314 CRACID^. 



towards the vent : the tail consists of sixteen feathers, 

 and is of a singular construction, being chiefly com- 

 posed of loose webbed feathers, much resembling 

 those springing from beneath the wings of the greater 

 bird of Paradise (Paradisea major), but the vanes 

 are placed at a quarter of an inch distance each ; 

 these feathers are twelve in number, and more than 

 two feet in length ; besides there are, firstly, two 

 slender feathers which take rise from the centre of 

 the tail above, and reach considerably beyond the 

 ends of the others, and curve towards the end ; they 

 are fully webbed on the outer side, but on the inner 

 only furnished with short vanes, one eighth of an 

 inch long ; and lastly, the exterior feather on each 

 side is singularly conspicuous, in length somewhat 

 shorter than any of the other, but the webs fully con- 

 nected, at the base about an inch wide, gradually in- 

 creasing from thence to the extremity, where it is full 

 two inches broad, and considerably curved ; the outer 

 web is pale brown and narrow ; the inner wing very 

 broad, inclining to grey, but from the middle to the 

 edge fine rufous, marked with sixteen curved marks 

 seemingly of a darker colour, but on close inspection 

 are perfectly transparent ; the end of the feather 

 dusky black, fringed all round with white : the 

 thighs covered with feathers quite to the knees : the 

 legs scaly and rough, furnished with strong claws, 

 curved much like those of a fowl or a turkey: the 

 colour of both beak and legs is glossy black. The 

 female is a plainer bird ; it is not at all crested, and 

 thirty-five inches long from beak to tail, which is 

 cuneiform in shape ; the largest feathers being nine- 



