524 



Marvels of the Universe 



to be peculiar to the moun- 

 tains of the extreme south- 

 east or north-west are now 

 found to range discontinuously 

 throughout the whole length 

 of this immense island. Per- 

 haps the two regions of New 

 Guinea richest in forms of 

 Paradise Birds, marvellous 

 for their colour or strange de- 

 \-elopments of plumage are 

 the Arfak Peninsula of the 

 north-west (Dutch New Guinea) 

 and the Owen Stanley Moun- 

 tains of-British New Guinea. 

 Some of the most noteworthy 

 members of the group are 

 illustrated in colour or black- 

 and-white in this article. 

 They are as follows : 



The Blue Bird of Paradise. 

 This is the Blue Bird of the 

 world. No other bird type 

 exhibits in its plumage such a 

 gloriously vivid gamut of blue 

 as does this lovely member of 

 a group of Paradise Birds 

 which develops filamentous 

 plumes at the side of the bod^' 

 (the same group which includes 

 the well-known Great Bird of 

 Paradise). The coloured plate 

 will give some idea of this range 

 of tints, extending from sea- 

 blue and smalt to intense 

 purple, blue-black, cobalt and 

 azure. The female of this species (perched in the foreground of the illustration) is more brightly 

 coloured than is the case with most other Paradise Birds, in which the female (in the gorgeous 

 species) differs marked!}' from the male, and is usually coloured in shades of brown, grey or russet- 

 black. The Blue Bird of Paradise is mainly, if not entirely, a British subject, as it has not 

 hitherto been obtained outside British New Guinea, where it is found in the Horseshoe and Owen 

 Stanley Mountains. 



The Purple and Gold Paradise Bird is sometimes known as the Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise, 

 as it has t\ve]ve long, curved, wry appendages to the side feathers, which, except when distended 

 for display, usually emerge from over the hidden tail. The side-plumes which produce these 

 extraordinary wires are one of the bird's chief beauties, for they are prolonged in two exquisitely 

 soft, rounded masses and are, like the under-tail coverts, of a pale maize-yellow, the rest of the 

 bird's plumage being a vivid purple with gleams of emerald- green. This lovely creature fortunately 

 stands confinement fairly well, and one or more species may be seen at the time of writing in the 



PTloto by permission of] [,?(,■ H. H. Johnston, G.C.M.G 



THE SICKLE-BILLED BIRD OF PARADISE. 



The general colour of this bird is black, velvet-black (ibe female is brown-b!a 

 and grey); but the black of the great side wings of the male is enamelled wi 

 ultramarine and emerald, and these jewel tints recur in the tail. 



