Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu/577

Rh During the dry weather of the northwestern monsoon, in our autumn and winter, many of the birds leave Papua and go west to the Arroo group; but, upon the commencement of the wet weather of the southeastern monsoon, in our spring, they immediately return to Papua. They usually fly, on these occasions, in flocks of thirty or forty, with a reputed leader. Their moulting-time is from May to August, during the southeastern monsoon. On account of the difficulty of managing their enormously-lengthened, gossamer-like plumage, they usually face the wind, whether flying or sitting. In proceeding from one place to another, they are often distressed by sudden shiftings of the wind; and, being unable to proceed in their flight against it, or go with safety before it, they are sometimes thrown to the ground. In tempestuous weather they seek the most sheltered retreats of the thickest woods. Although very active and sprightly, they are exceedingly shy and retiring in their habits. The false ideas that they were footless, lived ever on the wing, or occasionally rested suspended by the tail; fed on the dew; reared their young on the shoulders of the male, and came from the terrestrial paradise, have all had their day, but are too absurd to be more than alluded to now.

The Greater Paradise-Bird (Paradisea apoda), frequently called the Emerald Bird of Paradise, is smaller than the crow. Linnæus gave the specific name apoda to this bird, which was generally and erroneously called footless, to designate the species, not to perpetuate the error. This bird seeks the thickest foliage of the loftiest trees, in which to remain concealed during the day. The feathers on the head, throat, and neck, are very short and dense. Those round the base of the bill, and on the face, are velvety and black, changing their color to green, as the direction of the light changes; those on the throat, the front half of the neck, and the upper part of the breast, are of a bright, deep, emerald green; those on the head, back of the neck, and the shoulders, are of a light, golden yellow. The eye is at the common point between these colors. If lines were drawn from it to the throat, to the forehead, and down the sides of the neck, and curved to a point on the breast, they would indicate very well the limits of the colors. The back, wings, tail, and belly, are of a bright, reddish chestnut, the breast being a little darker, and inclining to purple. From each side beneath the wings proceed a large number of long, floating, graceful plumes, some eighteen inches in length, of exceeding delicacy of texture and appearance. These extend far beyond the tail-feathers, which are about six inches long, and "their translucent golden-white vanelets produce a most superb effect, as they cross and re-cross each other, forming every imaginable shade of white, gold, and orange, and then deepening toward their extremities into a soft, purplish red." From the upper part of the tail proceed two black shafts or filaments, some eighteen inches long, appearing like small wires, about one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter. The female has no