1895.] Birds of New Guinea. 5 
sion of a few tints only, which might almost be reduced to 
mere lustrous black and orange: the body being dark of hue, 
while beyond and enveloping the short tail, delicate creamy- 
yellow plumes extend in a bewildering maze. “The bird is 
so gorgeous,” exclaims D’Albertis, “ that it is not surpassed by 
any other of the feathered tribe.” Its distinguishing feature, uni- 
que among birds, is the display of wire feathers—six on a side, 
threading the intricacy of the waving plumes and prolonged 
severalinches. These are much attenuated, black in colour and 
without the terminal web. They cannot be said to add 
materially to the beauty of the bird though they certainly do 
to its singular appearance. Far more attractive from an aes- 
thetic point of view, are the recurved feathers standing out 
from and partly encircling the neck. These reflect from their 
burnished surface all flashing colours, blazing in sunlight like 
polished gems. D’Albertis observed that the tail of the female 
and young males was long in proportion to the body. There 
is, however, one of this interesting group of birds, the adult 
male of which is furnished with a tail remarkable for its ex- 
cessive length; this is the Superb epimachus—Epimachus 
magnus or Long-tailed bird of paradise. Mr. Denton in his 
Incidents of a Collector’s Rambles thus summarizes its 
charms :—“ The plumage is a velvety-purple-black; the 
tail is two feet long; and the side plumes have a bar of the 
most exquisite green and gold, extending across the tips.” In 
this example the coloration is even simpler than in the fore- 
going, that is, the ground or primitive tint is black, lustrous 
black, but the effect of light upon this basal colour is quite as 
marvellous as in any bird specimen. The play becomes 
always different and incessant. The black seems both suffused 
and shot over with emerald, turquoise, bronze, yellow, every hue 
you please, and this not only from the metallic surface of the 
wings and tail but from the soft, dark velvet of the body, as 
well. There is a similar collar or ruff around the neck of the 
Superb, as adorns the twelve-wired bird ; but the tail is alto- 
` gether different. Instead of the pendulous plumes which may 
answer for caudal ornamentation we find twelve long-extended 
quill feathers, the two longest in the middle, sometimes cross- 
