Birds-of-Paradise 763 



two central tail-feathers shining green, and the remainder of the tail velvety 

 black; the female is cinnamon-rufous above, and whitish, thickly barred and 

 covered with dusky blackish below. The two remaining species of Ptilorhis 

 are confined to New Guinea. 



Twelve-wired Bird-of -Paradise. Perhaps most closely related to the last is 

 the remarkable Twelve-wired Bird-of-Paradise (Seleucides ignotus), which is the 

 sole representative of its genus, and takes its name from the wire-like elonga- 

 tion of the shafts of certain of the flank plumes. It is found throughout New 

 Guinea and the adjacent island of Silawati, and is described as follows by Mr. 

 Alfred Russel Wallace, one of the few naturalists who has been privileged to 

 see it in its home: "This bird is about twelve inches long, of which the com- 

 pressed and curved beak occupies two inches. The color of the breast and 

 upper surface appears at first sight nearly black, but a close examination shows 

 that no part of it is devoid of color; and by holding it in various lights, the 

 most rich and glowing tints become visible. The head, covered with short, 

 velvety feathers, which advance on the chin much farther than on the upper 

 part of the beak, is of a purplish bronze color; the whole of the back and shoulders 

 is rich bronzy green, while the closed wings and tail are of the most brilliant 

 violet-purple, all of the plumage having a delicate, silky gloss. The mass 

 of feathers which cover the breast is really almost black, with faint glosses of 

 green and purple, but their outer edges are margined with glittering bands of 

 emerald-green. The whole lower part of the body is rich buffy yellow, includ- 

 ing the tufts of plumes which spring from the sides and extend an inch and a 

 half beyond the tail. About six of the innermost of these plumes on each side 

 have the midrib elongated into slender black wires, which bend at right angles, 

 forming one of those extraordinary and fantastic ornaments with which this 

 group of birds abounds. The bill is jet-black and the feet bright yellow." 

 According to the same authority, it "frequents flowering trees, especially sago- 

 palms and pandani, sucking the flowers, round and beneath which its unusually 

 large and powerful feet enable it to cling. Its motions are very rapid. It 

 seldom rests more than a few moments on one tree, after which it flies off and 

 with great swiftness to another. It has a loud, shrill cry, to be heard a long 

 way off, consisting of cah, cah, repeated five or six times in a descending scale, 

 and at the last note it generally flies away. The males are quite solitary in their 

 habits, though, perhaps, they assemble at certain times like the true Paradise- 

 birds." 



D'Albertis's Bird-of-Paradise. The third genus of this subfamily is Drepa- 

 nornis, the two species of which are well distinguished from all the others by 

 possessing a long, slender, sickle-shaped bill, a moderately long, graduated tail, 

 and the flank plumes produced into a brown, fan-like shield. They are confined 

 to New Guinea, perhaps the best-known being D'Albertis's Bird-of-Paradise 

 (D. albertisii), which attains a length of about thirteen and a half inches, of 

 which the much-curved bill takes up nearly three inches. Signer D'Albertis, 

 the discoverer of this bird, describes it as follows: "Above the beak are two 

 tufts or horns, formed of small feathers deeply marked with green and copper- 



