tNSESSORES. 597 



of which by their peculiar form and texture produce a loud 

 rustling noise, which in the comparative stillness of these 

 solitudes may be heard at the distance of a hundred yards, 

 and may be faintly imitated by moving the feathers of a dried 

 skin. The full-plumaged males are much more shy than the 

 females or immature birds. According to the testimony of 

 several of the Cape York natives whom I questioned upon the 

 subject, the C. ma^nifica breeds in a hollow tree and lays 

 several white eggs. The ovary of a female shot in November, 

 the commencement of the rainy season, contained a very large 

 and nearly completely formed egg. 



" From the shyness of this Rifle-Bird, it is difficult to catch 

 more than a passing glimpse of it in the dense brushes which 

 it inhabits ; I once, however, saw a female running up the 

 trunk of a tree like a Creeper, and its stomach was afterwards 

 found to be filled with insects only, chiefly ants ; while the 

 stomach of a male, shot about the same time, contained merely 

 a few small round berries, the fruit of a tall tree, the botanical 

 name of which is unknown to me." 



Let me add that differences too slight to be considered 

 specific are observable in Australian and New Guinea speci- 

 mens ; one of them being the greater length of the black side 

 plumes in the New Guinea examples. 



The male has the general plumage deep velvety black, 

 shghtly tinged with purple; wings dull purplish black, 

 glossed with a greenish hue on the margins of the feathers ; 

 feathers of the head small, scale-like, and of a shining metallic 

 bronzy green ; feathers of the throat similar in form, and of a 

 shining metallic oil-green, bounded below by a crescent of 

 velvety black, to which succeeds a narrower crescent of 

 shining yellowish green; under surface purplish black, the 

 flank-feathers prolonged into a filamentous form and reaching 

 beyond the extremity of the tail; two central tail-feathers 

 shining metallic green, the remainder deep black ; irides 

 umber-brown ; feet lead-colour, the soles ochraceous. 



