PARADISE-BIRDS. 



57 



These birds day very singularly marked eggs, with 

 parallel longitudinal streaks radiating from the larger 

 end, which give them rather an artificial appearance. 



Of late years, through the energy of several wealthy 

 members of the Avicultural Society, a considerable im- 

 portation of Paradise Birds has been effected, so that 

 this work would be very defective if the family were 

 to be omitted. Russ, of course, includes it in his 

 work. 



RIFLE-BIED (Ptilorhis paradisea). 



Velvet black, glossed above, on the sides of the neck, 

 chin, and breast with plum colour ; tips of flights and 

 whole of secondaries glossed with violet ; two central 

 tail-feathers glossy steel-green ; the next on each side 

 with steel-blue towards the base ; crown and throat 

 glossy bronzy-green ; feathers of hind-neck fringed with 

 steel-blue; a patch of velvety purple above the ear- 

 coverts ; sides of head with a purplish gloss ; breast 

 velvety purple, bluer at centre of feathers, hind-breast 

 with olive-green edges to the feathe<rs ; rest of body 

 below olive-green, cupreous plum colour at base of 

 feathers ; under-wing and tail-coverts black ; bill and 

 feet black. Female, above greyish-brown washed with 

 olive ; head and sides of neck dark brown with greyer 

 streaks ; wing-feathers with ferruginous edges ; a buff 

 eyebrow stripe ; chin and throat pale buff ; remainder 

 of body below deep tawny buff transversely spotted 

 with brown, which increases to irregular bars on the 

 flanks ; quills below brown, somewhat olivaceous ex- 

 ternally and shading into tawny buff at the edges ; tail 

 very similar. Hab., South-eastern Australia, ranging as 

 far north as Queensland. (Sharpe.) 



Gould quotes the following observations by the late 

 Mr. F. Strange (" Handbook," Vol. I., p. 592) : " The 

 principal resort of the Rifle-bird is among the large 

 cedar-brushes that skirt the mountains and creeks of 

 the Manning, Hastings, MacLeay, Bellenger, Clarence, 

 and Richmond Rivers, and there, during the pairing 

 months of November and December, the male bird 

 is easily found. At that time of the year, as soon as 

 the sun's rays gild the tops of the trees, up goes the 

 Rifle-bird from the thickets below to the higher 

 branches of the pines (Araucaria madeayana) which 

 there abound. It always affects a situation where 

 three or four of these trees occur about two hundred 

 yards apart, and there the morning is spent in short 

 flights from tree to tree, in sunning and preening its 

 feathers, and in uttering its song each time it leaves 

 one tree for another. The sound emitted resembles 

 a prolonged utterance of the word " Yass," by which 

 the bird is known to the natives of the Richmond River. 

 In passing from tree to tree it also makes an extra- 

 ordinary noise resembling the shaking of a piece of 

 new stiff silk. After 10 a.m. it descends lower down, 

 and then mostly resorts to the thick limb of a cedar 

 tree (Ccdrda australis), and there continues to utter 

 'its cry of yass at intervals of two minutes' duration. 

 At this time, owing to the thickness of the limb and 

 the closeness with which the bird keeps to it, it is very 

 difficult of detection ; wait with patience, however, and 

 you will soon see him, with wings extended, and his 

 head thrown on his back, whirling round and round, 

 first one way and then another.' 



Mr. A. J. Campbell (" Nests and Eggs of Australian 

 Birds, ' pp. 66, 67) thus describes the nest and eggs 

 of this bird :- " Nest. Somewhat bulky, outwardly 

 constructed chiefly of green stems and fronds of a 

 climbing fern (Polypodium confluens), with a few other 

 broad dead leaves at the base, ornamented round the 

 rim with portions of shed skins from the carpet snake 



(Morelia variegata), lined inside with wire-like rootlets; 

 and a few straight portions of twigs. Dimensions over 

 all, eight inches to nine inches, by four inches in depth ;. 

 egg cavity, four inches across by two inches deep. 



" Eggs. Clutch, two; in shape, inclined to oval, but. 

 more swollen about the upper quarter ; shell, somewhat, 

 fine in texture, surface somewhat uneven, i.e., with, 

 hair-like tracks or creases, but glossy ; colour, rich, 

 fleshy tint or pinkish buff, moderately but boldly 

 marked or streaked longitudinally with reddish-brown; 

 and purplish-brown, the markings being more numerous 

 on the apex and upper quarter. Some of the mark- 

 ings have the appearance of being painted on with a 

 fine brush. . . . Dimensions in inches, 1.29 x .98." 



When Mr. Campbell speaks of " the apex " of an egg 

 he means the large (not the more pointed) end. He- 

 gives a coloured illustration of the egg on Plate 6, 

 which shows the usual distinctive characteristics of 

 the eggs of Paradise-birds. 



Russ says that this species has only been once im- 

 ported alive to Europe, an example having arrived at. 

 the London Zoological Gardens in April, 1882. I do- 

 not know whether others have since come to hand. 



TWELVE-WIRED BIRD OF PARADISE (Seleucides niger).. 



Velvety-black ; above glossed with green and coppery ; 

 greater coverts and secondaries bright plum colour ;. 

 primaries glossed with violet externally ; tail bright 

 plum colour ; head above cupreous purple, green at the- 

 sides and on throat ; fore-neck and chest somewhat 

 green in the centre, the lateral plumes fringed with 

 metallic emerald green ; rest of under-surf ace buff 

 yellow ; flank plumes elongated, silky, with six bristle- 

 like elongated shafts curving backwards on the body 

 from each side ; under wing-coverts black ; bill black. 

 Female, above chestnut-red ; back and sides of neck 

 black ; mantle mottled with black ; primaries black, 

 chestnut on outer webs ; crown and nape velvet-black, 

 glossed with purple ; orbital space and a spot on the- 

 ear-coverts bare, the latter otherwise black ; sides of 

 face and throat greyish-white, indistinctly barred with- 

 blackish ; remainder of under-surf ace sandy brown, 

 rufescent here and there, and irregularly barred' 

 throughout with blackish-brown, less distinctly ort 

 abdomen, long flank-feathers and under tail-coverts ; 

 under wing-coverts bright chestnut, barred with- 

 blackish. Hab., New Guinea. 



An inhabitant of the moist plains near the coast, thib. 

 species frequents flowering trees, upon the nectar from 

 the blossoms of which Wallace seems to have concluded 

 that it chiefly lived, that alone being found in the 

 crops of examples which he obtained ; but he adds that 

 it doubtless also feeds upon fruit and insects, as a 

 specimen which he saw alive on a Dutch steamer 

 accepted greedily both moths and melon.* According 

 to Rosenberg this species occurs in small companies or 

 families, and when seeking food its cry is a sharp 

 scheck, Kcheck. Dr. A. B. Meyer, however, says that 

 it flies alone or in pairs and cries very loudly in its 

 throat wau, wau, with a high sound, with which sound 

 it can be decoyed and easily secured. Rosenberg found 

 fruit and insect remains in the crops of those which he- 

 killed, and Meyer says that they eat three times a 

 day, seeking for insects under the bark of trees and' 

 also eating fruit. 



With regard to the note of this species, A. P. 

 Goodwin says (The Ibis, 1890, pp. 150, 151) : " The 

 Twelve-wired Paradise-bird inhabits the swampy dis- 

 tricts near the coast, where it is not easily obtained. 



* Not having Wallace's " Naturalist in the Malay Archi- 

 pelago " by me, I quote the above notes from Hues. 



