Heads and Necks 



269 



is indescribable, resem])ling the sheen of emeralds and to- 

 paz, rather than any organic siil)stance. ()\er tiic fore, 

 head is a patch of pure white featliers, wliich shine like 

 satin; and from the sides of the head spring the six \\on- 

 derful feathers." 



Fig. 211 — Six-shafted Bird of I'aradise (a inouiitcd hiid). {From a |)liuto- 

 graph provided by the American iMuseum of Natural History.) 



Head decorations reach the acme of strangeness in 

 the King of Saxony's Bird of Paradise. The biivl itself 

 is sombre-hiied and small, about the size of our I'obin, 

 with nothing unusual al)Out its aj^pearance, exce])t foi- 

 the two streamers springing from opposite sides of the 



