Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu/582

564 and tail, black. The neck and breast have scale-like feathers of a brilliant, changeable green, edged with gold.

The Superb Bird-of-Paradise (Lophorina atra Vieillot) is distinguished for its black, velvety scapulary feathers, which are greatly developed so as to form a long, double tuft or plume, which it can raise at pleasure, so as to appear as a very large, double crest, or permit it to fall upon its back and sides. A tuft of feathers, also, hangs



from the breast, which spreads "into a doubly-pointed form, being of the most brilliant steely green, and glittering with gem-like radiance in the sunbeams. The general color of the bird's plumage is the deepest imaginable violet, appearing of a velvety blackness from its very intensity, and only flashing forth in the brighter hues as the light falls upon the edge of each feather. The back, hind neck, and head, are of a greenish-gold color, with a velvety appearance; the wings are a dull, deep black; the tail is black, with a blue gloss; the throat, changeable violet; and the belly, bright golden green."

Wallace's Bird-of-Paradise, or the standard-wing (Semioptera Wallacei, Gray) is a little larger than the American robin. The head, neck, back, wings, and tail, are all of a light brown or drab color; the belly, drab streaked or mottled with black. From the short feathers at the bend of each wing arise two white feathers or plumes, about six inches long, which the bird can raise and keep erect, or let fall upon the wing, at its pleasure. But the great beauty of the bird consists in its brilliant double tuft, proceeding from the breast and lower part of the neck, extending downward and obliquely outward, and terminating in two points about four inches apart. This tuft is of a bright, metallic green, changing into blue, violet, or black, according to the direction of the light; it is exquisitely beautiful in itself, and its beauty is increased, if possible, by the striking contrast with the otherwise dull color of the bird. The legs and feet are of a