916 The American Naturalist. [November, 
cruelty of women seem to make inevitable. Nature herself, 
therefore, must shield her own from the complacent notion that 
everything living is subservient to the whim or caprice of 
civilization or to the savage who ignorantly ministers to it. 
These favored regions, besides those of the Aru Islands, 
where birds of paradise also abound, are rich in vegetation 
beyond even the usual fecundity of the tropics. Almost as 
unique, varied and lovely, are other forms of animal life— 
butterflies, dragon-flies, lizards, insects great and small, and 
countless tribes of the feathered race. 
In the eyes of lovers of the gorgeous, among birds the 
king bird of paradise, Cicinnurus regius, is without a rival. It 
is indeed of surpassing loveliness, if, as some one says, an ad- 
jective so distinctive can properly be applied to any species 
when all are so lovely. The bird itself is of small size, nor 
does the plumage stand forth to that extent it reaches in other 
species, but within this compass the most perfect, soft and daz- 
zling effects of delicate tints are displayed. While the plum- 
age of all the birds of paradise is singularly beautiful, still 
more beautiful and magical is the play of shifting lights. The 
least movement on the part of the bird, the slightest displace- 
ment of a feather, the turning of a leaf or the letting in of 
a sunbeam, produces a wondrous and entrancing change. After 
death the colors pale,in many inst iately,and 
of course the evanescent hues lose their startling brilliancy. 
Over the prevailing tint of red on the king bird, “a gloss as 
of spun glass wavers.” The head is of deep orange, the throat 
cinnabar, the breast snow-white; between the breast and throat 
is a dividing belt of rich green. Like silk with its sheen and 
softness is the white breast; white also is seen over each eye. 
On either side of the lead-colored legs, at times hidden under 
the wings, tufted, white-tipped feathers, puffed out like the 
down on the soft powder-brushes ladies use, are to be noted, 
for they form a curious adjunct to the dress of the male bird. 
From the tail-feathers a pair of wire-feathers, five or six inches 
long, project; these are separated at their ends by an equal 
distance, and are webbed outwardly so as to form two circlets 
about the size of a coat-button. Capt. Moresby, in his inter- 
