2-16 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Nov. 1, 1870. 



commanding spots from which to take their first 

 flight, and the workers made little or no attempt to 

 keep them back. The females had altogether al- 

 tered in appearance, and ran about brisk and lively, 

 their wings stretched out firm and strong, and ready 

 for use. When the right moment came, each would 

 launch itself into the air, and, flying with a quick 

 and high flight, would soon be lost to view. They 

 went one by one, and not in a simultaneous swarm 

 as many have asserted. The females, with hardly 

 an exception, left before any of the males. When 

 the latter ventured to move, hundreds crowded out, 

 and, one by one, rapidly left their abode. They did 

 not fly as far as the females did. By five in the 

 evening all were gone except a small party, which 

 left the next morning. The whole process took 

 about three hours. My own ants swarmed on 

 Sunday, the 25th, and on that occasion also the 

 females left before any of the males. 



These are the most important of the notes which 

 I have made from day to day throughout the 

 summer ; but much is yet to be learnt. And since 

 such fables as Addison published on the subject in 

 the Guardian, a hundred and fifty-seven years ago, 

 are still being recapitulated in the present day as 

 grave facts, it is obviously high time, before another 

 century and a half have passed away, to dispel this 

 mist of errors with the light which patience and 

 careful observation will alone supply. 



Edwakd Eentone Elwin. 



Booton, Norwich. 



BIRDS OP PARADISE. 



TJlVERY one is familiar with the beautiful feathers 

 -^ of the Bird of Paradise ; is every one familiar 

 with the circumstances which give them their 

 dainty appearance ? To understand this, let us 

 examine the structure of any ordinary feather. Pull 

 it to pieces carefully, and it will be seen to consist 

 of several distinct parts, of which the quill and the 

 shaft form the central axis — the part, in fact, 

 grasped by the hand when writing with a quill pen. 

 On each side of the shaft is the really "feathery " 

 part known as the vane or beard, one side of which 

 is usually stripped off before using a pen. If we 

 take this stripped-off part, we shall find that it is 

 still divisible into two portions ; to wit, the barbs 

 and the pinnse ; the barbs being the narrow flat 

 membranes which project from the shaft at an acute 

 angle ; the pinnse, minute hairs projecting in their 

 turn from the barb. An examination by the aid of 

 a microscope shows that the pinnse on one side of a 

 barb are totally different to those on the other side ; 

 for, while the one are either quite simple, or slightly 

 toothed, the others are fitted with a row of strong 

 hooks. In their natural condition, the hooked pinnse 

 of one barb overlap the toothed pinnae of the ad- 



jacent barb ; and thus, by this beautiful arrangement 

 — so evident an instance of providential design— 

 the different parts of the feather are firmly con- 

 nected together, and the bird is enabled to beat the 

 air with its wings, or, in other words, to fly. 



It follows that where these tiny booklets are 

 wanting, the bird can never " cleave the liquid air ;" 

 a circumstance which may be tested by examining 

 the wing of an Ostrich or Emu; for lack of this 

 important piece of mechanism the constituent por- 

 tions of the vane are unconnected ; the pinnse being 

 of the lightest possible material, are moved with 

 every breath of wiud, and form with the barbs and 

 curved shaft delicate combinations, the grace and 

 elegance of which it is impossible to over-estimate. 

 The more loose and filing they are — in fact, the less 

 fitted they are for the ordinary purposes of a feather 

 — the better are they adapted for ornamentation. 

 It is, then, to this peculiar structure of their feathers 

 that the Birds of Paradise owe their fame. Their 

 wings, indeed, are as the wings of other birds ; but 

 from the shoulders of some and from the backs of 

 others spring tufts of feathers, in which the hook- 

 lets are altogether wanting and the pinnse are 

 largely developed ; the tufts therefore arch over or 

 droop downwards with a floating wavy motion in- 

 describably graceful. 



AC B A 



Fig. 202. Barbs of feather. 



The fact that the skins of these beautiful birds 

 always reach the great centres of commerce with- 

 out any trace of legs or feet gave rise to a curious 

 error, which even the great Linnseus sanctioned by 

 giving the name of Apoda (footless) to the species 

 with which he was best acquainted, the Emerald. 

 It was believed that these birds exist without any 

 legs at all, — so firmly believed, that it is on record 

 that Aldrovandi, the Italian naturalist of the six- 

 teenth century, actually came to blows with a 

 brother ornithologist, Pigafetta, on the subject, the 

 latter daring to uphold the fearful heresy that Birds 

 of Paradise might possibly be gifted with those 

 useful instruments ! The Aldrovandists, however, 

 were supported in their belief, not only by the logic 

 of facts— the positive absence of leg and foot— but 



