PARADISE BIRD. 191 



8.— SUPERB PARADISE BIRD, 



Paradisea superba, Ind. Orn. i. 196. Gm. Lin. i. 402. Shaw's Zool. vii. 494. t. 63. 



64. 65. Nat. Misc. pi. 1021. 

 Le Manucode dit le superbe, Son. Voy. 157. t. 9G. Bit/, iii. 169. PL ml. 632. Zool. 



Indie, p. 3S. Seba. i. t. 68. Ois. de Paradis p. 20. pi. 7. 

 Superb Paradise Bird, Gen. Syn. ii. 479. Ind. Zool. 4to. p. 26. iv.* 



THIS is somewhat larger than the King Paradise Bird. Bill 

 black ; at the base of the upper mandible a black crest, composed 

 of fine, strait, and not very long feathers ; head, neck behind, and 

 back covered with green-gold ones ; these are broad, and well 

 furnished with webs, having to the eye and touch every appearance 

 of velvet, and lie so over one another, as to appear like the scales of 

 a fish; wings dull deep black; tail black, with a blue gloss, of a 

 moderate length, and even at the end ; throat changeable violet, with 

 a velvet-like appearance ; belly bright gilded green; on each side, 

 from under the wings, a tuft of black velvety feathers, of unequal 

 lengths, which rise some height above the back, giving the appear- 

 ance of second wings, the ends turning downwards towards the tail, 

 and many of them as long as the wing itself; the legs are brown, 



Inhabits New Guinea. 



* Mr. Pennant supposes this may be the Paradisea nigra major of Valentyn No. 3. but 

 this has long setaceous feathers in the tail. That figured in the PI. enlum: is without them; 

 and if the mutilated figure referred to in Seba be the same bird, they are not there repre- 

 sented ; added to which, the tail is spread in such a manner as to appear forked. InSonnerat's 

 figure a small bird is seen in the claws, from which we may infer, that it is a rapacious 

 species. 



