416 THE BIRDS OF PARADISE. [ch. xxxviii. 



place with two apertures, so that it may enter at one and 

 go out at the other. This is very unlike what we should 

 suppose to be the habits of the bird, but it is not easy to 

 conceive how the story originated if it is not true ; and 

 all travellers know that native accounts of the habits of 

 animals, however strange they may seem, almost invariably 

 turn out to be correct. 



The Scale-breasted Paradise Bird (Epimachus magnificus 

 of Cuvier) is now generally placed with the Australian 

 Rifle birds in the genus Ptiloris. Though very beautiful, 

 these birds are less strikingly decorated with accessory 

 plumage than the other species we have been describing, 

 their chief ornament being a more or less developed 

 breastplate of stiff metallic green feathers, and a small tuft 

 of somewhat hairy plumes on the sides of the breast. The 

 back and wings of this species are of an intense velvety 

 black, faintly glossed in certain lights with rich purple. 

 The two broad middle tail feathers are opalescent green- 

 blue with a velvety surface, and the top of the head is 

 covered with feathers resembling scales of burnished steel. 

 A large triangular space covering the chin, throat, and 

 breast, is densely scaled with feathers, having a steel-blue 

 or green lustre, and a silky feel. This is edged below with 

 a narrow band of black, followed by shiny bronzy green, 

 below which the body is covered with hairy feathers of a 



