Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ands take a curve or set, which brings them round so as to meet in a double circle on the
neck of the bird; but when they hang downwards, during life, they assume a spiral twist, and
form an exceedingly graceful double curve. They are about twenty-two inches long, and al-
ways 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.
The female of this species is of a tolerably uniform coffee-brown colour, but has a black-
ish 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 deve-
loped, 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 nar-
rowed 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 selec-
tion by the females, of those male birds which were more than usually ornamental. Vari-
ations 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.
