PARADISEA APOD A. 



to show the ornamental side-feathers ; and in May and June they have mostly arrived at their full perfection. 

 This is probably the season of pairing. They are in a state of excitement and incessant activity; and the males 

 assemble together to exercise, and to dress and display their magnificent plumage." " The long side plumes," our author 

 states, ' all spring from an oval fold of the skin, about an inch in length, situated just below the elbow or first 

 joint of the wing. On this point they turn as on a hinge, and admit only of being laid down closed beneath the 

 wing, or erected and expanded — which position they take of their own accord, if the bird is held up by the legs, 

 with the head inclining a little downwards, and the whole gently shaken. In this manner by slightly altering the 

 position of the body, all the forms which the plumage assumes during life can be correctly and beautifully 

 imitated. The curious habit of the males assembling to play and exercise their limbs and feathers, occurs in 

 some other birds, as the Turkeys and Argus Pheasants, and particularly in the Rupicola cayana, which, though 

 a true arboreal bird, has its ball-room on the ground, generally on a flat rock, on which a space a few 

 feet in diameter is worn clean and smooth by the feet of the dancers. On these spots the natives set snares 

 and catch these beautiful birds alive. Of the geographical distribution of the Bird of Paradise many erroneous 

 statements have been published. Its supposed migrations have by some been extended to Banda, by others to 

 Ceram and all the eastern islands of the Molucca group. These statements, however, are totally without foun- 

 dation, the species being strictly confined to New Guinea and the Am Islands, and even to a limited portion 

 of each of those countries. Aru consists of a very large central island, and some hundreds of smaller ones 

 scattered around it at various distances, many being of large size and covered with dense and lofty forests ; yet 

 on not one of these is the Paradisea ever found (although many of them are much nearer New Guinea), being 

 limited to the large island, and even to the central portions of that island, never appearing on the sea-coast, 

 nor in the swampy forests, which in many cases reach some miles inland. With regard to its distribution in 

 New Guinea, the Macassar traders assured me it was not found there at all; for although they obtain quantities 

 of 'Burong mati ' from most of the places they visit on the west coast of New Guinea, they are all of 

 another kind, being the Paradisea papuana, a smaller and more delicate but less brilliantly coloured species. On 

 inquiry I found they did not trade to the eastward of Cape Buro (135° E.). Lesson, I believe, found the larger 

 species in the southern peninsula of New Guinea; and an intelligent Ceramese trader I met at Aru assured me 

 that in places he had visited more eastward than the range of the Macassar traders, the same kind was found 

 as at Aru. It is therefore clear that the Paradisea apoda is confined to the southern peninsula of New Guinea 

 and the Aru Islands, while the Paradisea papuana inhabits only the northern peninsula, with one or two of the 

 islands (most probably) near its, northern extremity. It is interesting to observe that though the Ke Islands and 

 Goram approach nearer to New Guinea than Aru, no species of the Paradise-birds are found upon them — pretty 

 clearly showing that these birds have not migrated to the islands beyond New Guinea, in which they are now 

 fonud. In examining my series of specimens I find four such well-marked states of the male bird as to lead me 

 to suppose that three moults are required before it arrives at perfection. In the first condition it is of a nearly 

 uniform coffee-brown colour, darker on the head and paler on the belly, but entirely without markings or variety of 

 colour. The two middle tail-feathers are exactly equal in length to the others, from which they only differ in 

 having a narrower web. In the next series of specimens the head has acquired the pale yellow colour, and the 

 throat and forehead the rich metallic green of the old birds ; the two middle tail-feathers, however, are still webbed, 

 but are now two or three inches longer than the rest. In the next state these two feathers have been replaced by 

 the immensely long bare rachides, quite equal to the greatest size they attain ; but there is as yet no sign of the 

 fine side-plumes which mark the fourth and perfect state of the species. I am inclined to believe, therefore, that 

 this extraordinary mass of plumes is only obtained by the Paradisea in its fourth year, and after three complete 

 changes of its feathers. This will account for the very large number of immature birds everywhere seen, while the 

 full-plum aged males are comparatively scarce. It is singular that I have not been able to obtain a single .adult 

 female, my only specimen of that sex being, I think, also a young bird. It is exactly similar to the youngest 

 males, of a coffee-brown all over ; but in Bonaparte's ' Conspectus ' it is stated that the female is dusky yellow 

 and brown, with the underparts entirely white. This, I cannot help thinking, must be a mistake, or altogether another 

 bird ; for neither myself nor my hunters have ever seen one at all resembling it, out of many hundreds in 

 various stages of plumage. The natives who shoot the birds are also quite unaquainted with it, and always 

 declared that the birds of a uniform brown colour were the females. It is also worthy of note that the long 

 cirri of the tail in the full-plumaged males vary very much in length ; and the shortest is often the most worn, 

 showing that it has reached its full development for the year. A specimen occurs occasionally with immense 

 cirri ; one of mine has these feathers 34 inches long, while the general length seems to be from 24 to 28 

 inches. I think it probable, therefore, that these cirri increase in length each year, and that the very long ones 



