498 ROYAL PARADISE-BIRI). 



tail-feathers, which are about six inches long. The 

 colour of this bird, on the upper parts, is a most 

 intense and beautiful red or purplish chesnut, in a 

 very strong light appearing of an orange-carmine 

 colour : the bill is of a brownish yellow, and about 

 an inch in length ^ its base, as well as the fore-part 

 of the head, surrounded with velvet-like plumes: 

 the throat and upper part of the breast are of a 

 deep purple-red, and across the lower part of the 

 Ibreast runs a moderately broad goldrgreen zone, 

 in some individuals bounded above by a line of 

 yellow, separating it from the red colour of that 

 part: from the green zone or crescent downwards, 

 the body is white, and the under wing-coverts are 

 of the same colour: beneath the wings, on each 

 side the body, is situated a set of feathers, six or 

 peven in number, of a dusl^y brown colour, with 

 tips of the richest golden green, e^ch tip separated 

 from the brown by a bounding line of white : 

 these feathers are of nioderate breadth, and some^ 

 what squared at the ends or green tips, as if cut 

 off, and when the wings are closed they hang ob- 

 liquely downwards on each side the body beneath 

 the wings: the quill-feathers are of a bright orange- 

 brown beneath; the tail darker or more inclining 

 to brown: from the upper part of the rump, over 

 the middle of the tail, extend two very long naked 

 shafts, divaricating as they extend, and each ter- 

 minating, in the most beautiful manner, in a 

 ^loderately broad gold- green web, rising from one 

 side only of the shaft, and disposed into a flat 

 spirg^l of nearly two convolutions: the legs are 



