6 4



Rev. F. R. Blathwayt,



below each eye, his plumes too were not “ en evidence ” having

been considerably reduced by his confinement for so many

months in a small cage. It was only after he had been placed in

one of the large aviaries in the New Bird House at the Zoo that

I was able to inspect him more closely; when he flew from his

perch down on to the ground, the magnificence of his azure blue

plumage was most conspicuous ; the sheen of the feathers on his

back was like spun glass, glistening like the ripples of the water

of the blue Mediterranean sea. The dull black plumage too, in

certain lights, reflected the various hues of the rainbow. It is

remarkable that the black plumage of several of the Paradise

Birds has this peculiarity of changing in certain reflected lights

into iridescent colours, green, blue and copper; this may be

observed on any day in the case of the Parotid lawesi now in the

Zoological Gardens. It must be a wonderful and entrancing

sight to see the Rudolphi displaying with his full plumage in the

sunlight amidst the foliage of his dancing tree. The natives

who caught the bird say they saw him displaying on a creeper,

climbing up the face of a cliff in a ravine. There were six birds

altogether disporting on the same plant.


I very much doubt if we shall ever see his like again ; the

expense and risk in procuring this bird are too great for any

private person to undertake, but, as long as I live, I shall always

think of what might have been, had my bird lived to renew his

plumage and to give an exhibition of his display.



RAMBLES AMONG THE WILD BIRDS. (No. V.)


By the Rev. F. L Blathwayt, M.B.O.U.


THE CHALK CLIFFS OF YORKSHIRE.


“ Though rising' gale and breaking foam

And shrieking sea-birds warned him home.” Byron.


A bang on the door at 4.45 a.m. on June 17th last, roused

me up for my first visit to the cliffs about Flamborough Head.

My first thought was “Is it a fine day?” No, the rain was

pouring down from a leaden sky. It poured incessantly during

a three-and-a-half hours railway journey. It came down harder

than ever during the five hours we tramped from Bridlington along

the summit of the great cliffs, and, driven in from the sea by a



