THE KINGBIRD OF PARADISE. 
Wouldn't you little folks like 
to see a number of us brilliant, 
gem-like Birds of Paradise flit- 
ting among the trees as do your 
Robins and Woodpeckers and 
Jays? To see us spreading our 
wings in the sun, and preening 
our ruby and emerald and topaz 
and amethyst tinted plumes, rib- 
bons, and streamers? 
Ah, that would be an aston- 
ishing sight, but you will have 
to journey to an island in the 
South Pacific Ocean to see that; 
an island whose shores are 
bathed by a warm sea, and where 
the land is covered with the most 
luxuriant tropical vegetation. 
It was about three hundred 
years ago that the people of 
Europe first knew that such 
superb birds existed on this 
earth. Traders visited one of 
the Malayan islands in search of 
cloves and nutmegs, and upon 
leaving, the natives presented 
them with a few dried skins of 
a wonderfully beautiful bird. 
The natives called them " God's 
Birds," and in order to propitiate 
heaven for killing them, cut off 
the feet of the dead birds and 
buried them beneath the tree 
upon which they were found. 
The dried bodies of the birds 
were exported as time went on, 
and as the people of Europe had 
never seen one alive, but always 
the skin without legs and feet, 
they came to consider them as 
heavenly birds, indeed, formed 
to float in the air as they dwelt in 
the Garden of Eden, resting 
occasionally by suspending 
themselves from the branches of 
trees by the feathers of their 
tails, and feeding on air, or the 
soft dews of heaven. Hence they 
called us the Birds of Paradise. 
It was not till one hundred 
years after, when a writer and 
collector of birds visited the 
island, and spent years in watch- 
ing and studying us, that the 
truth became known. Certainly, 
the gentleman must have 
laughed,when, instead of heaven- 
ly dew, he saw a Bird of 
Paradise catch a Grasshopper 
and holding it firmly by his 
claws, trim it of wings and 
legs, then devour it, head first. 
Fruit and insects of all kinds 
we eat instead of dew and air. 
He also saw a party of twenty 
or thirty males dancing on the 
branches of huge trees, raising 
their wings, stretching out their 
necks and elevating their plumes 
all for the purpose of admiring 
themselves or being admired. 
Some of them have finer plumage 
than I, but only the Kingbirds 
of Paradise have those two dear 
little rings which you see in my 
picture. 
