INTRODUCTION. 
IX 
Family I. PARADISEIDiE. 
Key to the Sub-families. 
a. Bill elongated and slender, the culmen longer than the tarsus 
b. Bill short, more or less stout, the culmen not so long as the tarsus 
\_Cf. Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. iii. p. 153.] 
E P I M A C H I N IE . 
Paradisein®. 
Sub-family I. EPIMACHIN JE. 
Key to the Genera. 
a. Tail square or graduated, the centre feathers never so elongated as to be equal 
to the length of the body. 
a . Tail square, the centre feathers metallic, but not elongated ; a triangular or 
rounded metallic shield of green on the throat or chest. 
a". With no erectile shield on the back of the neck. 
a I. * 3 . Flank-feathers rounded, with metallic or glossy tips 
b 3 . Flank-feathers elongated into silky plumes with hair-like ends. 
a 4 . Metallic shield on the chest triangular; culmen not much longer than 
the tarsus 
b 4 . Metallic shield on chest rounded ; bill longer, the culmen conspicuously 
longer than the tarsus 
b". With an erectile shield on the back of the neck 
b'. Tail square, the two centre feathers metallic and produced' beyond the others; 
no metallic-green shield on the fore neck ; flank-plumes dense as in Craspe- 
dophora, with silky ends 
c . Tail square ; flank-feathers dense and produced, yellowish like the breast, the 
shafts elongated into twelve wire-like threads ; a velvety breast-shield with 
a metallic fringe 
d' . Tail graduated ; bill strongly curved and sickle-shaped ; a fan-like lateral shield 
on each side of the fore-neck, composed of metallic-tipped feathers. 
c" . Flank-plumes ample, forming a large ornamental bunch of metallic-tipped 
plumes ; no metallic plumes along the side of the breast .... 
d". No tuft of ornamental flank-plumes ; a row of metallic plumes on the side of 
the breast ; an ornamental fan-like shield on each side of the fore-neck . 
b. Tail enormously developed and glossed with metallic purple or steel-blue or green ; 
length of tail far exceeding that of the body 
1. Ptilorhis. 
2. Craspedophora. 
3. Heteroptilorhis. 
4. Paryphephorus. 
5. Ianthothorax. 
6. Seleucides. 
7 . Drepanornis. 
8. Drepananax. 
9. Epimachus. 
I. PTILORHIS. 
Ptilorhis, Swainson, Zool. Journ. i. p. 481 (1825) 
Ranee. Confined to Australia. 
O 
Type. 
P. paradisea. 
c 
