BIRDS OF BEAUTY. 
251 
impossible to institute a decided preference. Detur pulehriori ? Yes ; 
but which is the fairer ? What say you to the Golden, or six-shafted 
bird, with the bronze and purple gleams of his plumage contrasted on 
the breast by what seems a shield or an escutcheon of molten gold — 
with the broad recurved crest of feathers that shines like mingled topaz 
and emerald — with the six slender wire-like feathers, each six inches 
long, and terminating in a small oval web, that spring from the sides of 
GOLDEN BIRD OF PARADISE. 
the head, and the thick tufts of soft feathers on the breast, which can 
be elevated so as entirely to conceal the wings ? 
Or what say you to the Magnificent, most rightly so named, with 
the short brown velvety feathers that cover the head, and the ruff or 
mantle of straw-coloured feathers, about one and a half inch long, 
that rises from the nape of the neck, and the orange-brown and bronze 
on the upper part of the body, and the rich deep green, flushed with 
purple, on the under part, and the two rich steel-blue feathers in 
the middle of the tail, which curve outward so as to form a double 
circle ? 
