Gaudy Decoration 69 



later. The same changes take place, and the same 

 sexual distinctions are found in the Lesser Kestrel (C. 

 cenchris], and it should be observed that both these species 

 are migratory, and that they therefore pass a more vigorous 

 existence than the species which are resident and do not 

 migrate. Again, as in the case of the Sun-birds, one may 

 ask : Are there any species of Kestrels representing per- 

 chance the original or ancient stock of these birds, in 

 which the sexes are alike in colouring ? And again I 

 can point to such instances in nature, when in Africa we 

 find certain resident species of Kestrels, C. rupicoloides, 

 C. fieldi, and C. alopex, in which the male does not differ 

 from the female in colour, and none of these species are 

 migratory. 



Returning, however, to the birds of gaudy decoration, 

 our attention is first attracted by the Birds of Paradise, 

 which are certainly the most fantastically-plumed birds of 

 the world, though again in almost every genus of the 

 Paradiseida, it is the male which has the wonderful dress 

 which marks him as a creature apart from the ordinary run 

 of birds. Stripped of his ornamental plumage it is- very 

 difficult to distinguish a Bird of Paradise from a Crow, and 

 some of the Manucodes and Paradise Crows are not only 

 plain enough in colour to recall their near alliance to the 

 family Corvidce, but, as in the Crows, the sexes do not differ 

 in colour. With the typical Birds of Paradise, however, the 

 case is different, and every kind of ornamental decoration 

 is found in the Family. Thus some of the genera have 

 shields of elongated and more or less metallic feathers, 

 springing from the sides of the neck or chest, as in Drepa- 

 nornis, Epimachus, and the allied genera of the Sickle- 

 billed Birds of Paradise belonging to the Sub-family 

 Epimachince. Another wonderful member of this group 

 has dense yellow plumes enveloping the flanks, with the 

 shafts of the feathers prolonged, so as to appear like wire 



