1 1 8 Wonders of the Bird World 



Paradise have meeting-places, where the males show off 

 their splendid plumage. A tree is selected by them as a 

 dancing-ground, and sometimes as many as twenty adult 

 males will assemble and go through various manoeuvres, 

 flying from branch to branch in a state of great excitement, 

 and quivering their beautiful long flank-feathers of red or 

 yellow. 



Of the Red Bird of Paradise of South-eastern New 

 Guinea, Paradisea raggiana, the following account of an 

 assembly has been given by Messrs. Chalmers and Wyatt — 

 " One morning we had camped on a space of the Owen 

 Stanley Range, and being up early, to enjoy the cool 

 atmosphere, we saw on one of the clumps of trees close by 

 six Birds of Paradise, four cocks and two hens. The 

 latter were sitting quietly on a branch, and the four 

 cocks, dressed in their very best, their ruffs of green and 

 yellow standing out, giving them a handsome appearance 

 about the head and neck, their long flowing plumes so 

 arranged that every feather seemed combed out, and the 

 long wires stretched well out behind, were dancing in a 

 circle round them. It was an interesting sight. First one 

 and then another would advance a little nearer to a hen, 

 and she, coquette-like, would retire a little, pretending not 

 to care for any advances. A shot was fired, contrary to 

 our expressed wish ; there was a strange commotion, and 

 two of the cocks flew away, but the others and the hens 

 remained. Soon the two returned, and again the dance 

 began and continued long. As we had strictly forbidden 

 any more shooting, all fear was gone ; and so, after a rest, 

 the males came a little nearer to the dark brown and cer- 

 tainly not pretty hens. Quarrelling ensued, and in the end 

 all six birds flew away." 



Many Game-birds also have their playing-places, and 

 this is particularly the case with the great Argus Pheasant 

 {Aigusianus argns). This remarkable bird is an inhabitant 



