Perot Likh, A, PAIR Ob “TROUSERS 49 
that is worn by the Black Bird of Paradise is like. 
The legs of the trousers are the two lappets, from 
where they are divided from each other, and, farther 
up, they join and become all one, just as the legs 
of a pair of trousers do. Only, of course, I need 
hardly tell you that a crest of beautiful, black, 
velvety feathers, glossed with bronze and purple, 
has a far more e/egant appearance than a pair of 
trousers hanging out to dry, though it may have 
just a /zttle the same shape. 
Now | think you will agree with me that this crest 
is a wonderful thing, even when it is only lying down 
along the neck and body of the bird. But what 
would you say when you saw the Black Bird of 
Paradise lift it right up above its head ?>—which is 
what he does, you may be sure, when he wants to 
show off before the hen bird, who has no crest on 
her head nor shield on her breast, and whose black 
feathers, I am afraid, are not nearly so glossy and 
velvety, and have no colours lying asleep in them 
and ready to wake up all of a sudden. Ah, you 
would think the Black Bird of Paradise a wonderful, 
wonderful bird if you were to see him bowing politely 
to his hen and lifting up his wonderful, wonderful 
crest to her. 
But I told you this bird had a shield too, and when 
he lifts up his crest over his head, he shoots out his 
