3-008-492 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Birds of Paradise in the Zoological Society's Gardens, Regent's Park, [London], 1862. '...when in the interior of Sumatra...Mr. A. R. Wallace, the well- known traveller and naturalist, received information of two specimens of the lesser bird of paradise (Paradisea papuana) being alive in captivity at Singapore. Mr. Wallace immediately...purchased the birds, which were then in the hands of a European merchant, and left by the following mail for England, arriving in safety in London...The two paradise-birds have been lodged in the upper part of the Zoological Society's old museum...As they are both males it has been found necessary to keep them apart, the sight of one another, or even of a paradise-bird's plume waved near them in the air, producing in them great excitement. Their cage has therefore been divided by a screen, which excludes the light, and the two birds placed in the separate compartments...[They] are fed on rice, bread, vegetables, and fruit, but require also insect food, and seem particularly partial to mealworms and cockroaches. They are very tame, readily taking a titbit from the hand of the attendant, and, considering the confinement they have been subject to during their long journey from Singapore, in wonderful health and condition'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.