190 
HARPER’S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
Viellot, and is one of the rarest and 
most brilliant of the Avhole group, 
being only known from mutilated na¬ 
tive skins. This bird is a little 
larger than the “Magnificent.” 
The ground color of the plumage is 
intense black, but with beautiful 
bronze refiections on the neck, and 
the whole head scaled with feathers 
of brilliant metallic green and blue. 
Over its breast it bears a shield 
formed of narrow and rather stiff 
feathers, much elongated toward, the 
sides, of a pure bluish-green color, 
and with a satiny gloss. Butf a still 
more extraordinary ornament is that 
which springs from the back of the 
neck—a shield of a similar form to 
that on the breast, but much larger, 
and of a velvety black color, glossed 
with bronze and purple. The outer¬ 
most feathers of this shield .are half an inch 
longer than the wing, and when it is elevated it 
must, in conjunction with the breast shield, com¬ 
pletely change the form and whoje appearance 
of the bird. The bill is black, and the feet ap¬ 
pear to be yellow. 
This wonderful little bird inhabits the interior 
of the northern peninsula of New Guinea only. 
Neither I nor Mr. Allen could hear any thing of 
it in any of the islands or on any part of the 
coast, it is true that it rvas obtained from the 
coast natives by Lesson; but when at Sorong 
in 1861 Mr. Allen learned that it is only found 
three days’ journey in the interior. Owing to 
these “Black Birds of Paradise,” as they are 
called, not being so much valued as articles of 
merchandise, they now seem to be rarely pre¬ 
served by the natives; and it thus happened that, 
during several years spent on the coasts of New 
Guinea and in the Moluccas, I was never able to 
obtain a skin. We are therefore quite ignorant 
of the habits of this bird, and also of its female, 
though the latter is no doubt as plain and incon¬ 
spicuous as in all the other species of this family. 
THE SIX-SHAFTED BIRD OF PARADISE. 
THE SUPERB BIRD OF PARADISE. 
The Golden, or Six -shafted Paradise 
Bird is another rare species, first figured by 
Buffon, and never yet obtained in perfect con¬ 
dition. It was named by Boddaert Paradisea 
sexpmnis^ and forms the genus Parotia of Viel¬ 
lot, This wonderful bird is about the size of 
the female Paradisea rubra. The plumage ap¬ 
pears at first sight black, but it glows in certain 
lights with bronze and deep purple. The throat 
and breast are scaled with broad flat feathers of 
an intense golden hue, changing to green and 
blue tints in certain lights. On the back of 
the head is a broad recurved band of feathers, 
whose brilliancy is indescribable, resembling 
the sheen of emerald and topaz rather than 
any organic substance. Over the forehead is 
a large patch of pure white feathers, which shine 
j like satin; and from the sides of the head spring 
the six wonderful feathers from which the bird 
receives its name. These are slender wires, six 
inches long, ivith a small oval web at the ex¬ 
tremity. In addition to these ornaments there 
is also an immense tuft of soft feathers on each 
side of the breast, which when elevated must 
entirely hide the wings, and give the bird an 
appearance of being double its real bulk. The 
bill is black, short, and rather conqiressed, with 
the feathers advancing over the nostrils, as in 
Ciciunurus regius. This singular and brilliant 
bird inhabits the same region as the “Superb 
Bird of Paradise and nothing whatever is 
known about it but what we can derive from 
an examination of the skins preserved by the 
natives of New Guinea. 
The Standard Wing, named Semioptera 
Wallacei by Mr. G. R. Gray, is an entirely new 
form of Bird of Paradise, discovered by myself 
in the island of Batchian, and especially dis¬ 
tinguished by a pair of long narrow feathers of 
a white color, which spring from among the 
short plumes which clothe the bend of the wing, 
and are capable of being erected at pleasure. 
The general color of this bird is a delicate olive- 
brown, deepening to a kind of bronzy-olive in 
the middle of the back, and changing to a del- 
