Wonders of the Bird World 



CHAPTER I 



WONDERFUL BIRDS 



:s*i'^^^ 



The Gold-crest {/\i!^ii/i<s rci^ii/ns). 



The Migration of a Gold-crest — Extinct Forms— The Archaeopteryx — 

 The Phororachus — The Secretary Bird — The Seriama — Ratite or 

 Struthious Birds— Kiwis — Rheas — The Hoatzin. 



I HAVE frequently been asked, "Which do you consider 

 the most wonderful bird in the world ? " It is a difficult 

 question to answer, and I always shirk the reply, for in my 

 opinion every bird is wonderful, and the more we study 

 their habits, and try to understand their inmost lives, their 

 thoughts, their instincts, the more wonderful do birds 

 appear. I well remember a gentleman calling on me at the 

 Natural History Museum in October 1897, bringing with 

 him a small bird in a cage. It was a little Gold-crest 

 {Regulus regulus), which had flown into the topmost car of 



