118 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
mythology of the Red Indian. [ f ~ \ 
The smaller relatives of this 
celebrated bird, the ROOK, 
the CARRION-CROW, and the 
JACKDAW, and more distantly 
the JAY and the MAGPIE, are 
doubtless as familiar to our 
readers as the raven. 
Although probably un- 
known to many, the CHOUGH, 
with its glossy black plumage 
and brilliant red bill and feet, 
is a British bird, and lives 
still in certain parts of Eng- 
land, though fast verging on 
extinction. 
Another very remarkable 
member of the family is the 
Huta, and this on account of 
the fact that the male and 
female differ markedly in 
respect of the shape of the 
bill, this being in the female 
long and sickle-shaped, and 
in the male short and cone- 
shaped. This bird frequents 
the wooded regions of North 
Island, New Zealand, living 
upon grubs found in decaying 
wood, and on berries. The 
female prccures the grubs by 
probing the holes which they 
have made in the sounder 
wood, the male by breaking [Photo by Dr. R. W’. Shufelde} [Washington 
away the decayed portions of BLUE JAY (NATURAL SIZE) 
the tree ; but occasionally it The blue Jay is a most remarkable mimic 
happens that, having cleared 
away as much of the decayed material as possible, the latter is unable to reach his prey, in 
which case he calls up the female, and yields his find to her, to extricate with her longer 
bill, So great a difference in the form of the bill in the sexes of the same species is elsewhere 
unknown among birds. 
The Crows hold the important position of head of the Class birds, yet they are far outshone 
in splendour by many of the groups already examined, though, with the exception perhaps of 
the Humming-birds, these all pale before the BIRDS OF PARADISE. 
Varying in size from a crow to a thrush, the best known of the latter is the GREAT Brrp OF 
PARADISE, which was discovered towards the end of the sixteenth century, if not earlier. On their 
first discovery it was popularly supposed that these birds lived in the air, turning always to the 
sun, and never alighting on the earth till they died, for they had neither feet nor wings. Hence 
the Malay traders called them “ God’s Birds,” the Portuguese “ Birds of the Sun,” and the Dutch 
‘“Paradise-birds.” Seventeen or eighteen inches long, these birds have the body, wings, and tail 
of a rich coffee-brown, which deepens on the breast to a blackish violet or purple-brown. The 
top of the head and neck are of a delicate straw-yellow, the feathers being short and close-set, 
