BIRDS OF PARADISE 



748 



BIRKENHEAD 



3IRDS OF PARADISE 



King Bird of Paradise 



5] x- shafted 

 Bird of Paradise 



Great gird or Paradise 



Wilson's Bird of Paradise 



King of Saxony Bird of Paradise 



like feathers grow, which curve around towards 

 the sides of the wings. This bird is a foot 

 long, and truly has a coat of many colors, with 

 purple-bronze on the head, green, black and 

 purple on the neck, bronze-green on the back 

 and shoulders, and emerald-green on the edges 

 of its violet-purple wings. The tail is also 

 violet-purple and the breast a rich yellow. 



Not less splendidly arrayed is the long- 

 tailed bird of New Guinea, over a yard in 

 length and having as a distinctive feature a 

 fan-like arrangement of feathers on the sides 

 of the breast, which can be raised to form two 

 half circles. The ends of these feathers are 

 bright blue and green, and the tail feathers 

 opal-blue. The great bird of paradise, about 

 half the size of the one just described, is a 

 superb creature whose chief glory is a spray 

 of feathers growing out from under each wing. 

 These rise from the body and fall backward 

 in a graceful curve, a showery mass of brilliant 

 color that seems to envelop the bird like a 

 magic fountain. The smallest of the family is 

 known as the king bird of paradise, a little 

 creature "whose two middle tail feathers termi- 

 nate in spiral disks of beautiful emerald-green. 



The lovely birds of paradise have to pay a 

 bitter price for their glorious plumage, for 

 thousands upon thousands have been sacrificed 

 to man's greed and woman's vanity. The birds 

 are captured for the millinery trade during 

 the mating season, when the males assemble 

 in the trees in groups of from twelve to twenty 

 to display their splendid garments. The bird- 

 catcher shoots them with blunt arrows which 

 stun them, thus permitting their capture with- 

 out injury to the plumage. The United States, 

 according to a provision of the Underwood 

 Tariff Bill of 1913, now prohibits the importa- 

 tion of the plumage of these birds, and the 

 movement to check their cruel slaughter is also 

 progressing rapidly in other countries. See 

 AUDUBON SOCIETIES; BIRD. B.M.W. 



BIRKENHEAD, bir' kenhed, a town and 

 parliamentary borough of Cheshire, England, 

 on the Mersey River, opposite Liverpool, of 

 which town it is practically a suburb. Its 

 growth has been rapid, caused by the increas- 

 ing importance of Liverpool, with which it is 

 connected by ferry and by a railroad tunnel 

 underneath the river. This tunnel is four and 

 one-half miles long and cost $6,000,000. 



