386 



feathers, liowever, are still webbed, biit are now two 

 or three inches longer tliaii the rest. In the next sta- 

 te these two feathers have been repL^ced bj the irn- 

 mensely long, bare rachides, quite equal to the grea^ 

 test size they attain ; but there is yet no sign of the 

 fine side-plnmes which mark the fourth and perfect 

 state of the species. I ani inclined to beheve, there- 

 fore, that this extraordinary mass of plumes is only 

 obtained by the Paradlsea in its fourth year, and af- 

 ter three complete changes of its feathers. This will 

 account for the very large number of immature birds 

 everywhere seen, while the fall-plumaged males are 

 comparatively scarce. It is singular that I have not 

 been able to obtain a single adult female, my only 

 specimen of that sex being , I think , also a young bird. 

 It is exactly similar to the youugest males , of a cofFee 

 brown all over ; but in Bonaparte's , Conspectus' it is 

 stated that the female is dusky yellow and brown, with 

 the imder parts eniirelj/ wJdte. This , I cannot help 

 thinking, must be a mistake , or altogether another bird ; 

 for neither myself nor my hunters have ever seen one 

 at all resembling it, out of many hundreds in various 

 states of plumage. The natives who shoot the birds 

 are also quite unacquainted with it, and always decla- 

 red that the birds of a uniform brown colour were the 

 females. I am sorry I could not positively determine 

 the point, because I shall probably not again visit the 

 districts in which the Paradlsea apoda is found. I 

 hope, liowever, to obtain the allied P. papuana on 

 the north coast of New Guinea , and trust to be more 

 successful in ascertaining the female of that species. 

 It is also worthy of notice that the long cirrhi of the 



