CnAT, XXXI.] 



FIXE BIRDS. 



457 



or two, till its plumage was so dra^^jj^Ied and dirtiftd ^ to 

 be almost worthless. One of the tiret things I ^ot from 

 thera was a living specimen of the curioiia and beautiful 

 racquet-tailed kiagliijher. Seeing bow much I adiuired it» 

 they afterwards brought me several more, which were all 

 caught before daybreak, sleeping in cfl.vitieg of the rocky 

 banks of the stream. My hunters also shot a few speci- 

 mens, and almost idl of them had the red bdl more or less 

 clogged with mud and earth. This indicates the habits of 

 the bird, which, though popularly a king-fisher, never 

 catches fish, but lives on insecls and minute shells, wliich 

 it i)icks up in the foresh, darting down upon tlicm from its 

 percli on some low branch. The genus Tanysiptera, to 

 which this bird belongs, is remarkable for the enormously 

 lengthened tad, which in all other kingfishers is small and 

 short linuteus named the species known to hira "the 

 goddess kingfisher" {Alcedo dca), from its extreme grace 

 and beauty, the plumage being brilliant blue and white, 

 with the bill red, like coral Several species of these in- 

 teresting bii'ds are now known, all confined within the 

 very limited area which comprises tlie Moluccas, New 

 Guinea, and flie exti-eme Koitb of Australia. They 

 resemble each other so closely that several of them can 

 only be distingiushed by careful comparison. One of the 

 rarest, however, which inhabits New Guinea, is very tlistinct 

 from tlie rest, being bri*^ht red beneath instead of white. 

 That which 1 now obtained was a new one^ and has been 

 named Tanysiptera hydrocharis, but in general form and 

 coloration it is exactly similar to the larger species found 

 in Andjoyna, and figured at page 29S. 



New and interesting birds were continually brought in, 

 either by niy own boys or by the natives, and at the end of 

 a week Ali arrived triumphant one afternoon with a fine 

 specimen of the Great Bird of Paradise. The ornamental 

 plumes had not yet attained their full growth, but tlie 

 richness of their glossy orange colouring, and tlie exquisite 

 delicacy of the loosely wavinj.^ feathei-s, were unsurpassable. 

 At the same time a gmat black cockatoo was broni^ht in, as 

 well as a fine fruit-pigeon and several small birds, so that 

 we were all kept liai-d at work skinning till sunset Just 

 aa we had cleared away and packed up for the night, a 



