Ornithological Progress in New Guinea. 251 



not raised up vertically, but moved backwards and forwards 

 in a horizontal and oblique direction, and are moved forward 

 parallel to the sides of the beak. It is the commonest Para- 

 dise-bird at ]\Iount Arfak ; but, as usual, the adult males are 

 much scarcer than the females and young males. 



" Lophorina atra is rather rarer than Parotia ; but I must 

 tell you that the abundance of fruit-eating birds in a given 

 locality depends principally on the season at which certain 

 kinds of fruit are ripe ; therefore a species may be common 

 in a place one month, and become rare or completely dis- 

 appear in the next, when the season of the fruit on which it 

 lives has passed. 



" Diphyllodes speciosus is also pretty common, and easy to 

 kill when one has learnt to know its song, which resembles a 

 kind of ' teia-teia-teia ' repeated several times with diminish- 

 ing force. The sound produced by kissing the palm of the 

 hand is a very good imitation. When once you have heard 

 the song, if you approach carefully, especially early in the 

 morning, you will find some small spaces about a yard and a 

 half in diameter cleared of sticks and leaves, where one or 

 two males are paying court to a female. The males then 

 erect all their feathers ; the skin of the neck swells up like a 

 bladder; the head seems like the centre of an aureola, 

 which is formed beneath by the expanded feathers of the 

 breast, and above by those of the yellow mantle, which are 

 carried in a perfectly vertical position and spread like a fan. 

 I kept a bird of this species alive for some days. It is found 

 sometimes at little distance from the sea, on the plains, 

 but perhaps more often on the hills at 1000 to 2000 feet 

 of elevation, preferring open places and the vicinity of 

 streams. 



" Diphyllodes wilsoni is almost identical in habits with the 

 last. I only got one specimen at Waigiou and five at 

 Batanta, Avhich were found very near the sea. Of both of 

 these species I have preserved in spirit those which were not 

 in good plumage. 



" Seleucides alba is one of the Paradise- birds most difiicult to 

 procure. It is common enough at Salwatti ; but the natives 



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