PARADISE BIRD. 197 



lights ; wings deep black ; beneath them the feathers are downy, but 

 do not at all exceed in length, as in other Paradise birds. The tail 

 is of an enormous length, and consists of twelve unequal feathers, 

 the two middle ones being nearly twenty-two inches long, and the 

 outer five; colour glossy purplish black; and in some lights appearing 

 undulated across ; legs black. 



The above description taken from a complete specimen in posses- 

 sion of Sir Joseph Banks : it seems to bear some affinity with the 

 black Bird of Paradise, mentioned by Forrest,* which he says, is 

 four spans long, of a black colour, without any remarkable gloss ; 

 but as this is all he mentions, the matter cannot be well determined. 

 He adds, that the Alfoories, or Inhabitants of the Mountains in 

 Messowal, shoot these birds, and sell them to the people of Tidore. 

 I observe in the figure given in the Ois. tie JParadis, that the whole 

 throat has the gilded coppery lustre, and not merely a crescent or 

 gorget, as in our figure, and the one given by Levaillant has the 

 feathers of the crown so long as to be turned forwards, quite over the 

 bill ; hence we may suppose that this species differs essentially in 

 plumage, either owing to age or sex. 



15— WHITE-WINGED PARADISE BIRD. 



Paradisea leucoptera, Ind. Orn. i. 196. Shaw's Zool. vii. 500. 

 Oiseau de Paradis a ailes blanches, Ois. de Parad. p. 28. 

 White-winged Paradise Bird, Gen. Syn. Sup. p. 92. 



LENGTH twenty-five inches. Bill one inch long, almost strait, 

 black ; the feathers on the chin nearly reaching to the end of it ; 

 plumage in general black ; back part of the neck glossed with 

 copper ; quills white, with the outer edges black ; the tail consists of 

 ten feathers, the two middle ones nineteen or twenty inches long, the 



* Forr. Voy: p. 140. No. 4. 



