The King of Saxony Bird of Paradise



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killed by immersion in boiling water appeared to be what was needed.

Live worms, however, Wilberforce at this time regarded as a most

uncivilized diet and would have nothing to do with. Jarge, plump,

lively, alert, and distinctly shy, was given his liberty and, like the Raven

from the ark, he returned no more. Wilberforce, however, when his

turn came, assumed the role of the Dove. On a rather plainer diet he

made a steady, if slow, recovery, and when let out of his cage he entirely

refused to desert his human benefactor. He still flies about the garden

in the daytime, but allows himself to be taken back to his cage at night.

He is absolutely fearless, settling on the head or shoulder of any person

he sees, coming when he is called, and rightly showing a special regard

for his original benefactress. He feeds himself quite a lot, but has no

objection to extras in the house. When sitting on one’s hand he often

inserts his closed beak between one’s fingers and then opens it with the

prising action characteristic of his tribe when hunting a pasture for

worms or grubs. What will be his future ? Probably, I fear, capture

by some stranger or a violent death from cat, Hawk, or Owl or, sadder

still, a fatal injury from a friend’s heedless foot which he is too confiding

to avoid. In the meantime, however, he is rather nice.



THE KING OF SAXONY BIRD OF PARADISE


Pteridophora Alberti


This very remarkable bird was described in 1894 by Dr. A. B.

Meyer of the Dresden Museum in the following papers : Zwei neue Para-

disvogel Abh. in Ber. Ker. zool. u. anthrop. Mus . Dresden , 1894-5, 1894-5,

No. 5, and in the year 1895 Lord Rothschild sent for exhibition to the

British Ornithologist Union two examples of this bird. We have in

the National History Museum Collection three specimens, one of which

is on exhibition in the Central Hall; there is another set up in the Bird

Room at the Zoology Museum at Cambridge. It is very rare but perhaps

one day Mr. Shaw Mayer may bring us back from New Guinea living

examples of this bird. Nothing is known of its habits. Its habitat is

the Amberno Mountains near Geelrink Bay in North-West New Guinea.


The following is a description of the adult male. General colour



