OF THE MAGNIFICKNT BinD-OF-rARADlSE. 



611 



except for its two middle feathers, is dark brown, the central 

 pair of feathers being produced into very narrow plumes some 

 nine inches in length and of a brilliant metallic green on the 

 upper surface — they cross one another and spread outwards in 

 opposite curves. Covering the under surface of the body from 

 the throat, and occupying the whole of the breast, is a shield of 

 rich velvet-liko green, the lower feathet-s tipped with metallic 

 blue, and down the middle of this, commencing below the black 

 throat, is a narrow band of square-ended feathers of a rich 

 metallic eiiierald-greon. From the hind neck grows a broad 



Text-figure 3. 



Final attitude with moutli open. 



fan-shaped hood of pale yellow plumes, with the texture of spun 

 glass, flanked on each side by tufts of reddish-brown feathers. 

 The bill and feet are blue, and the inside lining of the mouth 

 delicate green. 



Birds-of- Paradise comprise one of the few groups of Passerine 

 birds that are polygamous, and where polygamy prevails in birds 

 it is generally accompanied by great adornment of the male eex. 

 Various attitudes of display are ado[>ted, calculated to exhibit 

 these adornments to the best advantage. 



The methods of adornment of the moles in the Birds-of- 

 Paradise are very varied and the attitudes adopted during 

 display differ in every genus, that of Diphyllodes being entirely 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1923, No. XL. 40 



