BIRDS 139 



the females by gorgeous colours, and by the great develop- 

 ment of special plumes, which are invariably erected in a 

 special manner in sexual excitement. Mr. Wallace has 

 observed that a dozen or more full plumaged males congre- 

 gate in a tree to hold what the natives call a dancing party. 

 They fly about, raise their wings, erect their beautiful plumes 

 and make them vibrate till the whole tree seems to be filled 

 with waving plumes. 



In the Great Bird of Paradise, P. apoda, which is found 

 chiefly in the Aru Islands, the chief ornament is the great 

 bunch of long and delicate plumes on each flank. These 

 plumes are of an intense golden orange colour, changing at 

 the tips into pale brown, and are sometimes two feet in 

 length. When erected and made to vibrate, they form 

 a sort of golden fountain almost concealing the body of 

 the bird. In the female all the ornamental plumes are 

 wanting, and the colour is a uniform coffee brown. 



Some of the Birds of Paradise, according to Darwin, cast 

 their special plumes directly after the breeding season, others 

 retain them throughout the year, after the first year, or 

 always. In the first case they illustrate the principle, that 

 the characters due to special stimulations only appear in the 

 individual at the season of the year when the special stimula- 

 tions are brought into action. 



In the Huia of New Zealand the beak of the male is 

 short, strong, and nearly straight, while that of the female is 

 much longer, more slender, and curved. In the Museum of 

 the College of Surgeons there are stuffed specimens of a pair 

 of these birds, labelled Heterolocha acutirostris. The species 

 is generally considered to belong to the family Sturnidae, 

 or Starlings. It is stated by Dr. Buller, author of Birds of 

 New Zealand, 1872, that the male uses his strong beak in 

 chiselling insect larvae out of decayed wood, while the female 

 probes the softer parts for the same purpose with her longer 



