Marmoris ac celerem ruinam!
The Casa gardens, in which the cave is situated, are extensive, and have even now, in their neglected state, sufficient beauty to be regarded as the most retired, romantic, and beautiful spot in Macao.
CHAPTER III.
Museum at Macao—Mr. Beale’s splendid aviary and gardens—The Paradise bird—Natural history of this splendid creature—Anecdotes—Superb magpie—Loris—Description of the aviary.
A museum has been established at Macao, by the English residents, and even now contains an extensive and excellent collection of birds, beasts, weapons, fossils, &c. from all parts of the world. Several rooms are appropriated solely for this collection, having a person to take charge of them, and attend upon visitors. So little encouragement, however, is given to natural science, and the European merchants are so much absorbed in mercantile affairs, that, on the dissolution of the establishment of the Honourable East India Company, this excellent nucleus for an extensive, valuable, and, (with scientific arrangement,) useful collection, will no doubt be broken up and dispersed.
The great object of attraction at Macao, (together with the agreeable society of the English and American ladies, and the beautiful specimens of the fine arts to be seen in the painting room of the celebrated Chinnery,) is the splendid aviary and gardens of T. Beale, Esq. How pleasant it is to see this gentleman (now resident for upwards of forty years in China) devote his leisure moments to the care and delight of the elegant and brilliant productions of nature, both in the animal as well as in the vegetable kingdom. On entering the large doors, which open from a narrow lane, the ear is saluted by various noises proceeding from a number of caged birds, inhabiting the verandah of the dwelling. The peculiar notes of the Minas, the different screams of Loris, parrots, and parroquets, the twitting of the smaller birds, are variously heard vying with each other in loudness; the occasional caw of the ætherial Paradise Bird, or its resounding note of whock, whock, whock, is also heard. The attention of the visitor is diverted from the elegant plumage of the birds to the beautiful flowers of splendid tints in the garden before the verandah, or placed in pots upon the balcony. This garden proves attractive to the gay, but fickle butterflies that flit about the flowers, as well as to numerous wild birds. Individuals visiting Macao are eager to view these splendid natural objects; and the liberal owner readily affords this gratification to the stranger no less than to his friends.
The first, both for variety as well as the inconceivable delicacy of its plumage and tints, of which I intend to attempt a description, is that “aërial creature” of fairy form, decked in nature’s most delicate and beautiful colours, the Paradise Bird. This is the common or Great Bird of Paradise, the Paradisea apoda[16] of Linnæus, the P. major of Shaw. The length of the bird is usually two feet, measuring from the bill to the tip of the side feathers. The specimen in the possession of Mr. Beale, is a fine male, and was, at the time I beheld him, arrayed in his full and splendid plumage: he is enclosed in a large and roomy cage, so as not, by confinement, to injure in the slightest degree his delicate and elegant feathers.
This beautiful creature has been in Mr. Beale’s possession nine years, and was originally procured from the island of Bouro, (one of the Molucca group,) which is situated in about the latitude of 3° 30′ south, and longitude 126° 30′ east. It was presented to Mr. Beale by Mr. Bletterman.
In Valentin’s account of the Birds of Paradise, (quoted in Forrest’s Voyage to New Guinea, &c.) it is mentioned that the Portuguese first found these birds on the island of Gilolo, the Papua Islands, and New Guinea; and they were known by the name of Passaros da sol, i.e. birds of the sun. The inhabitants of Ternate call them Manuco dewata, the bird of God. The accounts of the bird having no legs, being constantly on the wing, and in the air, on which it lived, are of course perfectly fabulous: to support which account, however, the legs of the birds were always cut off, when the preserved specimens were offered for sale. Another reason for cutting off the legs is, that the birds are found to be more easily preserved without them; besides, that the Moors wanted the birds without legs, in order to put them, in their mock fights, on their helmets, as ornaments. The inhabitants of Aroo, however, have offered the birds for sale with legs these seventy or eighty years; and Pigafetta, shipmate of Ferdinand Magelhaens, who had often seen them, proved, about the year 1525, that they were not without legs. There are several species of these very elegant birds.