The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

420 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.the name of " Manuk dewata," or God's l)irds ; and tlie Portuguese,finding that they had no feet or wings, and not beingable to learn anything authentic about them, called them"Passaros de Sol,'' or Birds of the Sun ; while the learnedDutchmen, wlio wrote in Latin, called them "Avis paradiseus,"or Paradise Bird. John van Linschoten gives these names in1598, and tells us that no one has seen tliese biixls alive, for theylive in the air, always turning towards the sun, and neverlighting on the eaii:]! till they die ; for they have neither feetnor wings, as, he adds, may be seen by the birds carried to\/ India, and sometimes to Holland, but being very costly they•^ were then rarely seen in Europe. More than a hundred yearslater Mr. William Funnel, who accompanied Dampier, andwrote an account of the voyage, saw specimens at Aniboyna,and was told that they came to Banda to eat nutmegs, whichintoxicated tliem and made tliem fall down senseless, whenthey were killed by ants. Down to 1760, when Linnseus namedthe lai'gest species Paradisea apoda (the footless Paradise Bird),no perfect specimen had been seen in Europe, and absolutelynothing was known about them. And even now, a liundredyears later, most books state that they migrate annually toTernate, Banda, and Amboyna ; whereas the fact is, that theyare as completely unknown in those islands in a wild state astliey are in England. Linnreus was also acquainted with asmall species, which he named Paradisea regia (the King Birdof Paradise), and since then nine or ten others have been named,all of which were first described from skins preserved by thesavages of Xew Guinea, and generally more or less imperfect.These are now all known in the Malay Archipelago as " Burongmati," or dead birds, indicating that the Malay traders neversaw them alive.The Paradiseidse are a group of modei-ate-sized birds, alliedin their structure and habits to crows, starlings, and to tlieAustralian honeysuckers ; but they are characterised by extraordinarydevelopments of plumage, which are unequalled inany other family of birds. In several species large tufts ofdelicate bright-coloured feathers spring from each side of thebody beneath the wings, forming trains, or fans, or sliields ; andtlie middle feathers of the tail ai-e often elongated into wires,twisted into fantastic shapes, or adorned with the most brilliantmetallic tints. In another set of species these accessory plumesspring from the head, the back, or the shoulders ; while theintensity of colour and of metallic lustre disjDlaj^ed by theirplumage, is not to be equalled by any other birds, except,perhaps, the humming-birds, and is not surpassed even bythese. The}" have been usually classified under two distinctfamilies, Paradiseidse and Epimachidse, the latter characterizedby long and slender beaks, and supposed to be allied to theHoopoes ; but the two groups are so closely allied in everyessential point of structure and habits, that I shall consider