BLACK-BODIED PARADISE-BIRD. 489 



wings being cut off by the natives: this plumage 

 is soft, broad, similar to peacock's feathers, with a 

 gforious gloss and greenish hue, and all bent up- 

 wards, perhaps owing to the birds being kept in a 

 hollow bamboo : the feathers of the tail are unequal 

 in length; those next the body being narrow like 

 hair, the two uppermost are much longer, and 

 pointed : those immediately under them are above 

 a span and half longer than the upper ones: they 

 are stiff, and fringed on both sides with a plumage 

 like hair, black above, and glossy below. Birds of 

 this kind, says Valentyn, are only brought from a 

 part of New-Guinea called Sergile, dried in the 

 smoke on a stick, in a bamboo tube. 



BLACK-BODIED PARADISE-BIRI>. 



Paradisea nigricans. P. antice purpureo-nigra, pennis lateralis' 

 bus longis Jiuitantibus albidis^ rectricibus nudis setaceis depen.- 

 dentibus nigris, 



Paradise-Bird purple-black on the fore-parts, with long float- 

 ing whitish side-feathers, and naked setaceous dependent 

 tail-feathers. 



Le Manucode a doux filets, Viellot. ois, deparad. f. 13. 



This very rare species measures about ten inches^ 

 in length from the tip of the bill to the extremity 

 of the loose hypochondrial feathers; but if mea- 

 sured from the tip of the bill to the end of the 

 naked shafts or tail-feathers springing from the 

 rump, its extent may be said to be eighteen inches. 

 The head, neck, back, breast, and upper part of 



V. VII. p. II, 32 



