CHAPTER VI 
About all Birds of Paradise, and Some 
‘Explanations 
AS I have told you, there are some forty or fifty 
different kinds of Birds of Paradise, and they are all 
of them as beautiful, or nearly as beautiful, as those 
that I have described, each one in its own special 
way. Of course you must know yourself, or your 
mother will tell you, that all this wonderful beauty 
has not been given to these birds for nothing, and I 
have told you that the male Birds of Paradise, who 
alone have it, show it off to the poor hen birds, whose 
plumage is quite sober in comparison—though you 
must not think that sey are not pretty birds too— 
because they are pretty, though in a quieter style. So 
they are not rea/ly “poor” hen birds, that is only 
just a way of speaking. They are happy enough, 
you may be sure, for they have their husbands’ fine 
clothes to look at. But what is so interesting, is 
that each of these different kinds of Birds of Paradise 
has some different way of arranging and showing off 
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