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Notes



to be batched in this country. This was an experiment, from which we

had little hope of success. American postal authorities refuse to accept

eggs unless packed in absolutely air-tight tin boxes, so that these eleven

eggs had twenty days shaking in soldered-up tins ; but in spite of

this seven out of the eleven proved fertile, though only two hatched.

These are, we think, the strongest ducklings we have hatched this year.

At present they are feeding well, but are extremely shy. It is too much

to hope, should we succeed in rearing them, that they will prove a pair.



NOTES


THE DISPLAY OF THE KINO BIRD OF PARADISE


(Gicinnurus regius)


The remarkable displays of some of the Birds of Paradise have

often been described in this and other publications, but I think a form

of display that I observed in the Small Bird House of the Zoological

Society in Regent’s Park a few days ago is specially worth recording.

In one of the large central cages, in which are kept a considerable

number of birds of various species, is an immature male King Bird of

Paradise. It may possibly be a female, as female birds of many species

will display under certain circumstances, vide the peahen and even the

peachick ! This young bird went through various forms of display

to one bird after the other, but it had nothing to “ show off ” with,

being a particularly sombre brown bird of various shades. However,

in common with very many kindred species of its genus, it had a brilliant

and beautiful apple-green toning to its mouth and throat, and this it

displayed to the full, opening its mouth widely to show as much as

possible of its throat to each bird it visited as soon as it bad finished

its display. This appears to me extraordinary. How did this young

bird know that its one beauty spot was inside its mouth ? As usual,

none of the birds which it took so much trouble to show itself to took

the slightest notice of it.


E. G. B. Meade-Waldo.


THE DISPLAY OF THE MAGNIFICENT BIRD OF PARADISE


C'


A male specimen of Hunstein’s Magnificent Bird of Paradise

(Dijohyllodes magnified hunsteini) that occupies a large cage in the



