106 HOOPOE. 



7— GRAND PROMEROPS— Pl. lxvi. 



Upupa superba, Ind. Orn. i. 279. 

 Upupa magna, Gmel. Lin. i. 4(38. 

 Grand Ptomerops, a pareruens frises, de la nouv. Guinee, Buf. vi. 472. Pl. enl. 639. 



Son. Voy. 166. pl. 101. Ois. dor. i. (Prom.) p. 18. pl. 8. 

 Superb Promerops, Shaw's Zool. viii. 145. Nat. Misc. pl. 981. 

 Grand Promerops, Gen. Syn. ii. 695. pl. 32. 



THIS beautiful species is about the size of a middling Pigeon in 

 the body, but measures near four feet in length. The bill is three 

 inches long, pretty much curved and black ; the head, hind part of 

 the neck, and upper part of the belly, are glossy green ; the rest of 

 the upper parts black, changing to violet, with a tinge of blue on 

 the wings, in some lights; but the fore part of the neck, and lower 

 part of the belly are without gloss; the scapulars are of a singular 

 construction, the webs, on one side, being exceedingly short, and on 

 the other of a great length, and falciform in shape ; they are of a 

 purplish black colour, with the ends, for three quarters of an inch, of 

 a most brilliant, gilded green, though some of them reflect a blue 

 gloss ; beneath each wing springs a thick tuft of dusky feathers, 

 eight inches and a half long, and of a texture resembling the loose 

 herring-bone ones in the Greater Paradise bird; and besides these, on 

 each side of the tail are five or six feathers with unequal webs like 

 the scapulars, but curved only in a moderate degree ; these are half 

 dusky from the base, the remaining part, brownish green and gilded, 

 the two colours divided obliquely ; the tail consists of twelve feathers 

 of very unequal lengths ; the two middle ones measuring twenty- 

 eight inches; the outer one only five; the general colour of them 

 blue-black, with a polished steel gloss, but the inner ones are 

 chestnut; legs black. 



Inhabits New Guinea. 



