The Birds Of
p. 41 · Read in the full issue
Paradise
By June Lett
THE birds of Papua are remarkable for the brilliance of their plumage, and their metallic colourings.
The Birds of Paradise, Racquet Tailed Kingfisher, the largest and smallest of parrots, and the great crowned pigeons, chiefly the Goura, are characteristic, as also are the Megapodes.
The Birds of Paradise were named by the Dutch on account of the brilliancy of their plumage and the belief that “possessing neither feet nor wings, they passed their lives in the air, sustained on their ample plumes from the branches of the lofty trees by the wire-like feathers of the tail”, and drawing their food “from the dews of heaven and the nectar of flowers”.
As late as 1760, no perfect specimen of the Paradise bird had been seen in Europe, for the natives who sold the skins to coastal traders, always removed their feet and wings.
They belong to the family Paradiseidae, and are closely allied to the crows. The largest of them all is the great Emerald Bird of Paradise, whose head and neck are covered with short, thick-set feathers of a bright straw colour, and a brilliant emerald green beneath. From under the shoulders, on each side, springs a dense tuft of golden-orange plumes about two feet in length, which the bird can raise to. enclose the greater part of its body.
The two centre tail feathers grow to a length of thirty-four inches; and, being destitute of webs, have a thin, wire-like appearance.
This plumage, however, belongs only to the adult males. The females are ex ceedingly plain, of uniform dusky brown colour, possessing neither plumes nor lengthened tail feathers. The young males at first resemble the females, but change to their perfect plumage after the fourth moulting.
When they are dancing, their wings are raised vertically over the back, the head is bent down and stretched out, and the long plumes are raised up and expanded till they form two magnificent golden fans striped with deep red at the base, and fading off into a pale brown tint down to the divided and softly waving points, and the whole bird is then over shadowed by this fan. The crouching body, yellow head and emerald green throat provide a foundation and setting for the golden glory which waves above.
It is at this season that these birds generally are captured.
Another specie's of this bird, the Prince Rudolph’s Blue Bird of Paradise, displays its feathers by hanging upside down.
With its legs fully extended, and wings slightly spread, the breast feathers are expanded forward, just enough to hide
the wings. The tail is then pressed for ward between the legs until nearly hori zontal, and its head is turned upward, while the bird swings backward and for ward from the hips, and occasionally draws the body upward and downward, bending the leg points.
This goes on for quite a while. Then the bird returns to its normal position, and starts all over again.
The native’s method of capturing Birds of Paradise is to hide among the lower branches of trees near the birds’ dancing ground, and as soon as they begin to “play” he shoots them with blunt arrows, to stun them and bring them to the ground without drawing blood, which would injure their plumage. So eager are these birds in their courtship that almost all the males are brought down before the danger is perceived.
It is the plumage of the lesser Bird of Paradise which is used for ladies’ head dresses.
These birds rarely live in captivity, and a bird in an aviary is not to be com pared with one of the same kind in the wilds. The bloom seems to fade from their beauty when they are caged for any length of time.