eI TLE ARROWS 87 
birds are like people, I feel sure that sometimes the 
Golden and the Superb Bird of Paradise call upon 
each other. 
Now you will want to know why this Bird of 
Paradise is called both the Golden and the Six- 
shafted Bird of Paradise. Well, he is called the 
Golden Bird of Paradise because he has lovely golden 
feathers on his throat and breast, and he is called the 
Six-shafted Bird of Paradise because six little arrows 
—for that is what they look like—seem to have been 
shot into his head, three on each side—arrows, you 
know, are sometimes called shafts. These little 
shafts or arrows are six inches long—almost as long 
as the bird itself—and bend right back over his body, 
as far as to the tail. Of course each of them is 
really a feather—an arrow that is all feather—but it 
is a “funny feather” with only the quill, which is 
very thin and slender, till quite the end, where there 
is just a little oval piece of the soft web—the part 
that looks really like a feather—left upon it. That 
is what makes them look like arrows. But is it not 
curious that the ‘‘funny feathers” of shis Bird of 
Paradise are in his head instead of in his tail? 
I think it must be because Dame Nature wanted to 
make him a little different. 
Of course you will see at once that six feathers 
like that—to say nothing of his wonderful golden 
