collected in Dutch New Guinea. 21 



In the third year they become much lengthened and cross 

 one another near the base, as in the adult male, but the 

 shaft, especially the basal half, is very narrowly webbed on 

 both sides with brown vanes edged with orange or reddish, 

 and the terminal portion, about 25 mm. in length, has a 

 wider brown web, about 5 mm. wide, and curled inwards. 

 As these feathers attain their full length of about 150 mm. 

 the middle portion of the shaft becomes bare and the ter- 

 minal brown curled portion, which has a slight greenish 

 gloss, becomes more tightly twisted (text-fig. 2, B & C). 

 At the fourth moult the male assumes the full plumage of 

 the adult, and the middle pair of tail-feathers, with perfectly 

 formed green curls, are protruded enclosed in curious curled 

 sheaths like motor-tyres (text-fig. 2, D, E). 



Normally the male appears to assume adult plumage at the 

 fourth moult. This is shown step by step in the unique series 

 of skins before me. 



I have named this well-marked subspecies in honour of 

 Mr. Claude H. B. Grant, who did such good work during 

 the B. 0. U. Expedition and collected most of the specimens 

 of C. r. claudii. 



The range of this subspecies extends eastwards to South- 

 east New Guinea and at least as far as Collingwood Bay on 

 the north coast; westwards it ranges to Misol. 



The British Museum possesses examples of C. r. coccinei- 

 frons Roths, from Jobi Island, North New Guinea {J. M. 

 Dumas), and Humboldt Bay (TF. Goodfellow). The true 

 C. regius Linn, is confined to the Aru Islands. It is rather 

 larger than C. r. claudii, with a wing-measurement of 

 103-5 mm. in the male. 



Mr. Walter Goodfellow made an interesting observation on 

 the habits of this subspecies. While watching some Pigeons 

 on the opposite bank of the river through his glasses, he saw 

 a small bird rise from the top of a tree and soar into the air 

 like a Sky-Lark. After it had risen about 30 ft., it suddenly 

 seemed to collapse and dropped back into the tree as though it 

 had been shot. It proved to be a male King Bird-of-Paradise, 

 and probably this soaring habit is a part of the display not 



