BIRDS OF PARADISE—BOWER-BIRDS. 359 



They include the rifle-birds (Ptilorhis), and other sickle-billed forms like the 

 twelve-wired birds of paradise {Sdeucides) and the superb birds of paradise 

 {Epimachus). In all the sickle-billed 

 species, composing the sub-family Epi- _;^3&, 

 machina;, the bill is long and curved, ^^^ 

 and exceeds the tarsus in length. In i"* • ^''•{^ ^ 



Ptilorhis the plumage is velvety black, " " " 



with a metallic head and a metallic 

 green shield on the breast. The nest 

 of Queen Victoria's rifle-bird (P. vic- 

 torice) is described as a loosely con- 

 structed structure of dead leaves and 

 green branchlets, the eggs being of a 



flesh-colour, with streaks and spots of r.- ,^, .,. -d 



J ,. , , ' rni 'a 1 • K Fin- 01. — The Red-plumed Etud OF 



reddish-brown. ihe rifle-birds are Farasisb (Paradismrmjiiiana). 



found in Australia and New Guinea. 



The Papuan Islands and the Moluccas are also the home of the true birds of 

 paradise, which compose the sub-family Paradiseince, which have a stouter 

 bill, with the culmen not so long as the tarsus. Some eighteen genera are 

 to be found in this sub-family, including not only the true paradise-birds, 

 but many others of varied form and decorated plumage. They inhabit the 

 forest country at difi'erent altitudes, and in some localities, such as the 

 Arn Islands, they are very abundant, the insensate fashion of decorating 

 ladies' hats with the plumes of these lovely birds having, wonderful to 

 relate, not yet succeeded in exterminating them. They feed chiefly on 

 fruit. 



The bower birds are undoubtedly closely allied to the birds of paradise, 

 and it is diflicult to say where one family ends and the other begins. Such 

 forms as the golden bird of paradise (Xanthomelus auretis) 

 have been placed with the Paradiseidce, but this genus and The Bower Birds. 

 its allies are probably bower-builders, and it is certain that — Family 

 some of the allied forms, like Prionodura newtoniana Plilororpyn- 

 and Amblyornis inornata, undoubtedly construct large chidce. 



bowers. 



The satin bower-bird of Australia (Ptilmiorhynchus Jiolosericeiis) builds 

 an arched bower of sticks, decorated with snail-shells, bleached bones 

 of small mammals, and the bright feathers of parakeets. But one of 

 the m(jst extraordinary of all these fantastic bowers is that erected by the 

 gardener bird of Nortli-Western New Guinea. Dr. Beccari, who dis- 

 covered the bower of this species in the Arfak Mountains, describes it as 

 follows : — "The Amblyornis selects a flat even place round the trunk of a 

 small tree, which is as thick and as high as a walking-stick of middle size. 

 It begins by constructing at the base of the tree a kind of cone, chiefly of 

 moss, of the size of a man's hand. The trunk of the tree becomes the central 

 pillar, and the whole building is supported by it. On the top of the central 

 pillar twigs are then methodically placed in a radiating manner, resting on 

 the ground, leaving an aperture for the entrance. Thus is obtained a conical 

 and very regular hut. When the work is completed, many other branches 

 are placed transversely in various ways, to make the whole quite firm and 

 impermeable. A circular gallery is left between the walls and the central 

 cone. The whole is nearly three feet in diameter. All the stems used by 

 the Amblyornis are the thin stems of an orchid (JDendrubium), an epiphyte 



