270 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



deep violet on the wings, while the long dark breast- 

 feathers are edged with rich metallic emerald-green. 

 The long ornamental side-plumes and the rest of the 

 under-parts are beautiful bright cinnamon-yellow when 

 freshly moulted, but this colour is so volatile that it soon 

 fades to nearly white in skins which have been kept for 

 a few 3'ears. The shafts of six of the long side-plumes 

 on either side extend far beyond the vane of the feather 

 and look like twelve recurved wires, hence the bird's 

 popular name. The eye is crimson, the bill black, the 

 gape bright apple-green, and the legs and toes yellowish 

 flesh-colour. 



The Expedition procured three examples of a new 

 form of Parotia or Six-plumed Paradise- Bird on the 

 Iwaka River, but unfortunately did not succeed in shoot- 

 ing a fully adult male. Simultaneously A. S. Meek, who 

 was collecting for Mr. Rothschild, procured specimens of 

 the same bird on the Oetakwa River a few miles to the 

 east, but he likewise did not secure the fully adult male. 

 The species has been named Parotia carolce meeki by 

 Mr. Rothschild. 



The plumage of this bird is like brownish-black plush 

 and equally soft to the touch. The head is ornamented 

 very wonderfully; on either side behind the eye there 

 are three long racket-like plumes on long bare shafts, (a 

 character common to all the members of this remarkable 

 genus of Paradise-Birds) : the middle of the crown is of 

 a beautiful "old" gold colour in a setting of silvery 

 white and golden brown: on the occiput there is a 

 marvellous patch of stiff metal-like feathers, golden- 

 green bordered with deep violet ; the sides of the head 

 before and behind the e\-e are golden-brown, the chin 

 and upper part of the throat deep brown, and the lower 

 part whitish, spotted with rufous. A lovely metallic 

 breast-plate of bronze-green and violet feathers with dark 

 middles covers the chest and the long flank-feathers are 



