OB, 3mcvui,] THE LOm.TAIim 567 



and purple, it resembles tlie Seleucides alba, but it bears a 

 mii^iiilicent tail more than two feet long, glossed on the 

 upper surface %vitb the most intense opalesceut blue. Ita 

 ehief ornament^ 

 however, consists 

 in the group of 

 broad plumes 

 which spring from 

 the sides of the 

 breast, and which 

 are dilated at the 

 extremity, and 

 banded with the 

 most vivid mstalMc 

 blue and green. 

 The biU is long 

 and curved, and 

 the feet black, and 

 similar to those of 

 the allied forms. 

 The total length of 

 this fine bird is be- 

 tween tliree and 

 four feet 



This splendid bird inhabits the mountains of Hew 

 Guinea, in the same district with the Superb and the Six- 

 shafted Paradise Birda, and I was informed is sometimes 

 found in the ranges near the coast. I was several times 

 assured by diiferent natives that tkis bii'd makes its nest in 

 a hole under ground, or under rocks, always choosing a 

 place with two apertures, so that it may enter at one and 

 go out at the other. This is very unlike what w*- should 

 snpiMse to be the habits of the bird, but it is not easy to 

 conceive how the story originated if it is not tme; and 

 all travellers know that native accounts of the habits of 

 animals, however stiuuge they may seem, almost invariably 

 turn out to be correct. 



The Scale-breasted Paradise Bird (Epimachns magnificus 

 of Cuvier) is now generally placed with the Australian 

 Rifle birds in the genus Ptiloris. Though very beautiful. 



