PARADISE BIRD. 



199 



are only of that colour at the tips, the rest of the length being dusky 

 black ; back and wings steel black, with a glossy blue tinge ; tail 

 seven inches long, appearing, when spread out, rounded, but the 

 feathers, when folded up, have somewhat the shape of a Hen's tail, 

 being ridged at top, and hollowed beneath ; legs black. 



The specimen, from which this description is taken, was in Mr. 

 Bullock's Museum, and seems so much like the Frosted Species, that 

 it may be suspected to belong to that bird. 



18— TWELVE-WIRED PARADISE BIRD.— Pl. xlviii. 



Paradisea nigricans, Black-bodied Paradise Bird, Shaw's Zool. vii. p. 489. pl.60. 61. 

 Paradisese nova Species, ZooLTnd. p. 36. vii Gerin. t. 65. f. 1? 

 Manucode a douze filets, Ois. de Paradis p. 29. pl. 13. 

 New Species of Paradise Bird, Ind. Zool. 4to. p. 24. VI. 



THE length of this singular bird, from the point of the bill to 

 the end of the white tufts, is about twelve inches, but if the 

 appendages are reckoned, seven or eight more, in all nineteen or 

 twenty inches. The bill is two inches long, a trifle bent, and black ; 

 tongue as long as the bill ; head, neck, and breast covered with short 

 feathers, like black velvet; across the lower part of the breast a most 

 splendid green band; wings black; quills nearly white ; sides of the 

 body, and under the wings, covered with a tuft of cream-coloured 

 feathers, very thickly set, and as soft as silk ; from the ends of six 

 of these, on each side, the naked shafts continue, appearing as wiry 

 appendages, seven or eight inches long ; the length of the tufts alone 

 about five inches ; at first sight, these tufts, from collapsing together, 

 might be mistaken for the tail, which is entirely covered by them ; 

 the back of the bird is black, glossed with fine purple, and the true 

 tail is only three inches long, consisting of twelve feathers, of equal 

 lengths, the ends rather pointed, in colour like the back, but with 

 more lustre ; the under tail coverts yellowish white, and equal in 



