A CHANGEABLE BIRD. 263 



been known to us for a hundred years, but its 

 habits are as much a mystery as its curls. It 

 is exquisite in color, of the richest purple, 

 glossy as satin, with neck of deep green, and 

 all crinkled and curled over head and neck. 



The Long-tailed Bird of Paradise is the proud 

 possessor of twenty-two names, from which it 

 were hard to make a selection. It is one of 

 the largest, being twenty-two inches in length, 

 most of which, however, is tail, and is splendid 

 in soft velvet-like black with hints of green and 

 blue and purple. On each side it carries a fan 

 of curved feathers, and the plumes of the flanks 

 are of the lightest and most delicate texture. 

 Words cannot describe the grace and elegance 

 of this bird, and the perfect specimen in the 

 museum above mentioned is worthy of a pil- 

 grimage to see. 



A " changeable " Bird of Paradise is the one 

 remaining eccentricity conceivable to complete 

 the variety in coloring, and this is found in the 

 Epimachus Mlioti, a bird so rare that at the 

 time Gould published his first work the speci- 

 men in his collection was unique, and natural- 

 ists in their excursions in the Papuan Islands 

 have vainly tried to discover its home and learn 

 its habits. The whole incomparable plumage 

 is of rich changeable hues ; in ordinary light, 

 when perfectly motionless, the bird appears of 



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