554: The Birds of Paradise. 



yellow, the feathers being short and close set, so as to resemble 

 plush or velvet ; the lower part of the throat up to the eye is 

 clothed with scaly feathers of an^emerald green color, and with 

 a rich metallic gloss, and velvety plumes of a still deeper green 

 extend in a band across the forehead and chin as far as the 

 eye, which is bright yellow. The beak is pale lead blue ; and 

 the feet, which are rather large and very strong and well form- 

 ed, are of a pale ashy-pink. The two middle feathers of the 

 tail have no webs, except a very small one at the base and at 

 the extreme tip, forming wire-like cirrhi, which spread out in 

 an elegant double curve, and vary from twenty-four to thirty- 

 four inches long. From each side of the body, beneath the 

 wings, springs a dense tuft of long and delicate plumes, some- 

 times two feet in length of the most intense golden-orange 

 color and very glossy, but changing toward the tips into a pale 

 brown. This tuft of plumage can be elevated and spread out 

 at pleasure, so as almost to conceal the body of the bird. 



These splendid ornaments are entirely confined to the male 

 sex, while the female is really a very plain and ordinary-look- 

 ing bird of a uniform coffee-brown color which never changes ; 

 neither does she possess the long tail wires, nor a single yellow 

 or green feather about the head. The young males of the first 

 year exactly resemble the females, so that they can only be 

 distinguished by dissection. The first change is the acquisi- 

 tion of the yellow and green color on the head and throat, and 

 at the same time the two middle tail-feathers grow a few inches 

 longer than the rest, but remain webbed on both sides. At a 

 later period these feathers are replaced by the long bare shafts 

 of the full length, as in the adult bird ; but tKere is still no sign 

 of the magnificent orange side-plumes, which later still com- 

 plete the attire of the perfect male. To effect these changes 

 there must be at least three successive moultings ; and as the 

 birds were found by me in all the stages about the same time, 

 it is probable that they moult only once a year, and that the 

 full plumage is not acquired till the bird is four years old. It 

 was long thought that the fine train of feathers was assumed 

 for a short time only at the breeding season, but my own ex- 

 perience, as well as the observation of birds of an aUied species 

 which I brought home with me, and which lived two years in 

 this covmtry, show that the complete plumage is retained dur- 



