grow thinner, and the light shines more and more through them, they tremble and sigh with joy, and one says to another, "We are getting nearer--nearer. I can see him almost; we shall soon be bathed in his light." And so they all grow and grow till at last they gleam softly through the soft leaves, and see the beautiful deep blue sky and the glorious, golden sun. Yes, that is a lovely race indeed--as anything to do with flowers is lovely--and it is a race upwards, to the sky and to the sun. Not all races are of that kind. It is in forests like those that the Birds of Paradise live; and now that we know something about where they live, we will find out something about them. CHAPTER III The Great Bird of Paradise The Great Bird of Paradise lives in the middle of the great island called New Guinea, and all over some quite little islands close to it which are called the Aru Islands. He is the largest of the Birds of Paradise, and perhaps he is the most beautiful, but it is not so easy to be sure about _that_. However, we shall see what you think of him. His body and wings and tail are brown. "What, only brown?" you cry. "That is like a sparrow." Ah, but wait. It is not _quite_ like a sparrow. It is a beautiful, rich, _coffee_-brown, and on the breast it deepens into a most lovely, dark, _purple-violet_ brown. There! That is different to being just brown like a sparrow, is it not? Then the head and neck are yellow, not a common yellow, but a very pretty, light, delicate yellow, like straw. Sometimes ladies have hair of that colour, and when they have, then people look at them and say, "What beautiful hair!" which is just what they themselves say, sometimes, when they look in the glass. These feathers are very short and set closely together, which makes them look like plush or velvet, so you can think how handsome they must be. What would you think if you were to go out for a walk and see a bird flying about with a yellow plush or yellow velvet head? But the throat is handsomer still. _That_ is a glorious, gleaming, metallic green. Some feathers are called "metallic," because when the light shines on them they flash it back again just as a bright piece of metal does; a helmet or a breastplate, for instance. You know how _they_ flash and gleam in the sunshine when the Horse-Guards ride by. At least, if you have seen the Horse-Guards, you do, and if you have not, well, I daresay you have seen it in a dish-cover or a bright coal-scuttle. But fancy feathers as soft as velvet, gleaming as if they were polished metal, but gleaming all emerald green as if they were jewels--emeralds--too! Then on the forehead and the chin of this bird--by which I mean just under the beak--there are glossy velvety plumes of a deeper green colour. The other is emerald. These are like the deep, lovely greens that one sees sometimes in the fiery opal or the mother-of-pearl. What jewellery! and out of it all flash two other