I JO 1 
nearest relatives of these beautiful birds arc iIil' Crows, which 
include some of the humblest members of the feathery tribe. 
For a detailed account of them see Wallace^s classical work. 
The Malay Archipelago,' 
The Birds of Paradise becamt; known to " Europeans first 
during Magellan's voyage in 1521, and for the next few centur- 
ies extraordinary stories were told about them, especially as 
for a long time the skins which reached Europe were without 
legs. So the ' Greater Bird of Paradise' was called ' Paradisea 
tfpmiit \ i.e. the footless one. And in Magellan's Voyage 
(Hakluyt Society*s Publications) we read that these birds 
" have no wings, but instead of them long feathers of different 
colours, like plumes ; — they never fly» except when the wind 
blows. They told us that these birds come from the terrestrial 
Paradise, and they call them 'bolon dinata', that is divine 
birds."— Their genera! Malay name is Chenderawaseh or 
Burong dewata. 
The most gorgeous Bird of Paradise in the collection 
is the 'Lesser Bird of Paradise' {Paradisca jobknsis), with 
masses of snow-white plumes springing from the sides of its 
breast. In the Red B. of P. [Paradisea raggiana and P. 
sanguinea) these plumes are red. Otherwise these three 
species are much alike, also with regard to the wire or riband- 
like shafts springing from their tails. Similar tail-shafts are 
seen in a smaller bird» the King Paradise Bird {Cindnnurits 
regius), where they end in a spiral disk. In other species such 
wires spring from the wings, as in the l2-wired B, of P, {Seieuci- 
des nigricans), and in others again from the head, as in the 
Six-plumed B. of P. {Pat-ntiu sejilata and P. carotac)^ In the 
Fern-plumed B. of P. {Pteridophora albert i) the plumes spring- 
ing from the head resemble sprigs of fern, and this species 
may well be regarded as the most extraordinary of all Birds of 
Paradise. It is not m(?ntioned in Wallace's ' Malay Archipelago,' 
as it was not known yet at the time. The Gorget B. of P. 
{Astrapid mgra) and the Long-tailed B. of P (Epimachtis speci- 
osiis) are distinguished by their enormous tails, whilst in others 
the feathers of the breast assume the shape of shieldst as in the 
Superb B. of P. [Lophorhina superha). In Wallace's Standard 
Wing {Scmioptera ivallacei) we find a pair of long and narrow 
feathers springing from each wing, which are erectile and can 
be spread out when the bird is excited. The female Birds of 
Paradise are all plain coloured. Exhibited are those of the 
bcak-brcasted B. uf P. {Plilorhis m^tsJiiJit^a) and of Iht l2-wired 
