12G # LITTLE FOLKS 
people among whom they are found, before our own naturalists 
hunted them out and studied their habits for themselves. It was 
said that they had no legs, but hung on to the perch by means of 
their long plumes, and that they made their nests and brought up 
their little ones in Paradise. 
An old writer, in 1598, says that "No one has ever seen them 
alive because they live in the air, turning always towards the sun, 
and never lighting on the earth till they die, for they have neither 
feet nor wings." Even in 1760, Linnaeus named the largest species 
the "Footless Paradise Bird," because the specimens brought to 
Europe never had feet, owing to a habit of the natives who caught 
them, of taking off the skin without the feet. It is known now, 
however, that they are like other birds in their habits, only so much 
more beautiful, that they keep their name, Birds of Paradise. 
The picture at the head of this article is the Emerald Bird of 
Paradise, and is the largest variety known, being sixteen or eighteen 
inches from the tip of the beak to the end of the tail. 
In color, the bird is a rich coffee color, with seme green about 
the head. The two elegant tufts of plumes spring from the side of 
the bird, under the wings, and they are of a beautiful golden color. 
They can be spread out, as you see in the picture, or they can be 
laid back so as not to make so much of a show. They are some- 
times as much as two feet long. 
An English naturalist, who studied the habits of this beautiful 
bird, both in his native woods and in a cage, gives a very interest- 
ing account of him. He says that the creatures seem to know how 
lovely they are, and when a visitor comes near their cage, they will 
dance about in a graceful way, shake out their plumes, and seem to 
be pleased with the admiration they excite. They are extremely 
neat in their habits, bathing twice a day, and pluming themselves 
carefully, by drawing each feather through the bill, picking each 
feather, and often carefully looking on each side and all over them- 
selves to see that not a speck of soil is on them. 
They are so dainty that they very rarely alight on the ground, 
seeming to know that they would soil their elegant plumage. 
They eat boiled rice and live insects, especially grasshoppers. 
They will not touch a dead insect. When a grasshopper is thrown 
to them, they will catch it in the bill, hold it down on the perch 
with one foot, pull off its legs and wings, and then devour it, head 
first. 
