58 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



Its call can be heard at a long distance, and is a 

 double not-e. difficult to imitate, even bv the natives." 



At the fifty-sixth meeting of the Ornithologists' Club 

 the Hon. M'alter Rothschild sent for exhibition an 

 ■egg of this species. " It had been found in an open 

 Jiest in a Pandanus swamp on the Vanapa River in 

 British Xew Guinea, on a Pandanus tree. The nest 

 was a large structure, about ten inches across and six 

 inches high, consisting externally of the Pandanus 

 leaves, then of pieces of rotten "wood, and lastly of 

 ^mall twigs, the cup being rather flat and by no means 

 .softly lined. The single egg found resembles closely 

 those of other Paradiscida, and especially those of the 

 genus Ptilorhis, being about the size of a Rook's 

 egg, and of a cream colour, with more or less longi- 

 tudinal rufous-brown and purplish-grey spots, which 

 were most frequent near the thick end. It measured 

 40 mm. in length, and 22.5 mm. in its broadest 

 diameter." (The Ibis, 1899, p. 125.) 



Ri7i»; observe? that a male reached the Zoolosical 

 Gardens of London in 1881, and specimens were twice 

 Tepresent-ed in the Berlin Gardens. The first lived there 

 more than two mon:hs. the second only two weeks. 

 In 1907 Mr. 'Walter Goodfeljow brought home aii 

 •example for Mrs. Johnstone, of Groombridge. 



Great Bird of Paradise {ParadUca a2Mda). 



Above rich coffee-brown : head and neck velvety 

 stramineous : a black ofbital line; forehead, lores, 

 cheeks, throat, and fore-neck velvety black, glossed with 

 metaJ'lic green; remainder of under-surtace'rich coffee- 

 hrwwn, purplish on breast; two central tail-feathers 

 elongated into long, wire-like shafts; two immense 

 bunches of graceful elongated plumes from the flanks, 

 yellow shading into chocolate on outer third and ter- 

 minating in white shafts ; also several rigid bright 

 yellow plumes, partly tiijjped with red : bill lead-colour, 

 greenish -white at tip ; ieet flesh-colour. Female rich 

 coffee-brown, more purplish on head, neck, and chest ; 

 nape t.nged w:ih stramineous; flank-plumes elongated, 

 but coloured like the body; two central tail-feathers 

 somewhat pointed. Hao., Aru. 



Buss quotes the following field-notes (probablv from 

 ■Wallace, but he does not mention the author) :-^"The 

 Great Bird of Paradise is veiy lively and vigorous, and 

 appears to be in cons:anr motion during theVhole day. 

 It occurs in great abundance ; small companies "of 

 females and young males are always to be found, and. 

 if the birds in full plumage are somewhat less numerous, 

 yet their loud cry, which one hears dailv, reveals the 

 fact that even th"ey are presen; in plentv. Their UGte^ 

 sound; like 'Wawk-wawk-wawk-wok, wok-wok. and it 

 is so loud and shrill that it can be he-ird at a great 

 distance, and constitutes the most Bamiliar and striking 

 aiiimal sound in the Aru Islands. The nidification is 

 still unknown, but the natives told me tJiat the nest of 

 leaves is placed on an ants' nest or on a proiecting 

 branch of a very high tree, and thev (believe that Ci 

 only contains a single young bird. The egg is entirely 

 unknown, and the natives assert that they" have never 

 seen it. A very high reward offered Iby a 'Dutch officer 

 for an egg was without result. Thev moult in January- 

 and February. In May. when they .are in full beauty of 

 plumage, the males assemble early in the morning in 

 order, as the natives assert, to carrj- out their 'sacalili.' 

 or dancing-parties ; these take place on certain forest 

 trees, which are not fruit trees, but have widely-spread- 

 iiig boughs and large divergent leaves, which "give the 

 tirds space for sporting and disp'aying their plumage. 

 A dozen to twenty tine-fearhered birds collect together 

 ■Qn a single tree, raise their wings, stretch out their 

 necks, and erect their splendid plumes, .which they keep 



in continual quivering motion. Meanwhile they fly in 

 great excitement from bough to bough, so that the whole 

 tree is filled 'with waving plumes in great variety of 

 position and motion. 'Wlien the Paradise-bird is thus 

 seen it indeed deserves its name, and must be reckoned 

 among the most beautiful and wonderful forms of life. 

 This habit gives the natives an opportunity of securing 

 the creatures with little trouble. As soon as they see 

 that the Paradise-.birds have chosen a tree upon whicn 

 to assemble, they build a little bower of palm leaves 

 at a suitable place under the branches, and the hunter 

 conceals himself below them before daybreak, armed 

 with his bow and a number of arrows terminating in a 

 round kncvb. A boy waits at the foot of the tree, and 

 when the birds arrive at sunrise, and a sufficient num- 

 ber have assembled and begun to dance, the huntEr 

 shoots off his blunt arrow so strongly that a bird falls 

 down stunned, and is either captured or killed by the 

 boy, without a drop of blood being sprinkled on the 

 plumage. The other birds appear not to take any 

 notice of this, and fall down one aiter another, until at, 

 last some of them become alarmed." 



The egg of this species, having the usual streakj, 

 vegetable-marrow-like character, was secured by Mr. 

 Charles Pratt, and is described and figured by Ml. 

 Co'Ungwcod Ingram in The AiicuJtural Magazine, iNew 

 Series. 'V^ol. Y., p. 364. The ground-colour is cream, 

 and the streaks at the larger end consist of lavender- 

 grey shell-streaks and Vandyke brown surface streaks ; 

 a few smaller streaks or spots of the latter colour are 

 scattered here and there on other parts of the shell. 

 Dr. A. B. Meyer also figured a damaged egg in 1883. 



According lo Russ. this species was exhibited in the 

 Dresden Zoological Gardens in 1875, and he says that 

 the leading actor, Fritz Schrodter, of Prague, when on 

 a visit to London, in 1884. saw three beautifully- 

 feathered males at our Zoological Gardens, which had 

 been deposited there by a lord, whose property they 

 were. The Society's list mentions one example only, 

 deposited in 1885. I have an indistinct memory of see- 

 ing the specie? myself at our Gardens about that time, 

 but whether there was more than one example or not 

 I could not assert, -positively at this distance of time. 

 I certainly had the impression that such was the case, 

 but there may have been another species in the flight 

 with it. In 1905 Mrs. Johnstone received one specimen 

 of this beautiful species, and in 1907 Mr. Pratt brought 

 seventeen specimens home, in both sexes, for S'r 

 William Ingram. A large consignment came home in 

 1909. it being Sir 'WiUliam's intention to turn them out 

 on his estate in Trinidad. 



Lesser Bird or Paradise {ParadUea minor). 

 .V;ove rich coffee-brown; mantle and scapulars dull 

 huffish ; reddish at base of feathers; least wing-coverts 

 washed with buff ; median and greater covens tipped 

 with bright buff ; two central tail-feathers terminating 

 in long, thread-like shafts ; crown, back, and sides of 

 neck, the latter tending towards lower throat, bright 

 velvety buff ; a frontal band, lores, cheeks, and throat 

 velvety glossy green : forehead, chin, and a spot at 

 base of lower mandible blackish ; under -surface from 

 throat backwards rich coffee-ibrown ; two large bunches 

 of graceful elongated plumes from the flanks, their 

 basal half bright yellow and their terminal h.a.If white ; 

 also a few stiff blood-red plumes; under wing-coverts 

 and inner lining of quills coffeenbrown. like the body ; 

 bill leaden-grey ; feet black. Female coffee-brown ; 

 hind neck and" mantle dull buff, wing-coverts washed 

 with the same ; metallic green of forehead and throat 

 wanting, as also the flank plumes ; under surface of 

 bodv from throat ibackwards silky white ; sides, flanl^. 



