THE LOVE DISPLAYS OF BIRDS 231 



sit quite still until the performance is repeated. 

 Many other instances might have been given 

 of these aerial ballets, but we will now visit the 

 tree-tops for an example of a stately minuet, 

 which is danced among them by some of those 

 gorgeous creatures the Birds of Paradise. The 

 males of the Great Bird of Paradise assume their 

 full wedding plumage in May, and during that 

 month companies of them assemble at certain 

 spots each morning to go through a kind of 

 dance and display. These dancing parties are 

 held in the tree-tops, a tree being selected with 

 an extensive head of spreading branches, clothed 

 with large scattered leaves, in which there is 

 plenty of room to move about. Here perhaps 

 a score of these gorgeous birds collect, raise 

 their wings, and elevate their exquisite plumes, 

 which are kept continually vibrated. Between 

 whiles the birds fly across from branch to branch 

 in great excitement, so that, as Wallace aptly 

 says, the whole tree is filled with waving plumes 

 in every variety of attitude and motion. During 

 this performance the long plumes completely 

 overshadow the bird, which is hidden in the 

 golden glory waving above. The various dis- 

 plays of other species of these birds are equally 

 interesting. 



