332 PERCHING BIRDS. 



female, although less sombre than in some of the group, has none of the bright 

 plumes of her partner, being bright chestnut-red above, with the crown of the 

 head and back of the neck brown, while the under-parts are buffy brown, irregularly 

 barred with blackish brown. 



Inhabiting the island of Salwatti and the north-western parts of New Guinea, 

 the twelve-wired bird of paradise, according to Mr. Wallace, " 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 call, 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, although, perhaps, they assemble at certain times like the true 

 paradise-birds." Both Mr. Wallace and Dr. Guillemard have been fortunate enough 

 to see this splendid bird in the living state. To capture them, the natives search 

 the forest until they discover a roosting-place, where the hunter conceals himself 

 beneath the tree, and having marked the particular bough on which the bird 

 is accustomed to perch, ascends the stem at night, and secures his prize by the 

 simple expedient of stealthily putting a cloth over it. 



There are three other genera included in the long-beaked group, 

 or Epimackince, namely, Ptilorhis, Epimachus, and Drepanornis. 

 The first of these three are inhabitants of Northern Australia and New Guinea, 

 and are commonly known as rifle-birds. While agreeing with the twelve-wired 

 paradise-bird in the relative proportions of the tail, they differ in having a jugular 

 shield of metallic plumes occupying the throat and fore-neck, as well as by the 

 absence of the " wires." The scale-breasted bird of paradise (P. magnified) 

 is the Papuan representative of this genus, and is characterised by the shield 

 of stiff metallic green feathers on the breast, and a small tuft of somewhat hairy 

 plumes on the sides of the same; the back and wings being velvety black, 

 faintly glossed with purple. The long -tailed bird of paradise (Epimachus 

 speciosus), together with an allied Papuan species, represent the second of 

 the three genera, sufficiently distinguished by the great elongation of the gradu- 

 ated tail, which is much longer than the body. Resembling the twelve-wired 

 species in its dark velvety plumage, glossed with purple and bronze, this bird has 

 the tail, which exceeds two feet in length, tinted above with a splendid opalescent 

 blue ; but its chief ornament is the group of broad feathers arising in a fan-like 

 manner from the sides of the breast, which are dilated at their extremities, and 

 banded with vivid blue and green ; the beak being long and curved, and the feet 

 black. In total length this bird measures between 3 and 4 feet. It is an inhabitant 

 of the mountains of New Guinea, sometimes found near the coast. 



The fourth genus is represented by the Albertis bird of paradise (Drepanornis 

 albertisi), which differs from all the others in having a long, slender, sickle-shaped 

 beak, downy plumage, a moderately long graduated tail, and the flank-feathers 

 developed into a brown fan-like shield. " Above the beak," writes its discoverer, 

 Signor Albertis, " are two tufts or horns, formed of small feathers deeply marked 

 with green and copper-coloured reflections. The long feathers which grow from 



