GREATER BIRD OF PARADISE. 
This very curious and beautiful bird, the 
Paradisea Apoda of Linnaeus, is about the 
size of a blackbird. The wings, when closed, 
measure seven inches ; the long shafts, s'pring- 
ing from the rump, twenty-seven inches ; and 
-the longest of the soft loose feathers depending 
in two separate masses of indiscribable deli- 
cacy and beauty from beneath the wings, 
is twenty-one inches. The bill is an inch 
and three quarters long; and, from it's tip, 
to the extremities of the common or shorter 
feathers of the tail, is about twelve inches. 
The bill has a slight convexity towards the 
point, and is of a dirty yellowish green colour ; 
the fore-part of the head is covered with 
greenish black feathers of a velvet gloss, which 
entirely surround the bill ; the throat is clo- 
thed with green feathers of the same velvet 
fabric, shining with a golden gloss ; and fine 
yellow feathers extend circularly from the 
upper part of the head to the sides of the neck. 
The rest of the plumage, though delicate, i.s 
of the common fabric. On the back, the 
breast, 
