SOME BEAUTIFUL HEN- BIRDS 99 
And I think I would have waited at that place, and 
gone to those trees again very early next morning, all 
by myself, to see if those birds came back to dance 
there. Still, what these travellers do tell us is very 
interesting, very much more interesting than if they 
had only written, ‘“‘ Here we shot,” or ‘“ Here we 
obtained another specimen of Paradisea Something- 
elsea’’—which, of course, would be the Latin name. 
Naturalists like to tell us the Latin name of the 
animals they shoot. If they only had an English 
name I don’t think they would care nearly so much 
to shoot them. How sorry we ought to be that 
animals have Latin names! 
But, now, how is it that it is only the cock bird— 
the male—of all these Birds of Paradise who is so 
beautiful, whilst the poor hen—the female bird—is 
quite plain, in comparison? Well, I must tell you, 
first, that this is not only the case with Birds of Para- 
dise, but that it is just the same with other birds as 
well. In most, if not all, of the beautiful birds I 
am going to tell you about, it is the male bird that 
is so very beautiful, so that perhaps you will begin to 
think that this is the case with a// beautiful birds, 
and that there is no hen bird that has very splendid 
or brilliant plumage. But this is not so at all. You 
would make a great mistake if you were to think 
that. In most of the parrots — those brightly- 
