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 Inconspicuous As In All The Other Species
Of This Family.
The Golden, or Six-shafted, Paradise Bird, is another rare
species, first figured by Buffon, and never yet obtained in
perfect condition.
It was named by Boddaert, Paradisea sexpennis,
and forms the genus Parotia of Viellot. This wonderful bird is
about the size of the female Paradisea rubra. The plumage appear,
at first sight black, but it glows in certain light 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 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, with a small
oval web at the extremity. 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 au appearance of being double its real bulk. The
bill is black, short, and rather compressed, with the feathers
advancing over the nostrils, as in Cicinnurus regius.
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