in sombre ravines.

Robert Schomburgh describes its dance as follows:

"While traversing the mountains of Western Guiana we fell in with a
pack of these splendid birds, which gave me the opportunity of being
an eye witness of their dancing, an accomplishment which I had hitherto
regarded as a fable. We cautiously approached their ballet ground and
place of meeting, which lay some little distance from the road. The
stage, if we may so call it, measured from four to five feet in
diameter; every blade of grass had been removed and the ground was as
smooth as if leveled by human hands. On this space we saw one of the
birds dance and jump about, while the others evidently played the part
of admiring spectators. At one moment it expanded its wings, threw its
head in the air, or spread out its tail like a peacock scratching the
ground with its foot; all this took place with a sort of hopping gait,
until tired, when on emitting a peculiar note, its place was immediately
filled by another performer. In this manner the different birds went
through their terpsichorean exercises, each retiring to its place among
the spectators, who had settled on the low bushes near the theatre of
operations. We counted ten males and two females in the flock. The noise
of a breaking stick unfortunately raised an alarm, when the whole
company of dancers immediately flew off."

"The Indians, who place great value on their skins, eagerly seek out
their playing grounds, and armed with their blow-tubes and poisoned
arrows, lie in wait for the dances. The hunter does not attempt to use
his weapon until the company is quite engrossed in the performance, when
the birds become so preoccupied with their amusement that four or five
are often killed before the survivors detect the danger and decamp."

THE RED BIRD OF PARADISE.

My home is on an island where it is very warm. I fly among the tall
trees and eat fruit and insects.

See my beautiful feathers. The ladies like to wear them in their hats.

The feathers of my wife are brown, but she has no long tail feathers.

My wife thinks my plumes are very beautiful.

When we have a party, we go with our wives to a tall tree. We spread our
beautiful plumes while our wives sit and watch us.

Sometimes a man finds our tree and builds a hut among the lower
branches.

He hides in the hut and while we are spreading our feathers shoots at
us.

The arrows are not sharp. They do not draw blood.

Wh