184 
HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
authentic about them, called the birds “Passa- 
ros de Sol,” or Birds! of the! Sun; while the 
learned Dutchmen, .who wvote in Latin, called 
them “Avis paradilseus;” or Paradise Bird. 
John van Linschoten gives tlie.‘;e names,in 1598, 
and tells us that no one has seen these birds 
alive, for they live in the air, always turning to¬ 
ward the sun, and never lighting on the earth 
till they die; for they have neither feet nor 
wings, as, he adds, may be seen by the birds 
carried to India, and sometimes to Holland, but 
being very costly they were then rarely seen in 
Europe. 
More than a hundred vears later Mr. William 
Funnel, who accompanied Dampier, and wrote 
an account of the voyage, saw specimens at Am- 
boyna, and was told that they came to Banda to 
eat nutmegs, which intoxicated them and made 
them fall down senseless, when they were killed 
by ants. Down to 17C0, when Linnajus named 
the largest species, Paradisea apoda (the Foot¬ 
less Paradise Bird), no perfect specimen had 
been seen in Europe, and absolutely nothing 
was known about them. And even now, a hun¬ 
dred years later, most books state that they 
migrate annually to Ternate, Banda, and Am- 
boyna; whereas the fact is, that they are as 
completely unknowm in those islands in a wild 
state as they are in England. Linnajus was 
also acquainted with a small species, which he 
named Paradisea regia (the King Bird of Para¬ 
dise), and since then nine or ten others have 
been named, all of which were first described 
from skins preserved by the savages of New 
Guinea, and generally more or less imperfect. 
These are now all knowm in the Malay Archi¬ 
pelago as “Burong mati,” or Dead Birds, in¬ 
dicating that the Malay traders never saw them 
alive. 
The Paradiseidai are a group of moderate¬ 
sized birds, allied in their structure and habits 
to crows, starlings, and to the Australian hon- 
eysuckers; but they are characterized by ex¬ 
traordinary developments of plumage, which 
are unequalsd in any other family of birds. 
In several species large tufts of delicate bright- 
colored feathers spring from each side of the 
body beneath the wings, forming trains, or fans, 
or shields ; and the middle feathers of the tail 
are often elongated into wires, twisted into fan¬ 
tastic shapes, or adorned with the most brilliant 
metallic tints. In another set of species these 
accessory plumes spring from the head, the 
back, or the shoulders; while the intensity of 
color and of metallic lustre displayed by their 
plumage is not to be equaled by any other birds, 
except, perhaps, the humming-birds, and is not 
surpassed even by these. They have been usu¬ 
ally classified under two distinct families, Pa- 
radisekke and Epitnachidce, the latter character¬ 
ized by long and slender beaks, and supposed 
to be allied to the hoopoes ; but the two groups 
are so closely allied in every essential point of 
structure and habits, that I shall consider them 
as forming subdivisions of one family. I will 
now give a sliort description of each of the 
known species, and then add some general re¬ 
marks on their natural history. 
The Great Bird of Paradise (Paradisea 
apoda of Linmeus) is the largest s])ecies known, 
being generally seventeen or eighteen inches 
from the beak to the tip of the tail. The body, 
wings, and tail are of a rich coffee-brown, which 
deepens on the breast to a blackish-violet or 
purple-brown. The whole top of the head and 
neck is of an exceedingly delicate straw-yellow, 
the feathers being short and close set, so as to 
resemble plush or velvet; the lower part of tiie 
throat up to the eye is clothed with scaly feath¬ 
ers of an emerald-green color, and with a rich 
metallic gloss, and velvety plumes of a still 
deeper green extend in a band across the fore¬ 
head a-nd chin as far as the eye, which is bright 
yellow. The beak is pale lead-blue; and the 
feet, which are rather large and very strong and 
well formed, are of a pale ashy-pink. The two 
middle feathers of the tail have no webs, ex¬ 
cept a very small one at the base and at the ex¬ 
treme tip, forming wire-like cirrhi, which spread 
out in an elegant double curve, and vary from 
twenty-four to thirty-four inches long. From 
each side of the body, beneath the wings, springs 
a dense tuft of long and delicate plumes, some¬ 
times two feet in length, of the most intense 
golden-orange color and very glossy, but chang¬ 
ing toward the tips into a pale brown. This 
tuft of plumage can be elevated and spread out 
at pleasure, so as almost to conceal the body 
of the bird. 
These splendid ornaments are entirely con¬ 
fined to the male sex, while the female is really 
a very plain and ordinary-looking bird of a uni¬ 
form coffee-brown color which never changes, 
neither does she possess the long tail wires, nor 
a single yellow or green feather about the head. 
The young males of the first year exactly re¬ 
semble the females, so that they can only be 
distinguished by dissection. The first change 
is the acquisition of the yellow and green color 
on the head and throat, and at the same time 
the two middle tail feathers grow a few inches 
longer than the rest, but remain webbed on 
both sides. At a later period these feathers 
are replaced by the long bare shafts of the full 
length, as in the adult bird; but there is still no 
sign of the magnificent orange side plumes, 
which later still complete the attire of the per¬ 
fect male. To effect these changes there must 
be at least three successive inoultings; and as 
the birds were found by me in all the stages 
about the same time, it is probable that they 
moult only once a year, and that the full plu¬ 
mage is not acquired till the bird is four years 
old. It was long thought that the fine train of 
feathers was assumed for a short time only at 
the breeding season, but my own experience, 
as well as the observation of birds of an allied 
species which I brought home with .me, and 
which lived two years, show that the complete 
plumage is retained during the whole year, ex¬ 
cept during a short period of moulting as with 
most other birds. 
