Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
a close examination shows that no part of it is devoid of colour; and by holding it in various
lights, the most rich and glowing tints become visible. The head, covered with short velvety
feathers, which advance on the chin much further than on the upper part of the beak, is of a
purplish bronze colour; the whole of the back and shoulders is rich bronzy green, while the
closed wings and tail are of the most brilliant violet purple, all the plumage having a delicate
silky gloss. The mass of feathers which cover the breast is really almost black, with faint
glosses of green and purple, but their outer edges are margined with glittering bands of em-
erald green. The whole lower part of the body is rich buffy yellow, including the tuft of
plumes which spring from the sides, and extend an inch and a half beyond the tail. When
skins are exposed to the light the yellow fades into dull white, from which circumstance it
derived its specific name. About six of the innermost of these plumes on each side have the
midrib elongated into slender black wires, which bend at right angles, and curve somewhat
backwards to a length of about ten inches, forming one of those extraordinary and fantastic
ornaments with which this group of birds abounds. The bill is jet black, and the feet bright
yellow. (See lower figure on the plate at the beginning of this chapter).
The female, although not quite so plain a bird as in some other species, presents none of
the gay colours or ornamental plumage of the male. The top of the head and back of the
neck are black, the rest of the upper parts rich reddish brown; while the under surface is en-
tirely yellowish ashy, somewhat blackish on the breast, and crossed throughout with narrow
blackish wavy bands.
The Seleucides alba is found in the island of Salwatty, and in the north-western parts of
New Guinea, where it frequents flowering trees, especially sago-palms and pandani, sucking
the flowers, round and beneath which its unusually large and powerful feet enable it to
cling. Its motions are very rapid. It seldom rests more than a few moments on one tree, after
which it flies straight off, and with great swiftness, to another. It has a loud shrill cry, to be
heard a long way, consisting of 'Cáh, cáh,' repeated five or six times in a descending scale,
and at the last note it generally flies away. The males are quite solitary in their habits, al-
though, perhaps, they assemble at certain times like the true Paradise Birds. All the speci-
mens shot and opened by my assistant Mr. Allen, who obtained this fine bird during his last
voyage to New Guinea, had nothing in their stomachs but a brown sweet liquid, probably
the nectar of the flowers on which they had been feeding. They certainly, however, eat both
fruit and insects, for a specimen which I saw alive on board a Dutch steamer ate cock-
roaches and papaya fruit voraciously. This bird had the curious habit of resting at noon with
the bill pointing vertically upwards. It died on the passage to Batavia, and I secured the
body and formed a skeleton, which shows indisputably that it is really a Bird of Paradise.
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