KtNG BIRD OF PARADISE. 
beautiful birds destitute of legs, concluded that 
they must necessarily be inhabitants of a su- 
perior clime, and accordingly named them 
Birds of Paradise. Error, however, is happi- 
ly riot always long-lived; and, in the present 
instance, it was at length discovered, that 
these birds not only have legs, but tliat they 
are so disproportionably large and strong as 
to take considerably from the elegance of the 
birds, which were probably on. that very ac- 
count originally deprived of them by the 
crafty natives. 
To the recent discoveries of Sonnerat, we 
are indebted for much additional information 
respecfling the Birds of Paradise ; which, un- 
questionably, exceed all other classes, in the 
"beauty, variety, and peculiar constru6lion, of 
their plumage. 
Tt appears that they associate in large flocks, 
amidst tlie delightful spicev w^oods and groves 
of their native islands ; and that the inhabi- 
tants themselves are so sensible of their supe- 
rior bcaurv, as to name them, in their lan- 
guage, 
