438 Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant on the Display 



from time to time hitching up his long plumes, which are 

 raised somewhat above the level of the top of the head. 

 This stage is fairly correctly represented by Gould and Hart 

 in Sharped' Monograph of the Paradiseidce,' part vii. (1897)*. 

 Suddenly the second stage commences. The bird, seem- 

 ingly gone mad, commences to dance and hop wildly back- 

 wards and forwards along the perch, and with head bent 

 down, wings fully extended horizontally, and side-plumes 

 erected to their utmost, he utters loud harsh cries : 



ca ! ca\ ca\ ca ! 

 (text-fig. 25, p. 437). 



For some seconds he remains in a sort of ecstasy, rubbing 

 his bill on the perch, and occasionally glancing backwards 

 below his feet with the back fully arched (Plate VIII.). 



Presently, the climax being over, he reverts once more to 

 the first, more erect, stage of the display, when the paroxysm 

 either gradually subsides, or is renewed and, after an interval 

 of about half a minute, again reaches the acute stage. 



At no time during the display do any of the side-plumes 

 droop forward over the head, as has been stated ; even when 

 the latter is lowered under the perch, they still curve back- 

 wards. An examination of the way in which these feathers 

 are inserted in the skin seems to indicate that it is physically 

 impossible for the bird to direct them over its head, and the 

 shafts are so stiff that they do not naturally fall forwards 

 when erected. The wings are invariably carried outside the 

 side-plumes. All the figures by Wolf and Smit, &c, shewing 

 the plumes outside the wings are certainly wrong. 



Occasionally the bird stops dead in the middle of his 

 display, his attention being suddenly attracted by some out- 

 side interest, such as a Wood-Pigeon or Carrion-Crow passing 

 over the Insect-House. Standing very erect on the perch, 

 the wings are loosely dropped to the sides of the body, the 

 side-plumes partially lowered, and the neck stretched up- 

 ward. In this position he sometimes remains staring about 



* The Great Bird-of-Pavadise (P. apoda) in this stage of the display is 

 very accurately shown in the drawing by T. W. Wood which forms the 

 frontispiece to Wallace's ' Malay Archipelago,' vol. ii. (1S69). 



