Now, as I have said that the Black Bird of Paradise is such a very wonderful bird--as I have even called him a "wonder of wonders"--perhaps you will think that there is no other Bird of Paradise quite so wonderful as he is. Well, I do not wonder at your thinking so; and, do you know, whilst I was describing him to you and telling you how wonderful he was, I thought so too. But I had forgotten the Blue Bird of Paradise. The Blue Bird of Paradise is quite as wonderful as the Black one. Perhaps--but mind I only say perhaps--he is even a little more wonderful. To begin with, blue is a very uncommon colour for a Bird of Paradise to be of. None of the Birds of Paradise that I have told you about have feathers that are really blue. There are blue lights, I know, in some of their feathers, especially on the head, but still they are not quite blue. You could hardly call them blue feathers, for there is a green light or a purple light as well as a blue light in them, which makes them bluey-green or greeny purple, or, at any rate, green or purple _and_ blue, not just blue by itself. And then, as you know, sometimes all those lights go to sleep and then the feathers are black. I do not think there is any Bird of Paradise except the Blue Bird of Paradise whose feathers are really and truly blue, and I am quite sure that there is no other one--at least that we know of--which has so much blue about it, that you would think of it as a blue bird, or that has blue feather-fountains--those wonderful long silky plumes that grow out of each side under the wings.