Heads and Necks 269 
is indescribable, resembling the sheen of emeralds and to- 
paz, rather than any organic substance. Over the fore_ 
head is a patch of pure white feathers, which shine like 
satin; and from the sides of the head spring the six won- 
derful feathers.” 
Fig. 211.—Six-shafted Bird of Paradise (a mounted bird), (From a_photo- 
graph provided by the American Museum of Natural History.) 
Head decorations reach the acme of strangeness in 
the King of Saxony’s Bird of Paradise. The bird itself 
is sombre-hued and small, about the size of our robin, 
with nothing unusual about its appearance, except for 
the two streamers springing from opposite sides of the 
