414 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. [part hi. 



parrots, cockatoos, and lories, almost all of which are beautiful ; 

 and of pigeons, more than half of which are very beautiful ; as 

 well as to the numerous kingfishers, most of which are excessively 

 brilliant. Then we have the absence of thrushes, and the very 

 small numbers of the warblers, shrikes, and Timaliidse, which are 

 dull-coloured groups ; and, lastly, the presence of numerous gay 

 pittas, flycatchers, and the unequalled family of paradise-birds. 

 A large number of birds adorned with metallic plumage is also a 

 marked feature of this fauna, more than a dozen genera being so 

 distinguished. Among the remarkable forms are PdtoiJs, a fly- 

 catcher, long classed as one of the Indo-Malayan Eurylaimidae, 

 which it resembles both in bill and coloration ; Machccrirhifiiclius, 

 curious little boat-billed flycatchers ; and TofZopsts, a group of ter- 

 restrial flycatchers with the brilliant colours of Pitta or Malurus. 

 The paradise-birds present the most wonderful developments of 

 plumage and the most gorgeous varieties of colour, to be found 

 among passerine birds. The great whiskered-swift, the handsomest 

 bird in tlie entire family, has its head-quarters here. Among king- 

 fishers the elegant long-tailed Tamjsiptcrcc are preeminent, whether 

 for singularity or beauty. Among parrots, New Guinea possesses 

 the great black cockatoo, one of the largest and most singular birds 

 in the order ; Nasiterna, the smallest of known parrots ; and 

 Charmosyna, perhaps the most elegant. Lastly, among the 

 pigeons we have the fine crowned- pigeons, the largest and most 

 remarkable group of the order. 



Plate X. Illustrating the Ornithology of Nciu Guinea. — The 

 wonderful ornithological fauna we have just sketched, could 

 only be properly represented in a series of elaborate coloured 

 plates. We are obliged here to confine ourselves to representing 

 a few of the more remarkable types of form, as samples of the 

 great number that adorn this teeming bird-land. The large 

 central figure is the fine twelve-A\'ired paradise-bird (PJpimachus 

 alhus), one of the most beautiful and remarkable of the family. 

 Its general plumage appears, at first sight, to be velvety black ; 

 l)ut on closer examination, and by holding the bird in various 

 lights, it is found that every part of it glows with the most ex- 

 quisite metallic tints — rich bronze, intense violet, and, on the 



