72 Wonders of the Bird World 



Another remarkable form is the Red Bird of Paradise 

 {['riviomis ntl'r,r''), in which the shafts of the two centre tail- 

 feathers, instead of being merel)- narrow and wire-like as in 

 the true Birds of Paradise {Paradista^, are flattened out so 

 that the\- are cxactl\- like a piece of whalebone. This 

 curious de\elopment begins, however, as an ordinar\- 

 feather, and e\-en when the whalebone stage is reached, 

 there is often to be found a tip of absolute feather}- plume. 

 In the true Birds of Paradise, such as Parddiscd a/'odii or 

 P. minor, the shafts of the central tail-feathers are produced 

 into a kind of wire. In the young males, as Dr. Meyer 

 has recently shown, the middle tail-feathers are at first no 

 longer than the rest of the other rectrices, but are some- 

 what pointed at the end, and in the first moult the}" seldom 

 seem to grow far be}-ond the line of the other feathers, 

 though the vanes of the outer or inner A\'eb are sometimes 

 wanting, predicting that in a future stage the}' will be 

 absent altogether. At the second moult the feathers still 

 maintain a good deal of lateral web, and often widen out 

 into a narrow racket at the ends, and in successive moults 

 they appear to be alwa}-s emitted from the sheath as wire- 

 like shafts. It is not known whether the bird nibbles an}- 

 of the web off with its bill, but it is probable that, as in the 

 case of the Racket-tailed Parrots {Pn'onifii ills'), the centre 

 tail-feathers have a hereditar}- tendenc}- to become wire- 

 like, and from the figures gi\-en b}- Dr. l\Ie}-er, there would 

 seem to be great irregularit}- in the amount of webbing to 

 the shafts of these curiousl}'-developed feathers. 



One of the most remarkable of the Birds of Paradise, 

 and certainly one of the most wonderful birds in the whole 

 world, is the King of Saxon\-'s Bird of Paradise {Ptcri- 

 dopJiora albcrti). This extraordinar}- species was described 

 by Dr. A. B. ]Me}-er, the Director of the Dresden Museum, 

 in 1894, t^'id when he sent me a picture of the bird along 

 with his original description, I could not help exclaiming 



