BIRDS OF PARADISE. 



335 



emerald-green colour, and with a rich metallic gloss, and velvety plumes of a still 

 deeper green extend in a broad 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 strongly and well-formed, 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 24 to 30 inches in 

 length. From each side of the body, beneath the 

 wings, springs a dense tuft of long and delicate 

 plumes, sometimes 2 feet in length, of the most 

 intense golden-orange colour, and very glossy, 

 but changing towards the tips into a pale brown. 

 This tuft of plumes can be elevated and spread 



out at pleasure, so as almost to conceal the body of the bird." In the female the 

 whole of the ornamental plumes are wanting, and the colour is a uniform coffee-brown. 

 The lesser bird of paradise (P. minor), from New Guinea, and several of the adjacent 

 islands, although considerably smaller, is very similar in general characteristics. 

 Red Bird of On the other hand, the red bird of paradise (P. sanguinea), from 



the islands of Waigiou, Ghemien, and Batanta, is a very distinct 



Paradise. 



