31)fi BlllD OF INDIA. 



tiue Birds of Paradise; the Epimachus group, including Ftiloris; the 

 Astrapue, tlic Phomjgamce, and, more doubtfully, the Glaucopodincs 

 of New Zealand. Omitting the last, which (according to Bonaparte) 

 unite this group to the Fre/jilincE, we have an assemblage of birds 

 of moderate or large size for this tribe, and mostly of rich and 

 magnilicent plumage, almost all from New Guinea and the neigh- 

 bouring islands, with one or two from Australia. They may be said 

 to unite with the l^ectarinidce on the one hand, through Ftiloris, and 

 to the Mellvphagidee, as before stated, by Sericulus. The bill is 

 various, short, thick, and notched in some, curved and moderately 

 slender in others ; their feet are stout, and the claws well curved ; 

 the wings moderate or long, and the tail variously developed. The 

 true Birds of Paradise are said to be polygamous, and their mag- 

 nificent plumes to be, in fact, seasonal, and they display these in the 

 manner of a Peacock : but their habits are still very little known. 

 I'tiloris, which looks like an ovemrown Ncctarinia, is said to have 

 much of the habits of the Creepers. 



Tribe Dentikostres. 



Bill of moderate size, small, usually with a tooth or notch in the 

 upper mandible near the tip ; toes three before and one behind, the 

 outer front toe usually slightly syndactyle. This tribe, like all the 

 others, is incapable of any rigorous definition ; the subordinate 

 characters of wings, tail and feet, being greatly diversified. It is 

 not the less, however, a natural group, and differs from most of the 

 members of the remaining tribe, the Conirostres, by some marked 

 peculiarities of structiiie and habits. 



The bill in Dentirostres is, in general, less thick, and more 

 slender, and the upper mandible especially is usually a good deal 

 thicker than the lower one, and the tooth or notch (from which 

 the name of the group is taken j is very generally, though not uni- 

 formly, present, and its absence has led some systematists errone- 

 ously to separate, solely on this account, certain birds from their 

 very near aflines. 



As a general rule, the great majority of this tribe are insect- 

 feeders ; though mai^y live at times much on fruit, and some evea 



