60 
POPULAR HISTORY OP BIRDS. 
shows the peculiarities mentioned by Mr. Gould"^, its first 
describer^ — " the purple of the breast presenting the appear- 
ance of a broad pectoral band^ bounded above by the scale- 
like feathers of the throaty and below by the abdominal band 
of deep oil-green, and also by the broad and much lengthened 
flank feathers, which show very conspicuously.''^ The Victoria 
rifle-bird was discovered by Mr. Macgillivray, when he was 
naturalist of H.M.S. Eattlesnake. On one of the Barnard 
Islands, on the north-east of Australia, he found it in con- 
siderable abundance. He tells us that the females and young 
males were common, but very shy. By sitting down and 
quietly watching them in some sheltered place, he found 
that one or more would alight on a limb or branch, and 
after running along it with great celerity, he saw them stop 
abruptly now and then, and thrust their beaks under the 
loose bark in search of insects, and then fly off suddenly. They 
are shy birds, and he observed occasionally one of them 
anxiously watching him from behind a branch, its head and 
neck only being visible. The adult males were rare and 
very solitary, concealing themselves from view in the thick 
bushes and masses of climbing plants. 
* Pro. Zool. Soc. 1849, p. Ill, pi. 12; and Supplement to 'Birds of 
Australia/ pt. I. 
