Lea Petrone, age 13, of Pittsburgh, Pa., his question:

How did the bird of paradise get its ,name?

When our world seems dready we sometimes turn our minds to a place called Paradise where there is no unhappiness and all is perfect beauty. Once in a while we find something here which we think is wonderful enough to belong in Paradise. The so called birds of paradise, each one more beautiful than the next, would certainly be raked in this class. But thus is not the entire story of how they came to get their fantastic names,
This story begins with the bold mariners who took their fragile sailing ships farther and farther across the unknown oceans of the world, They found the fascinating island of New Guinea even before Magellan rounded the world and then returned to Europe loaded with amazing tales and trophies, Some of the treasures were bird skins covered with breath taking plumage.
These skins had been removed from their native birds and prepared by the natives of New Guinea. In order to display the 'let skins of dazzling plumage it was customary to remove the feet and legs from the birds. In this condition the gorgeous objects were shown to the courts and the nobles of Europe, Everyone was breathless with admiration.
But admiration was mixed with bewilderment, No one, remember, had seen the living birds because the skins arrived without feat and legs. We cannot blame the admirers for wondering how these birds walked, perched or coped with life on the ground, But we cannot blame them for making up a story to explain the mystery instead of solving it with sensible scientific investigation.
The story they invented was absurd. These birds, they reasoned, must spend their entire lives in the air, And a silly story usually has a sillier ending. It was necessary to explain also how the young birds were born. It was decided that the mother must lay her eggs in the flowing plumage of the father bird and the babies were hatched up there high in the skies of Paradise.
The gorgeous creatures wary then named birds of paradise. They are beautiful enough to inhabit Paradise, but the original tale about them is far from the truth. Mrs. Bird of Paradise is a drab colored lady who builds the nest, hatches the eggs and does all the family chores. The gorgeous father bird does nothing but strut around to by admired.
Most of these gorgeous birds live in the high mountains of Now Guinea. Three dazzling cousins live in Australia, Most of the cousins live in high mountains in lonely splendor, never creasing the valleys to visit their relatives. You may sea these beautiful birds in zoos, but never, oh, never remind them that they are distantly related to our drab, shabby old crow   though this is true.