CH. xxxviii.] THE TWELVE-WIRED. 413 



those extraordinary and fantastic ornaments witli which 

 this group of birds abounds. The bill is jet black, and the 

 feet bright yellow. (See lower figure on the plate at the 

 beginning of this chapter). 



The female, although not quite so plain a bird as in 

 some other species, presents none of the gay colours or 

 ornamental plumage of the male. The top of the head and 

 back of the neck are black, the rest of the upper parts 

 rich reddish brown; while the under surface is entirely 

 yellowish ashy, somewhat blackish on the breast, and 

 crossed throughout with narrow blackish wavy bands. 



The Seleucides alba is found in the island of Salwatty, 

 and in the north-western parts of New Guinea, where 

 it frequents flowering trees, especially sago-palms and 

 pandani, sucking the flowers, round and beneath which its 

 unusiially 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 straight off, and 

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

 to be heard a long way, 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, although, perhaps, they assemble at certain times 

 like the true Paradise Birds. All the specimens shot and 

 opened by my assistant Mr. Allen, who obtained this fine 

 bird during his last voyage to New Guinea, had nothing in 



