They Are About Twenty-Two
Inches Long, And Always Attract Attention As The Most Conspicuous
And Extraordinary Feature Of The Species.
The rich metallic green
colour of the throat extends over the front half of the head to
behind the eyes, and on the forehead forms a little double crest
of scaly feathers, which adds much to the vivacity of the bird's
aspect.
The bill is gamboge yellow, and the iris blackish olive.
(Figure at p. 353.)
The female of this species is of a tolerably uniform coffee-brown
colour, but has a blackish head, and the nape neck, and shoulders
yellow, indicating the position of the brighter colours of the
male. The changes of plumage follow the same order of succession
as in the other species, the bright colours of the head and neck
being first developed, then the lengthened filaments of the tail,
and last of all, the red side plumes. I obtained a series of
specimens, illustrating the manner in which the extraordinary
black tail ribands are developed, which is very remarkable. They
first appear as two ordinary feathers, rather shorter than the
rest of the tail; the second stage would no doubt be that shown
in a specimen of Paradisea apoda, in which the feathers are
moderately lengthened, and with the web narrowed in the middle;
the third stage is shown by a specimen which has part of the
midrib bare, and terminated by a spatulate web; in another the
bare midrib is a little dilated and semi-cylindrical, and the
terminal web very small; in a fifth, the perfect black horny
riband is formed, but it bears at its extremity a brown spatulate
web, while in another a portion of the black riband itself bears,
for a portion of its length, a narrow brown web.
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