A contemplatedMonograph of the Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds (Paradisaeidae) by Erwin Stresemann

Abstract

During the early 1950s, Erwin Stresemann (1889–1972) began to prepare the manuscript of aMonograph of the Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds from which selected portions are here presented: The autobiographical Introduction and chapters on the systematics of the bower birds (Ptilinorhynchinae) and on the evolution of the Birds of Paradise. He discontinued work on this monograph after new publications on these birds had appeared in 1954. In closing I present several other additions and corrections to his recently published biography.