GOLDEN BIRD OF PARADISE. Paradiita 



there is something so remarkable and unexpected that we believe the extreme of 

 uniqueness to have been reached, until we come across another species which equally 

 raises our wonder and admiration. 



In the king Bird of Paradise we have already seen two long bare shafts springing 

 from the upper tail-coverts and extending beyond the tail Such an arrangement is not, 

 however, without a parallel in other members of the feathered race as the Leoria nightjar 

 and the great Dicrurus both possess a similar development of feathers, the wing of the 

 one and the tail of the other being thus decorated. But in the species which we are now 

 examining six long slender shafts start from the head, three on each side, bare for the 

 greater part of their length, and furnished with a little patch of web at their extremities. 

 These curious shafts are movable, as the bird possesses the power of raising them so as to 

 stand out horizontally on each side of the head, or of permitting them to hang loosely 

 down the sides of the neck. The flanks are decorated with massive plumes of a jetty 

 black, that are also capable of being raised or lowered at the pleasure of the bird, and 

 that fall over the wings and tail so as nearly to conceal them. 



