GREAT PARADISE-BIRD. 481 



the base is surrounded, for the distance of about 

 half an inch, with upright, close-set, velvet-like 

 plumes, of an intensely black colour, but with a 

 varying lustre of gold-green : the head, which is 

 moderately large in proportion to the bird'^, to- 

 gether with the back part of the neck, is of a pale 

 gold-colour, the throat and fore part of the neck 

 of the richest changeable gold-green: the whole 

 remainder of the plumage on the body and tail is 

 of a fme deep chesnut, or cinnamon-brownj except 

 on the breast, which is of a deep purple colour: 

 the real tail is of very moderate length, scarcely 

 equalling that of a Thrush or Redwing in propor- 

 tion; but from the upper part of each side of the 

 body, beneath the wings, springs a vast assemblage 

 of extremely long, loose, and floating plumes, of a 

 broad lanceolate shape, and of the most delicate 

 texture and appearance, the webs being very fnie 

 and loose, so as to render each plume, taken separ- 

 ately, semitransparent: these plumes are in some 

 specimens of a bright jonquil yellow, gradually 

 sinking, towards their extremities, into a very 

 pale purplish brown: in others they are of a paler 

 yellow, and in most are marked on their upper 

 part or nearest the body by a few longitudinal 

 dark-red or sanguine spots: from the middle of 

 the rump spring a pair of naked shafts, consider- 

 ably exceeding in length even the long loose 

 plumes of the sides; their tips alone, for about the 



* It is generally described as very small, but this is merely 

 owing to the head having had the bones taken out, and the skin 

 shrunk in drying. 



