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
THE SIX-SHAFTED BIRD OF PARADISE. (Parotid SeXpenUlS.)
obtained in perfect condition. It was named by Bod-
daert, Paradisea sexpennis, and forms the genus Parotia
of Viellot. This wonderful bird is about the size
of the female Paradisea rubra. The plumage appears
at first sight black, but it glows in certain lights
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
an 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. This
singular and brilliant bird inhabits the same region as the
Superb Bird of Paradise, and nothing whatever is known
about it but what we can derive from an examination of
the skins preserved by the natives of New Guinea.
The Standard Wing, named Semioptera wallacei by Mr.
G. R. Gray, is an entirely new form of Bird of Paradise, discovered
by myself in the island of Batchian, and especially
distinguished by a pair of long narrow feathers of a white
colour, which spring from among the short plumes which
clothe the bend of the wing, and are capable of being