BIRDS OF PARADISE. 335 
emerald-green colour, and with a rich metallic gloss, and velvety plumes of a still 
deeper green extend in a broad band across the forehead and chin as far as the 
eye, which is bright yellow. The. beak is pale lead-blue; and the feet, which 
are rather large, and very strongly and well formed, are of a pale ashy pink. The 
two middle feathers of the tail have no webs, except a very small one at the 
base and at the extreme tip, forming wire-like cirrhi, which spread out in an elegant 
double curve, and vary from 24 to 30 inches in 
length. From each side of the body, beneath the 
wings, springs a dense tuft of long and delicate 
plumes, sometimes 2 feet in length, of the most 
intense golden-orange colour, and very glossy, 
but changing towards the tips into a pale brown. 
This tuft of plumes can be elevated and spread 
out at pleasure, so as almost to conceal the body of the bird.” In the female the 
whole of the ornamental plumes are wanting, and the colour is a uniform coffee-brown. 
The lesser bird of paradise (P. minor), from New Guinea, and several of the adjacent 
islands, although considerably smaller, is very similar in general characteristics. 
On the other hand, the handsome species commonly known as the red bird of 
paradise (P. sanguined), from the islands of Waigiou, Ghemien, and Batanta is a 
BED BIRD OP PARADISE (\ liat. size). 
