives shoot them with blunt arrows, so that 
they are stunned without having their plumage injured. The 
skins, when dried, are sold to the traders at one rupee each. 
Capfcain Stokes says the natives describe them as keeping 
together in flocks, directed by one of their number, called 
the Eajah-bird,^'' whose motions they follow^. 
Many species are known, but others seem still to remain 
in these little-visited islands to reward the researches of na- 
turalists. Mr. Cassin has described a new species, lately 
* Discoveries in Australia, vol. i. p. 464. 
