GREATER BIRD OF PARADISE 
Early in the sixteenth century two skins of the greater bird of paradise 
were presented to the King of Spain by a navigator. The skins were pre¬ 
pared in the native fashion, with both wings and feet removed. Their beauty 
made a deep impression on the romantic imagination of the time; and it 
was long thought that these birds, lacking wings, must float through the 
air supported by their trailing plumes. It also came to be believed that 
the bird of paradise fed on dew and nectar and that the female laid her 
eggs on the male’s back. 
Two and a half centuries later, when Linnaeus was attempting to name 
and catalogue all known creatures, the legend as to this species’ lack of loco¬ 
motor organs persisted, though Linnaeus himself may have known better. 
At any rate he conferred on it the name of “apoda,” or legless. Not until 
1862 were living birds of the species brought to Europe, to explode the 
myth. 
During the first year of life both male and female of the species are 
an almost uniform coffee-brown in color. After this, however, the males 
gradually change, until in their fourth year they complete the splendid 
plumage for which they are famed. Their general color is then bright 
reddish-brown; forehead, cheeks and throat are metallic-green, while the 
crown and nape are bright yellow. Long ornamental plumes grow from 
their flanks, just below the shoulders. These are a deep golden-yellow, 
changing to pale brown at the top. The two central tail feathers, known as 
wires, are without barbs and sometimes as much as thirty inches long. 
Despite their great beauty, the birds of paradise are more closely 
related to crows and jays than to any other species. Little is known of them 
in their native state, except that they are omnivorous, eating many varieties 
of fruits and insects; and that the males engage in a spectacular ceremony 
prior to the mating season. Choosing a spreading tree with large scattered 
leaves, twenty or more of them will play about, raising their wings, extend¬ 
ing their necks and elevating their splendid plumes, which they keep in 
constant vibration. Now and then they fly from branch to branch, filling 
the air with waving plumes. 
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