PARADISEA, the bird of Paradise, in natural history, a genus of birds of the order Pica'. Generic character : bill co vered at the downy feathers ; nostrils covered by the feathers ; tail of ten feathers, two of them, in some spe cies, very long ; legs and feet very large and strong. These birds chiefly inhabit North Guinea, from which they migrate in the dry season into the neighbouring islands. They are used in these coun tries as ornaments for the head-dress, and the Japanese, Chinese, and Persians, im port them for the same purpose. The rich and great among the latter attach these brilliant collections of plumage, not only to their own turbans, but to the housings and harnesses of their horses. They are found only within a few de grees of the equator. Gmelin enume rates twelve species, and Latham eight. P. apoda, or the greater Paradise bird, is about as large as a thrush. These birds are supposed to breed in North Guinea, whence they migrate into Aroo, return ing to North Guinea with the wet mon soon. They pass in flights of thirty or
forty, headed by one whose flight is high er than that of the rest. They are often distressed by means of their long feathers in sudden shiftings of the wind, and una ble to proceed in their flight ; are easily taken by the natives, who also catch them with birdlime, and shoot them with blunt ed arrows. They are sold at Aroo for an iron nail each, and at Banda for half a rix dollar. Their food is not ascertained, and they cannot be kept alive in confine ment. The smaller bird of Paradise is supposed by Latham to be a mere va riety of the above. It is found only in the Papuan islands, where it is caught by the natives often by the hand, and exenterated and seared with a hot iron in the inside, and then put into the hol low of a bamboo to secure its plumage from injury.