522 



Marvels of the Universe 



the Purple and Gold Bird of Paradise — sucks the honey from flowers. Probably this is a trait 

 to be found in other Paradise Birds possessing long and curved bills. This particular Paradise 

 Bird has developed a long, flat, extensile tongue which is fibrous at the end and admirably 

 adapted to loading itself with the nectar at the bottom of the flower calyx. The family, in 

 fact, is sometimes divided into Paradise Birds with relatively straight, crow-like beaks, and 



those with beaks that are long, 

 slender and curved. 



Nearly all these birds are noisy 

 in their cries. Some of them are 

 e.xcellent mimics of other birds. 

 Most of them utter bold, harsh 

 noises, especially in the breeding 

 season. The Purple and Gold 

 Paradise Bird, for example, is 

 sometimes called by the natives 

 K6 ko ko, or Ka ka ka, on account 

 of its loud cry. The King Bird of 

 Paradise (a gorgeous little creature 

 of cardinal-red and emerald-green) 

 makes a sound like a cat's mew. 

 Others utter loud whistles or flute- 

 like notes, or harsh, gratmg, metallic 

 sounds as ugly as anything a 

 parrot can devise. 



The fully developed, gorgeously 

 apparelled male usually leads a 

 somewhat solitary existence out of 

 the breeding season, but the young 

 of both se.xes, together with the 

 adult females and nearly adult 

 young males, fly about in little 

 flocks, frequenting chiefly hilly and 

 well-wooded districts. Not a few 

 of the Paradise Birds are re- 

 stricted in their range to the high 

 mountains of New Guinea, espe- 

 cially in the extreme north-west and 

 south-east. Here, in the Arfak 

 and Charles Louis Mountains on 

 the one hand, and in the Owen 

 Stanley range on the other, they 



Photo by permission of} 



THE SIX-WIRED BIRD OF 



[Sir II. H. Johmlon, G.C.M.G. 

 PARADISE. 



The forehead of this bird has a depressed patch of feathers like pure silver, 

 contrasting vividly with the iet-black, the deep bronze, copper and beryl-green 

 of the rest of the plumage. The extraordinary wire-plumes grow out from the 

 sides of the head. 



frequent the forests up to heights as great as nine thousand feet. The very notable and 

 beautiful species are restricted in their range to single islands, such as J obi or Jappen, 

 Waigiu (from which comes the Great Bird of Paradise), Salawati, Jilolo, Halmahera or 

 Bachian (the most western limit of their distribution). Others are thought to be restricted 

 to the Arfak Peninsula of north-west New Guinea, or to the Charles Louis or Owen Stanley 

 ranges of mountains. But caution is necessary as regards conclusions of this kind, because' 

 in the gradual opening up of New Guinea — still, perhaps, the most unexplored portion of 

 the earth's surface except the Arctic regions — it is found that species at one time thought 



