Glimpses of the animate world; or, Science and literature of natural history, for school and home . ently bring them to the ground,when they are easily taken by the natives, who also shootthem with blunt arrows, or take them with a noose, like-wise with bird-lime or other glutinous substance, placedon the branches which they frequent. 5. The greater paradise-bird (Paradisea apoda), ire- STRANGE BIRDS AND THEIR WAYS. 249 quently called theEmerald Bird-of-Paradise, is small-er than the gave thespecific name apo-da to this bird,which was gener-ally and errone-ously called foot-less,
Glimpses of the animate world; or, Science and literature of natural history, for school and home . ently bring them to the ground,when they are easily taken by the natives, who also shootthem with blunt arrows, or take them with a noose, like-wise with bird-lime or other glutinous substance, placedon the branches which they frequent. 5. The greater paradise-bird (Paradisea apoda), ire- STRANGE BIRDS AND THEIR WAYS. 249 quently called theEmerald Bird-of-Paradise, is small-er than the gave thespecific name apo-da to this bird,which was gener-ally and errone-ously called foot-less, to designatethe species, notto perpetuate theerror. This birdseeks the thick-est foliage of theloftiest trees, inwhich to remainconcealed duringthe day. Thefeathers on thehead, throat, andneck are veryshort and round thebase of the bill,and on the face,are velvety andblack, changingtheir color togreen, as the di-rection of the light changes; those on the throat, the front half of theand the upper part of the breast, are of a bright,emerald green; those on the head, back of the necl. Bird of Paradise. neck,deep,, and 250 NATURAL HISTORY READER. the shoulders, are of a light, golden yellow. The eye is atthe common point between these colors. 6. If lines were drawn from it to the throat, to theforehead, and down the sides of the neck, and carved to apoint on the breast, they would indicate very well the lim-its of the colors. The back, wings, tail, and belly are of abright, reddish chestnut, the breast being a little darker,and inclining to purple. From each side beneath thewings proceed a large number of long, floating, gracefulj)lumes, some eighteen inches in length, of exceeding deli-cacy of texture and apjoearance. These extend far beyondthe tail-feathers, which are about six inches long, andtheir translucent golden-white vanclets produce a most su-perb effect, as they cross and recross each other, formingevery imaginable shade of white, gold, and orange, andthen
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