PARAUISE BIRDS. 



01 



occasionally quite hiding his head ; at times, stretched 

 upright, he flaps tliem, iis if he intended to take fight, 

 and then, ■with a sudden movement, gives himself a 

 half-turn so that he faces the spectators, puffing out 

 his silky-white lowtT feathers. Nov; he bursts into 

 his beautiful melodious warbling song, so ©nchiuiting to 

 hear, but so difficult to descrilie. Some weeks ago I 

 •was crossing a meaJow and heard the song of a Skylark 

 high up in the heavens and I exclaimeil at once, ' That 

 is the love-chant of my King Bird.' He sings with a 

 Jow bubbling note, displaying all the -while his beauti- 

 ful fan-like side plimies, which he opens and closes, in 

 time with the ivariations of liis song. These fan-plumes 

 can only be expanded when his wings are closed, and 

 during this pjirt of the display he closes his wings and 

 spreads out his short tail, pressing it cloee over his 

 back, so as to throw the long tail-wires over his hea<l, 

 while he gently swings his body fi'om side to side. The 

 spiral tips of tlie wires look like small balls of bm-nished 

 green metai, and the swaying movement gives them the 

 effect of being slowly tossed from one side to the other, 

 so that I have named tliis jjart of the display the 

 ' iuggling.' The swaying of the body seems to keep 

 lime with the song, and at intervals, with a swallowing 

 jnovement of his throat, tb© bird raists and lowers his 

 head. Then comes the finule, which lasts only for a 

 few seconds. He suddenly turns right round and shows 

 his back, the white tlutfy feathers under the tail 

 bristling in his excitement ; he bends down on the 

 peirch in the attitude of a fighting cock, his widely 

 opened bill showing distinctly the extraordinary light 

 apple-green colour of the gullet, and sings the same 

 gurgling notes without once closing his bill, and with a 

 tilow dying away movement of his tail and body. A 

 single drawn-out note is then uttered, the tail and wiies 

 are lowered, and the dance and song are over. 



"The King Bird has another fonn of display which 

 he very rarely exliibits, and only on three or four occa- 

 sions have I seen liim go through this performance. 

 Dropping under the perch the bird walks backwards 

 and forwards in an inverted position with his wings ex- 

 piinded. Suddenly he closes his wings and lets his body 

 fall straight downwards, looking exactly like a crimson 

 pear, liis blue legs being stretcl^ed out to their full 

 length, and his feet clinging to the perch. Th© effect is 

 very curious anil weird, and the performance is so like 

 that of an acrobat suddenly dropping on to his toes on 

 the cross-bar of a trapeze that I have named this 

 'acrobatic ' display. It has been witnessed on different 

 days to his 'juggling' display. While giving his acro- 

 batic performance he sings the whole time, but never 

 shows his side plumes ; and when he is dn the pendu- 

 lous position his body sways gently as if it were in- 

 lluenced by a fitful breeze. The ^vhole of this perform- 

 ance takes but a very few seconds." 



It has often been incorrectly asserted, and Darwin 

 has repeated the error in his " Descent of Man," that 

 " the power of song and brilliant colours have rarely 

 been both accjuired by the males of the saime species." 

 To those who have kept a great many species, it is well 

 known that many of the most gorgeously coloured birds 

 sing remarkably well : amongst the Thrushes the Blue 

 Rock-Thrush is one of the finest songsters, Leiothrix 

 is a notoriously grand songster, several of the gorgeous 

 Tanagers sing sweetly, the flaming Virginian Cardinal 

 is an acknowledged vocalist of merit, and many of the 

 brightly coloured Finches sing excellently; the 

 ZCteridce (with tlicir startling contrasts of yellow, 

 orange, scarlet with black and white) number not a few 

 fine singers in their rank.";, the Fruit-suckers of the East 

 (C/iloro/isis) are fine perfomiei-s, and here we have one 



of the most brilliant of all living birds — the King Bird 

 of Paradise — gifted with a love-uhant not unlike that 

 of th© Skylark. On the other hand many sombrely 

 coloured birds are poor performers, and I regard the 

 vocial abiility of our Song Thrush as very inferior 

 to that of our far more attractively coloured Blackbird. 

 The notion has probably arisen from the fact, that the 

 Nightingale is modestly Coloured but a prince of song- 

 sters, and it has been assumed that vocal power has 

 Ibeem given as a compensation for loss of colour, but 

 that is all poetical fiction. 



[The Calendar issued with Canary and Catfe-Btrd 

 Life, 1910, depicted the Marquis Raggi, Cireater, Blue, 

 and King Birds of Paradise. — Ed.] 



CtReen M.A.NUCODE [Manucodia chalybata). 

 General colour above rich jjurple, the inner webs of 

 flights and tail-feathen-? bbickish ; the outer wing- 

 coverts washed with steel-blaclush ; nape, hind-neck, 

 and mantle slightly tinted with-steel-gi-eenish ; sides of 

 face and neck dark green ; all the feathers of the hea/d 

 close-set and velvety ; feiithers of chin, throat, and fore- 

 neck to sides of neck glossy golden green, crinkled and 

 curled ; rest of under-surface deep purple, a few of the 

 abdominal feathers slightly glossed with greenish ; under 

 wing-coverts black ; the outer edge of wing washed with 

 green ; bill and feet black. Female not differentiated. 

 Hab., N.W. New Guinea. I have failed to discover 

 any field-notes relating to this species. An example 

 reached the London Zoological Gardens in 'March, 1881, 

 and, according to Dr. Russ, this is the only instance 

 in which it has been imported. 



CHAl'TER IV. 



CROW LIKE BIRDS (Corndw).* 



(Sub-family Corcinoi). 

 L.4RGE-BILLED Crow (Cotvus cultninatus). 



Above steely black ; the crown, back, wing-coverts, 

 secondaries, and outer webs of tail feathers glossed with 

 violet; primary-coverts, false wing, outer webs of 

 primaries, inner webis oi secondaa-ies and tail-feathers, 

 and sides of face and neck glossed with steel-greeu ; 

 under surface of body blue-black with slight violet 

 reflections ; thix)at-feBthers somewha't llanoeolate, 

 greenish-black shading into purplish on lowea- throat ; 

 bill and feet black. Female not differentiated, but prob- 

 ably with a .shorter bill than the male. Hab., Indian 

 peninsula. 



Jerdon ("Birds of India," Vol. II., p. 297) 

 says: — "It is gregaaious, feeds on offal and cax- 

 rion ; its flight is strong and rapid, and it 

 is often seen tormenting lutes and other large 

 birds. It is familiar in its habits, and is gene- 

 ra.Uy seen feeding in villages or around the hill 

 stations ; is abimda«t on the mountains round 

 the valley of Cashmere, and, eastward, on the ranges 

 near the stations of Dugshai and Simla, also on the 

 lesser Himalayan ranges." Hume says (" Nests and 

 Eggs of Indian Birds," Vol. I., pp. 4, 718) :—'• March 

 to May is, I consider, the normal breeding season ; in 

 the plains the majority lay in April, rarely later, and 

 in the hills in May ; but in the plains a few birds lay 

 also in February. 



* The Crow-like Birds in captivity should have a giiod' in- 

 sectivoroue eoft food as staple diet, to which fruit, nuts, insects. 

 Juice, small birds, eggs, small fish, newts, tadpoles or small 

 frogs may be added as "variety. 



