GROUP OF BIRDS IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.
"We have visited the remarkable garden attached to the governor's residence, and seen the rare collection of specimens of the animal and vegetable life of the Malay Archipelago; and the more we see of it, the more do we wish to see. There are tigers and other animals, that it is better to see in cages than to meet at home in the forest; there are snakes in good variety; there are tanks containing a great number of fresh-water fishes; and last, but not least, there is a splendid collection of birds. I never knew what a variety of birds and what curious ones there are in the islands of the Java Sea, till I saw this collection here.
"You have heard of the birds of paradise, haven't you? They have some of them here, but not all the different kinds, as they are difficult to capture, and very difficult to keep alive after they have been taken.
"These birds are not natives of Java, but come from the Moluccas and other islands farther to the east. They were first called paradise birds by the writers of three hundred years ago, and some of the Portuguese and Dutch travellers told a good many fables about them. John Van Linschoten, who wrote in 1598, says that 'no one has seen these birds alive, for they live in the air, always turning towards the sun, and never lighting on the earth till they die; for they have neither feet nor wings, as may be seen by the birds carried to India, and sometimes to Holland.' More than a hundred years later, an English writer, who saw some specimens at Amboyna, was told that they came to Banda to eat nutmegs, by which they became intoxicated and fell down senseless.
"We were disappointed in the size of the birds in the governor's garden, as we had supposed that the bird of paradise was very large. But we found they were only moderate-sized, and resembled crows and ravens in their general appearance and habits, but not at all in their plumage. Instead of being of a solemn black, like their cousins I have mentioned, they have the most extraordinary arrangement of feathers that any bird can boast. Mr. Wallace says that several species have large tufts of delicate, bright-colored feathers springing 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 fantastic shapes, or adorned with the most brilliant metallic tints. In another set of species these 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 equalled by any other birds except, perhaps, the humming-birds, and is not surpassed by these.
"The largest of these birds is known as the Great Bird of Paradise, and is seventeen or eighteen inches from the point of the beak to the end of his tail. There is nothing remarkable about his body, wings, and tail, which are of a deep brown color, varying somewhat in shade, while the head and neck are of a pale yellow. The wonderful things are the plumes that spring from each side beneath the wings; they are sometimes two feet long, and of a bright orange-color tinged with gold; and they can be raised and spread out at the pleasure of the owner like the tail of a peacock. When they are thus extended you can hardly see the body of the bird, as they seem to envelop it completely; and if you are hunting him, and ready for a shot, you must guess how much of what you see is bird and how much feathers. It is only the male bird that gets himself up so gorgeously; the female is a plain-looking creature, of a uniform brown color, without a bit of ornament anywhere. She might be mistaken for a crow that had been left overnight in a coffee-pot.
MAGNIFICENT BIRD OF PARADISE.