KING BIRD OF PARADISE. 
thrusting a hot iron up the body, to dry all 
internal moisture, and filling the cavities with 
salt and spices, thev carry them to the usual 
resort of Europeans, by whom they are rea- 
dily purchased. 
OT the King Bird of Paradise, which we 
are now more particularly to describe, Sonne- 
fat observes, that all liis predecessors have ei- 
ther given an imperfedl idea, or- copied from 
defedtive models. 
This bird, he sav5, is about the size of the 
cottimdn European blackbird. It's head, 
•heck, throat, back, tail, and wings, are of a 
shining red, as bright and vivid as carmine, 
and of a soft and silky appearance I'he mid- 
dle of the belly is white, terminated by a 
transverse bar of green below tl\e neck ; the 
feathers which form this bar being of abrigh:- 
niess and polisii resembling metal. On ea(.h 
side of the belly, beneath the wings, there are 
Jong feathers ; brown at their bases, and aUo 
a corisidtrable w^av upward, but taniinatin^ 
in green points of the same lustre as th.(? 
ti-ausveric 
