INTRODUCTION.

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Tuar the Birds of Paradise and the Bower-Birds are closely related, it will be impossible for anyone to
deny ; and although, at first sight, it may seem easy to separate a typical Bird of Paradise, such as
Paradisea apoda, from a typical Bower-Bird, such as Ptilonorhynchus violaceus, the actual differences between
these two apparently diverse forms are hard to define in writing. The problem is apparently solved by
Mr. D. G, Elliot and the Hon. Walter Rothschild, who unite the Paradiseide and Ptilonorhynchide together
as one Family, a conclusion with which, in the present state of our knowledge, no one will be inclined to
disagree. On those who differ from them the task is laid of defining the characters which are to separate the
Bower-Birds from the true Birds of Paradise, and this will indeed be found difficult enough. That the Bower-
builders must be different from the Puradiseide seems to the eye of the practical ornithologist a foregone
conclusion, and yet the characters for the separation of the two groups are hard to find. That they exist
I have not the smallest doubt; but that we shall ever discover them can scarcely be expected, for the aim of
every ordinary collector in the present day seems to be, not to furnish us with details of the nesting-habits
of the Birds of Paradise, but to see how many of these beautiful creatures he can procure for the decoration of
the hats of the women of Europe and America. ‘“‘ The gentlemen who represent the German New Guinea
Company have shot down all the full-plumaged males of Paradisea Jansch near the coast of German New
Guinea.” This is written by a German naturalist of the highest repute concerning a species so rare in
museums that we may yet be compelled to study its characters by permission of our wives and daughters,
whose hats are decorated with its mutilated bodies. What will be said in the future by the civilized world
and its scientific investigators when they find that we Aad the chance of learning the habits and
nidification of these extraordinary birds, and allowed them to pass out of existence for the adornment of
our women-folk, with scarcely a word of protest ?

These remarks, which I am sure will be endorsed by every true naturalist in the world, are occasioned
by the dilemma in which I find myself placed—viz., that I cannot draw any line between the Paradiscide
and Ptilonorhynchide, simply from lack of information as to the habits of many species. For instance, when
a wonderful form like Pteridophora comes to light, the problem for naturalists to determine is whether
it is a Bird of Paradise or a Bower-Bird. To judge by its wonderful train of enamel-tipped feathers, it
must belong to the Paradiseide, but, stripped of these long streamers, Pteridophora becomes a very
ordinary-looking Bower-Bird, which would be taken for an ally of Prioncdura or Cnemophilus ; and yet, in

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