Sir Willtai/i Ingram's Birch of Paradise. 335 
Sir William Ingram's Birds of Paradise at Little 
Tobago. 
Per O. Mir.LsuM. 
Introductory Hemarks : I am quite surp many mcmb ts will 
bo delighted to have the opportunity of reading an ariiele, reprinted from 
The Port of Spain Gazette of August 2nd, 1914, and daily observa- 
tions ana reports of the Paradise birds at Little Tobago. Sir U'illiuni 
Ingram, whose summer residence at Westgate-on-Sea is so close to my 
present address, knowing my passionate interest in bird life, and actual 
experienwt with a number of Birds of Paradise, nine species comprising 
some 25 to 30 specimens, formerly in the Everberg collection, very kindly 
allowed me to read the report in the newspaper named above, and at my 
earnestlj' expressed desire to be allowed to pass it on to other interested 
members of our society, gave me his permission to do so . Methinks there 
are some of us avicullvi" is s who in ma^y ways envy f i • Wil iam's — " Eobin- 
son Cru;o>' — a title, 1 believe, his man Mr. Eole t Hero'd pre'ers. Trulj' 
Bobs Icad^ au admirable, if somewhat lonely life. Surrounded by Nature 
in some of its most beautiful forms, freed from the anxieties of war 
in all its details and also very many of the cares that form part of one's 
private and daily life. Bobs is spared many of these. Without unduly 
digressing, I ma.y perhaps remark that the present times have a great 
significance to me, as over the once calm peaceful village, in which were 
situated Monsieur R. Pauvvels' aviaries, and in which I lived, while 
getting together and supervising the collection of rare living birds, 
which once occupied the Everberg aviaries, the tumult of war has roUeil . 
This, then peaceful, smi'ing country must now be 'i t'e mo e than a r'e: olalo 
wilderness, and one can now be thankful that circumstances compelled the 
disbanding of the collection less than two years ago and my return to Eng- 
land, otherwise the birds and my Bdgian home must have been involved in 
one common ruin — cn passant, I must express my respectful admiration of 
the people I once lived among, and the noble and heroic part they are 
playing in the great European struggle. I have said that Bobs, living 
his own peaceful, and shall I say, simple life, is spared many of our 
cares, but there can be no doubt whatever that there are moments, nay 
days of solitude when all is not honey, when silence becomes boredom, 
but let us look at and imagine the brighter moments, and picture him 
walking throughout the tropical glades of Little Tobago, deeply immersed 
in eventii of Nature that can never cross our paths. At such times Bjbs 
has (he advantage of studying the characteristics of Parailise Binis and 
other native fauna in their natural haunts. I say natural for the Para- 
dise birds : because by now, though aliens to that particular part of ihe 
tropical globe, they are surely becoming naturalised. Sir William In- 
gram tells me his man reports having observed six males, ten females and 
one young bird. Accepting Bobs' observations as correct, and by all 
accounts he is a most observant and trustworthy student of ornitliology, 
I think, as a body of foreign bird-lovers, we are deeply grateful to Sit 
