256 ECCENTRICITY IN FEATHERS. 



shaped, movable shields ; part of the family 

 wear ruffs, and others display fans on shoulders 

 or breast ; a few sport extravagant length of 

 tail, and one or two show bright-hued wattles ; 

 one species is bare-headed, and — other vaga- 

 ries being exhausted — two have curls. The 

 greater number have an unusual development 

 of two or more feathers into long, wire-like ob- 

 jects, with a patch of web at the ends. In one 

 species these wires are formed into two perfect 

 circles beyond the end of the tail ; in another 

 they cross each other in a graceful double curve, 

 and in a third stand straight and stiff from the 

 end of the feathers. The Sexpennis, or Golden 

 Bird of Paradise, has on the head six of these 

 shafts, which it erects at pleasure, produc- 

 ing a singular appearance ; and the Standard 

 Wing has two on each wing, equally effec- 

 tive. Perhaps the most peculiar fact about 

 the family is the power each bird possesses 

 to change its form by means of these eccen- 

 tric ornaments. All are erectile and movable 

 in several ways, and a bird that is at one mo- 

 ment like our common crow in shape, may 

 in the next show a dazzling array of waving 

 plumes or vibrating fans, and be utterly un- 

 recognizable for the same creature. It is evi- 

 dent to all bird students that feathers are as 

 surely an " index of the mind " as are tails 



