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. It is only after
these changes are fully completed that the red side plumes begin
to appear.
The successive stages of development of the colours and plumage
of the Birds of Paradise are very interesting, from the striking
manner in which they accord with the theory of their having been
produced by the simple action of variation, and the cumulative
power of selection by the females, of those male birds which were
more than usually ornamental. Variations of _colour_ are of all
others the most frequent and the most striking, and are most
easily modified and accumulated by man's selection of them. We
should expect, therefore, that the sexual differences of _colour_
would be those most early accumulated and fixed, and would
therefore appear soonest in the young birds; and this is exactly
what occurs in the Paradise Birds. Of all variations in the
_form_ of birds' feathers, none are so frequent as those in the
head and tail. These occur more, or less in every family of
birds, and are easily produced in many domesticated varieties,
while unusual developments of the feathers of the body are rare
in the whole class of birds, and have seldom or never occurred in
domesticated species. In accordance with these facts, we find the
scale-formed plumes of the throat, the crests of the head, and
the long cirrhi of the tail, all fully developed before the
plumes which spring from the side of the body begin to mane their
appearance. If, on the other hand, the male Paradise Birds have
not acquired their distinctive plumage by successive variations,
but have been as they are mow from the moment they first appeared
upon the earth, this succession becomes at the least
unintelligible to us, for we can see no reason why the changes
should not take place simultaneously, or in a reverse order to
that in which they actually occur.
What is known of the habits of this bird, and the way in which it
is captured by the natives, have already been described at page
362.
The Red Bird of Paradise offers a remarkable case of restricted
range, being entirely confined to the small island of Waigiou,
off the north-west extremity of New Guinea, where it replaces the
allied species found in the other islands.
The three birds just described form a well-marked group, agreeing
in every point of general structure, in their comparatively large
size, the brown colour of their bodies, wings, and tail, and in
the peculiar character of the ornamental plumage which
distinguishes the male bird. The group ranges nearly over the
whole area inhabited by the family of the Paradiseidae, but each
of the species has its own limited region, and is never found in
the same district with either of its close allies. To these three
birds properly belongs the generic title Paradisea, or true
Paradise Bird.
The next species is the Paradisea regia of Linnaeus, or Ding Bird
of Paradise, which differs so much from the three preceding
species as to deserve a distinct generic name, and it has
accordingly been called Cicinnurus regius. By the Malays it is
called "Burong rajah," or King Bird, and by the natives of the
Aru Islands "Goby-goby."
This lovely little bird is only about six and a half inches long,
partly owing to the very short tail, which does not surpass the
somewhat square wings. The head, throat, and entire upper surface
are of the richest glossy crimson red, shading to orange-crimson
on the forehead, where the feathers extend beyond the nostrils
more than half-way down the beak. The plumage is excessively
brilliant, shining in certain lights with a metallic or glassy
lustre. The breast and belly are pure silky white, between which
colour and the red of the throat there is a broad band of rich
metallic green, and there is a small spot of the same colour
close above each eye. From each side of the body beneath the
wing, springs a tuft of broad delicate feathers about an inch and
a half long, of an ashy colour, but tipped with a broad band of
emerald green, bordered within by a narrow line of buff:
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