cbap. kkivO a new- bird OF PJRJDISB. 



329 



bring down a auiiicieiit quantity for a fair trial on the 

 Uutcli stearaefs. The quaiity, liowever, was oot tliouglit 

 sufficiently good, and the mines were abaudoued. Quite 

 riiGtintly, w^orka had been commenced in another spot^ in 

 hopes of tindiug a better vein. There were about eighty 

 men employed, chiefly convicts ; but this was far too 

 small a number for mining operations in such a country, 

 where the mere keeping a few miles of road in repair 

 requirea the constant work of seveiul men. If coal of 

 sufficiently good quality should he found, a tramroad 

 would be made, and would be very easily worked, owing 

 to the regular descent of the valley. 



Just as I got home I overtook Ali returning from 

 shooting with some birds hanging from his belt. He 

 seemed much pleased, and said, " Look here, sir, what a 

 curious bird," holding out wliat at first completely puz/ied 

 ma I saw a bird with a m:iss of splendid green leathers 

 on its breast, elongated into two glittering tufts ; but, what 

 I could not understand was a pair of long white feathers, 

 which stuck straight out from eiwh shoulder. Ali assured 

 me that the bird stuck them out thia way itself, when 

 liuttering its wings, and that they had remained so without 

 his touching them. I now saw that I had got a great prize, 

 no less thhu a completely new form of the Bird of Para- 

 dise, dilTering most remarkably from every other known 

 bird- The general plumage is very sober, being a jture 

 ashy olive, with a purplish tinge on the back ; the crown 

 of the head is beautifully glossed with pale metallic violet, 

 and the feathers of the front extend as much over the beak 

 as in most of the family. The neck and breast are scaled 

 with fine metallic green, and the feathers on the lower part 

 are elongated on each side, so as to form a two-pointed 

 gorget, which can be folded beneath the wings, or partially 

 erected and spread out in the same way as the side plnuies 

 of most of the birds of paradise. The four long white 

 plumes which give the bird its altogether unique character, 

 spring from little tubercles close to the upper edge of the 

 shoulder or bend of the wing; they are narrow, gently 

 curved, and equally webbed on both sides, of a pure 

 creamy white colour. They are about six inclies long, 

 equalling the wing, and can be raised at right angles to it, 



