collected in Dutch Neio Guinea. 19 



tipped with orange or orange-scarlet ; the side-ornaments are 

 partially developed, but the lengthened feathers are mixed or 

 barred with rufous-bufF, only the longest being tipped with 

 golden-green. The new outer tail-feathers are broader, 

 shorter, and edged externally with vermilion, while the 

 middle pair, though much lengthened, are not so long as in 

 the adultj the basal part being narrowly vaned on both webs 

 with brown and rufous, and the terminal curl dull brown 

 and not so tightly twisted. 



In the fourth year the fully adult plumage is assumed. 



These changes of plumage appear to be irregular in birds 

 kept in captivity. 



The following statement, which has been made by Sharpe 

 (Monogr. Parad,), requires correction. In his description of 

 the middle tail-feathers of the young male of C regiiis he 

 writes : " From the excellent series in the British Museum 

 it would appear that the curve is gradually continued upon 

 the feather itself, and that when the twist is complete the 

 metallic green colour is assumed without a change of feather. 

 One young male before me has one racket brown, and the 

 other metallic-green.^' The fine and complete series of the 

 closely allied form brought home by our recent expeditions 

 proves that these statements are incorrect. The tightly- 

 curled metallic green-tipped middle tail-feathers are always 

 acquired by moult with the fourth year's plumage, and cannot 

 possibly be the result of a change of colour without a moult. 

 When the green-tipped feathers first appear they are enclosed 

 in two curious circular sheaths, which lie partially one above 

 the other and look for all the world like miniature motor- 

 tyres (text-fig. 2, D). The specimen mentioned by Sharpe 

 as having one racket brown and the other green is a male 

 example changing from the plumage of the third year to 

 that of the adult. 



In C. r. claudii the changes in the middle pair of tail- 

 feathers are shown year by year until at the fourth moult the 

 tightly-curled metallic-green feathers are assumed. In the 

 first and second year's plumage these feathers are normally 

 shaped and similar to those of the female (text-fig. 2, A). 



c2 



