ZOOLOGY. 807 



The teleology of the plumage of the male Bird^ -of- Paradise. — The natural 

 inference in tbe i)resent state of biological science in explanation of the 

 sportive plumage of the male birds-of-paradise would be that it was for 

 the attraction of the females. Little has been known however of the 

 habits of even the comparatively common species. Two English gen- 

 tlemen, Messrs. Chalmers and Wyatt, while travelling in Kew Guinea, 

 observed some species, and have recorded a meeting of males and females 

 of one of the species which is of interest in this connection. Their ac- 

 count is here reproduced in their own words : 



" One morning we had camped on a spur of the Owen Stanley Range, 

 and being up early, to enjoy the cool atmosphere, I saw, on one of the 

 clumps of trees close by, six birds-of-paradise, four cocks and two hens. 

 The hens were sitting quietly on a branch, and the four cocks, dressed 

 in their very best, their ruflfs of green and yellow standing out, giving 

 them a large, handsome appearance about the head and neck, their 

 long, flowing plumes so arranged that every feather seemed carefully 

 combed out, and the long wires stretched well out behind, were dancing 

 in a circle around them. It was an interesting sight; first one, then 

 another, would advance a little nearer to a hen, and she, coquette-like, 

 would retire a little, pretending not to care for any advances. A shot 

 was fired, contrary to my expressed wish ; there was a strange commo- 

 tion, and two of the cocks flew away ; the others and the hens remained. 

 Soon the two returned, and again the dance began and continued long. 

 As I had strictly forbidden any more shooting, all fear was gone; and 

 so, after a rest, the males came a little nearer to the dark brown and 

 certainly not pretty hens. Quarreling ensued, and in the end all six 

 birds flew away. Passing through a forest at the back of the Astro- 

 labe, I saw several more engaged as above ; our approach startled them, 

 and away they flew. Anxious to taste the flesh, I had one cooked after 

 being skinned ; but, although boiled for several* hours, it was as tough 

 as leather, and the soup not much to our taste. Fortunately we had 

 other things for dinner, so put the paradise dish aside." (Chalmers and 

 Wyatt's Work and Adventures in New Guinea ; Ibis, (5), v. 3, pp. 463, 

 464.) 



New Bird s-of -Paradise.— The birds-of-paradise are pre-eminent among 

 all birds for the excessive and eccentric develoijment in the males of 

 special feathers, or feathers on special parts of the body, and the great 

 variation observable, in otherwise similar forms, as to the special feath- 

 ers or parts in which such development is manifested. Almost every 

 genus (eighteen genera were recognized in 1877) has its own peculiar 

 system of hypertrophied or eccentric feather pattern. Ncm' Guinea is 

 the headquarters of the family, and of the thirty-four known up to 1877 

 few were found outside of that great island, and those few only in the 

 neighboring smaller islands and Australia. During the past year six 

 additional species were described from a collection made chiefly in the 



