202 BIRDS

raven, the rook, the magpie, the chough, the jay and
nutcracker, and then their near relatives, most beau-
tiful of all birds, the Paradiseidze of New Guinea and
its neighbourhood. Beautiful as they seem to us,
these Birds of Paradise are far more lovely in their
native wilds. Mr. Gill describes how he came upon
a group of them in his Papuan wanderings. ‘One
morning wethad camped on a spur of the Owen
Stanley Range, and being up early, to enjoy the cool
atmosphere, I saw on one of a clump of trees close
by six Birds of Paradise, four cocks and two hens.
The hens were sitting quietly on a branch; and the
four cocks, dressed in their very best, their ruffs of
green and yellow standing out, giving them a large,
handsome appearance about the head and neck, their
long flowing plumes so arranged that every feather
seemed carefully combed out, and the long wires
stretched well out behind, were dancing in a circle
round them. It was an interesting sight ; first one,
then another would advance a little nearer to a hen,
and she, coquette-like, would retire a little, pretending
not to care for any advances. A shot was fired,
contrary to my expressed wich ; there was a strange
commotion, and two of the cocks flew away, the others
and the hens remained. Soon the two returned, and
again the dance began and continued long, and, I
having strictly forbidden any more shooting, all fear
was gone; and so, at last, a rest, and then a little
nearer to the two dark-brown and certainly not pretty
hens. Quarrelling ensued, and in the end all six birds
flew away.’

In this rapid survey we have mentioned the prin-