RIFLE, a gun of high power, long shooting range, and finding its classifica tion among weapons, chiefly in respect to the construction of its barrel. The term rifle means a gun with a grooved barrel. Originally, this grooving was developed for the two-fold purpose of accommodat ing the excess carbonization from the dis charge of the black powder cartridge and to impart greater definition to the bullet by contracting the internal area of the barrel. It was discovered, after long experimentation, that the most effective combination of these two qualities was attained by boring the barrel with a spiral grooving which induced the twisting or spinning motion in the discharging bul let, thereby greatly increasing its direc tional accuracy and diminishing or flat tening the curve of its trajectory with corresponding increase in the effective ness of the weapon for hunting, target and military practice. The progress of development in the perfection of the rifle both as a weapon for sport and an instru ment of military accomplishment has known three stages. The first stage might be said to have continued from the discovery of the principle of rifling up to the period of the successful production of the breech-loading rifle. In this stage, the muzzle-loading type of rifle reached was discovered and the area of modern rifle construction was issued in with the two great contributory aids of high ten sion steel and smokeless powder. The superior quality and dependability of steel which offered varieties to every me its highest perfection and led to the ad vance from the ball form of cartridge to the sugar-loaf or elongated ball cartridge. In America this period extended to the time of the American Civil War. The Civil War and the impetus of western settlement and colonization pushed the rifle into high development and produced chanical requirement of the delicately adjusted machinery of the modern lever action, bolt-action, and auto-action weap ons, combined with the powerful advan tages of smokeless powder which made possible the lightening of the barrel to gether with more accurate and careful rifling, led to the production of our mod the Henry, Sharp, and Spencer rifles, all breech-loading weapons, and one, the Henry type, a lever-action gun, the an cestor of the modern repeating rifle. The
problem of the breech-loading rifle was the development of a mechanism suf ficiently strong and relatively small to withstand the terrific concussion of black powder cartridges. The third stage in rifle development was reached when the solution of the breech-loading weakness .ern hunting and military weapons. Two aspects of importance have appeared in this third and present state in the de velopment of the rifle; the emphasis upon the mechanics of repeating shots which has resulted in several types of magazine rifles and culminated in the automatic weapons which have combined speed of action with high shell capacity; and the several spheres of shell development which have produced the high-power, long range hunting rifle of exceptional ballistic at tainment and the similar military rifle possessing the same characteristics. Be tween these types of rifle and the rifle of shorter range or greater shocking power, of the order; and several old guild houses and Hanseatic halls. It is the seat of an archbishop of the Greek Church. Prior to the World War its industries were rapidly growing; they turned out cottons, the variation in mechanism and rifling, with all the consequent alterations in weight, balance, form of stock and sight construction, have been made to depend upon the type of shell used and upon whether the weapon has been designed to employ the steel, soft-nosed or pure lead bullet in its shooting.
the Ptilorhis paradise, often spoken of as one of the "Birds of Paradise"; is perhaps the best-known species of a genus which, according to Elliot, comprises four species confined to Australia and to New Guinea. P. para diseus inhabits the S. E. districts of Aus tralia, and is found only in very thick "bush." The male is regarded as more splendid in plumage than any other Aus tralian bird. The upper parts are vel vety black, tinged with purple; the under parts velvety black, diversified with olive green. The crown of the head and the throat are covered with innumerable little specks of emerald green of most brilliant luster. The tail is black, the two central feathers rich metallic green. The female, as is often the case, is much duller col ored than her mate.