18 August 2007

'The sight of the birds in the wild amazed early travelers: "My gun remained idle in my hand as I was too astonished to shoot," admitted naturalist Rene Lesson, who visited New Guinea in 1824 and brought back the first eyewitness account. "It was like a meteor whose body, cutting through the air, leaves a long trail of light." Their names bespeak the wonder they inspired: superb bird, magnificent bird, splendid bird, emperor bird.'



on birds of paradise
'Feathers of Seduction'
Jennifer S. Holland
National Geographic
July 2007

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The most amazing thing, i shared the desiderata with jon and he had never heard of it!! wasn't it hanging on every single one of our dormitory walls in the 70s? how funny. he thought it was great.

Julie

linda said...

I was with Andy at the dentist-it was the first time he'd seen it, too. Yeah-Desiderata made the rounds in the 70s. I had a poster-blue sky and sea gulls- in my dorm room with something by Omar Khayyam on it but can't recall what it was-