This beautiful creature has been in Mr. Beale’s possession nine years, and was originally procured from the island of Bouro, (one of the Molucca group,) which is situated in about the latitude of 3° 30′ south, and longitude 126° 30′ east. It was presented to Mr. Beale by Mr. Bletterman. In Valentin’s account of the Birds of Paradise, (quoted in Forrest’s Voyage to New Guinea, &c.) it is mentioned that the Portuguese first found these birds on the island of Gilolo, the Papua Islands, and New Guinea; and they were known by the name of _Passaros da sol_, i.e. birds of the sun. The inhabitants of Ternate call them _Manuco dewata_, the bird of God. The accounts of the bird having no legs, being constantly on the wing, and in the air, on which it lived, are of course perfectly fabulous: to support which account, however, the legs of the birds were always cut off, when the preserved specimens were offered for sale. Another reason for cutting off the legs is, that the birds are found to be more easily preserved without them; besides, that the Moors wanted the birds without legs, in order to put them, in their mock fights, on their helmets, as ornaments. The inhabitants of Aroo, however, have offered the birds for sale with legs these seventy or eighty years; and Pigafetta, shipmate of Ferdinand Magelhaens, who had often seen them, proved, about the year 1525, that they were not without legs. There are several species of these very elegant birds. The Ternate people call them Burong Papua, or Papua birds; sometimes Manuco dewata, and likewise Soffu or Sioffu. The Amboyna natives call them Manu, key, aroo, the bird of the islands, Key and Aroo; because the natives of the two last places bring them for sale to Banda and Amboyna. At Aroo, the people call them Fanaan. Properly, these birds are not found in Key, which is fifty Dutch miles east of Banda; but they are found at the Aroo islands (lying fifteen Dutch miles further east than Key) during the westerly or dry monsoon, and they return to New Guinea as soon as the easterly or wet monsoon sets in. They come always in a flock of thirty or forty, and are led by a bird which the inhabitants of Aroo call the King, distinct from the Little King Bird of Paradise. This leader is black, with red spots, and constantly flies higher than the rest of the flock, which never forsake him, but settle as soon as he settles; a circumstance which occasions their ruin, when their king alights on the ground; whence they are not able to rise, on account of the singular structure and disposition of their plumage. They are likewise unable to fly with the wind, which would destroy their loose plumage, but take their flight constantly against it, cautious not to venture out in hard-blowing weather, inasmuch as a strong gale frequently obliges them to fall to the ground. It is also stated, that in Aroo, these birds settle on the highest trees, especially on a species of small-leaved