Note (return) — Chapter III · TRANSACTIONS AT OTAHEITE, AND THE SOCIETY ISLANDS; AND PROSECUTION OF THE VOYAGE TO THE COAST OF NORTH AMERICA. (continued 4)

We were at a loss to guess from whence they could get such a quantity of these beautiful feathers, but were soon informed as to one sort, for they afterward brought great numbers of skins of small red birds for sale, which were often tied up in bunches of twenty or more, or had a small wooden skewer run through their nostrils. At the first, those that were bought, consisted only of the skin from behind the wings forward, but we afterwards got many with the hind part, including the tail and feet. The first, however, struck us at once with the origin of the fable formerly adopted, of the birds of paradise wanting legs, and sufficiently explained that circumstance. Probably the people of the islands east of the Moluccas, from whence the skins of the birds of paradise are brought, cut off their feet, for the very reason assigned by the people of Atooi, for the like practice, which was, that they thereby can preserve them with greater ease, without losing any part which they reckon valuable. The red-bird of our island was judged by Mr Anderson to be a species of merops, about the size of a sparrow, of a beautiful scarlet colour, with a black tail and wings, and an arched bill, twice the length of the head, which, with the feet, was also of a reddish colour. The contents of the heads were taken out, as in the birds of paradise; but it did not appear that they used any other method to preserve them, than by simple drying, for the skins, though moist, had neither a taste nor smell that could give room to suspect the use of antiputrescent substances.2