B I R 



421 



B I R 



[Paradisea magnified.] 



But perhaps the most elegant of all these birds is that 

 which is best known and most often seen, the Great Eme- 

 rald, Le graji'l emerau.de of the French, Paradisea apoda 

 of Linnaeus. 



[Paradista apoda, mas.] 



The cuts, which are taken from Levaillant, may convey 

 some very faint idea of the forms of these birds, whose 

 beauty beggars all description. Even the magnificent 

 works of Levaillant and Vieillot, splendid as they are, can- 

 not represent the vivid and changing tints of the originals, 

 though the former had the advantage of the pencil of 

 Barraband, whose drawings have all the life and truth of 

 portraits. To these works, and such as these, and to our 

 museums, those who wish to have a distinct notion of what 





[Piiratlisea apiila, fern.]/ 



nature can produce in form and brilliancy of plumage, must 

 repair. With the aid of those authors who have attempted 

 a description in words, we shall endeavour to show the 

 reader how the species here figured are clad. They are all 

 inhabitants of New Guinea. 



Parotia sexsetacea, velvety-black. Front and part of 

 .he top of the head furnished with small, fine, and stiff 

 "eathers, black and white, so as to form a greyish tuft or 

 crest ; each side of the head ornamented with three long 

 black shafts or threads terminated by a black oval ; feathers 

 of the nape changeable golden green ; flanks furnished with 

 ilack, loosely-constructed feathers, which cover the wings 

 and hide the tail feathers when the bird is in a state of re- 

 wse, but are raised obliquely when it is in the least agitated ; 

 eathers of the throat large, scale-shaped, black in the 

 centre, and bordered with iridescent green and gold ; tail- 

 eathers velvety with some long and floating feather-fibres ; 

 beak and feet black ; length ten to eleven inches. 



Lophorina superba. Velvet black, iridescent with green 

 .ml violet ; front adorned with two little tufts of a sooty 

 ilack ; shoulders covered with long feathers, which, rising 

 upon the back and inclining backwards, clothe the bird with 

 a kind of mantle which partially covers the wings ; nape 

 and lower part of the breast brilliant changeable golden 

 ^reen ; throat black, shot with ruddy copper-colour ; the 

 ower feathers longer than the others, extending on each 

 ide over the front of the neck and breast, and forming a 

 caly cuirass brilliant with a reflection almost metallic : ab- 

 domen, beak, and feet black; length eight inches and three- 

 uarters : one of the most rare, if not the most rare. 



Cincinnurus regius. Upper parts ruby-red ; front and 

 art of the head of a beautiful velvety-orange; a small 

 lack patch at the internal angle of the eye ; chin of a 

 irilliant yellow, becoming deeper on the throat, which is 

 erminated by a transverse stripe of brown and a broad 

 jelt of metallic green ; lower parts white-grey sometimes 

 uingled with green ; flanks with broad grey plumes, tra- 

 ersed by two lines, one whitish, the other ruddy, termi- 

 nating in a brilliant emerald-green; lower wing-coverts 

 'ellow ; tail-feathers of a red-brown, the two intermediate 

 eathers having their places occupied by two long, naked, 

 ed shafts, whose feather-fibres are rolled up at the extre- 

 Bity so as to form a kind of battledore (palette) pierced at 

 he centre, of a brilliant brownish- green ; beak azure blue ; 

 eet leaden grey ; length from the end of the beak to the 

 tip of the tail five inches and a half. 



Lesson describes the female as being reddish-brown 

 above, reddish-yellow below, striped with brown ; tail recti- 

 linear. 



Paradisea magnifica. Body above of a brilliant brown, 

 base of the beak and front covered with short and thick 

 feathers of a reddish-brown ; top of the head and hinder 

 part of it of an emerald-green ; a double bundle of long 



