556 



THE BIRBS OF PARADISE, [en. xxxvui. 



the vivacity of the bird's aspec- The bill is gamboge 

 yellow, and the ii-is bhickish olive. (^Figure at p. 215,} i 



The female of this species hi of a tolerably uniform 

 cotfee-browu colour, but ha^ a blackish head, and the uape. 

 neck, and shoulders yellow, indicating the position of the 

 brighter colours of the uialc. The changes of plumage 

 follow the same order of succession as in the other species, 

 the bright colom-s of the head and neck being first deve- 

 lo|>ed, then the lengthened iilaiiients of the tail, and last of 

 all, the red side plumes. I obtained a series of specimens, 

 iDustmting the manner in which the extraordinary black 

 tail ribands are developed, which is very remarkable. 

 They first appear as two (Jixlinary feathers, rather shorter 

 than the rest of the tail ; the seouiid stage would no doubt 

 be that shown in a specimen of Paradisea apoda, in which 

 the feathers are modwrately lengthened, and with the web 

 narrowed in the middle; the third stage ia shown by a 

 specimen which has pait of the mitkib bare, and terminated 

 by a spatulate web ; in another the bare midrib is a little 

 dilated and send-cylindrical, and the terminal web very 

 small ; in a fifth, tlie perff^ct black hitrny riband is formed, 

 but it bears at its extremity a brown spatulate web, while 

 in another specimen, part of the black riband itself bears, 

 on one of its sides only, a narrow Ijrown web. It is only 

 alter these changes are fully completed that the red side 

 jdnmes begin to appear. 



Tlje succesjsive stages of development of the colours and 

 plumage of the Birds of Paradise are very interesting, from 

 the striking manner in wbiuh they accord with the theory 

 of tlieir having been produced by the simple action of 

 variation, and tlie cmnnlative power of selection by the 

 females, of those male bink which were more than usually 

 ornamental. Variations uf miour are of aU others the 

 most frequent and the most striking, and are most easily 

 modified and accumulated by man's selection of them. 

 We should expect, tlierefore, that the sexual differences of 

 colour would be those most early accumulated and fixed, 

 and would therefure appear soonest in the young birds; 

 and this is exactly what occurs in the Paradise Bh-ds. Of 

 all variations in the form of birds' feathers, none are so 

 Ji'etiueiib m those in the head and tail These occur more 



