BIRDS OF PARADISE 



1509 



ruff of canar}- -colored feathers stands erect above the scarlet back and wings. The 

 breast is covered by a shield of glossy green plumes, which toward the throat are 

 marked with metallic green and violet spots of extraordinary beauty. The two cen- 

 tral feathers of the tail, prolonged for five or six inches beyond the others, cross 

 one another, and are curved into a complete circle of bright steely purple. But the 

 chief peculiarity of the bird is the head, which is bald from the vertex backward, 



BIRD OF PARADISE. 

 (From Guillemard's Cruise of the "MarcAesa.") 



the bare skin being of the brightest imaginable blue. The bizarre effect thus pro- 

 duced is still further heightened by two fine lines of feathers, which running 

 lengthways and from side to side form a dark cross upon the brilliant azure back- 

 ground." This bird is of small size, and is confined to Waigiou and Batanta 

 islands, where it appears to be very locally distributed, frequenting forests of 

 no great height, at an elevation of some eight hundred feet above the sea. 



