THE “ K ING” AND THE “ TWELVE WIRED” BIRDS OF PARADISE.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE BIRDS OF PARADISE.
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AS many of my. journeys were made with the express
object of obtaining specimens of the Birds of Paradise,
and learning something of their habits and distribution
; and being (as far as I am aware) the only
Englishman who has seen these wonderful birds in their
native forests, and obtained specimens of many of them,
I propose to give here, in a connected form, the result
of my observations and inquiries.
When the earliest European voyagers reached the Moluccas
in search of cloves and nutmegs, which were then
rare and precious spices, they were presented with the
dried skins of birds so strange and beautiful as to excite
the admiration even of those wealth-seeking Tovers. The
Malay traders gave them the name of “ Manuk dewata,”
or God’s birds ; and the Portuguese, finding that they had
no feet or wings, and not being able to learn anything
authentic about them, called them “ Passaros de Sol,” or
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