the roosting-places are easily recognized by the dejecta , hut in three weeks our hunters only secured one 
bird. This was a male in full plumage, which afterwards became very tame, and lived for many weeks on 
hoard the ‘ Marchesa,’ though we were unfortunate enough to lose him before our arrival in England I 
find the following notes in my ‘ Diary ’ : — ‘ The Seleucides is now wonderfully tame, and will eat out of one’s 
hand. He feeds on the fruit of the Pandams, on Papaw ( Carica papaya), when it can he obtained, on 
cockroaches, and occasionally on banana. He is fond of resting motionless, with the head sunk low on the 
chest. The top of the head is very flat and low, so that the upper margin of the eyes protrudes above it. 
He remains more or less quiet during the day, but in the morning and evening is more restless, moving 
from perch to perch with a peculiar bounding hop. In feeding he is most wonderfully neat ! With his long 
sharp hill he catches a cockroach with lightning-like rapidity, taking it across the body. Fie then gives it 
a sudden snap with the beak, throws it up in the air, catches it lengthwise, and it is out of sight in an 
instant. In this operation he displays to advantage the lovely colouring of the inside of the mouth and 
throat. The only note he has as yet uttered in confinement is a single unmelodious croak.’ ” 
The late Mr. W. A. Forbes published, in 1882, a “Note on a Peculiarity in the Trachea of the Twelve- 
wired Bird of Paradise.” His observations w^ere based on the specimen which lived in the Zoological 
Society’s Gardens for nearly a year ; he w'rites : — “The death of the male Seleucides has given me the 
opportunity of observing a peculiarity in the construction of its trachea of a nature unlike anything of the 
kind yet known to me. The windpipe, for the greater part of its course, has the normal avian structure, 
the tracheal rings, which are ossified and, as usual, notched both before and behind, being of the ordinary 
form, and separated by but narrow 1 intervals from each other. For a space, however, of about one inch 
above the largely developed short pair of intrinsic muscles, the interval comprising 8 tracheal rings, it becomes 
peculiarly modified, the tube itself becoming slightly dilated and flattened antero-posteriorly, whilst the 
tracheal rings become broader, and ossified along the middle of their depth, the borders only remaining 
cartilaginous. This ossified part of each ring is slightly concave, so that when seen laterally the 
cartilaginous margins project slightly from it, the whole ring being thus like a fluted table-napkin ring, when 
seen in section. The intervals between these peculiar rings are very much deeper than those above, and 
occupied by delicate membrane only, so that all this part of the trachea is highly elastic. 
“ The sterno-tracheales are inserted just below the lowest of these peculiar rings, which is the last but 
three of those composing the trachea — the next two, which are very narrow, and the last, which is broad 
and hears the pessulus, being concealed from view by the largely developed syringeal muscles, of which 
there are four pairs, all, except the small anterior long muscle, being inserted on the ends of the very 
strong third bronchial semi-rings. The lateral tracheal muscles are weak, extending, however, nearly to the 
thoracic end of the tube. 
“Nothing like the modification of the trachea here described obtains in any other allied form of 
Paradise-bird that I have been able to examine (including Paradisea papuana and P. rubra, Craspedophora 
alberti. Phony gama goulcli, Manucodia atra, Ptilorhynchus violaceus, and AElurcedus smithi) ; nor do I know 
any structure in other birds quite comparable with that now described, which is probably correlated with the 
very loud harsh note of these birds. In all other respects Seleucides is, as might have been expected, a 
typical oscine Passerine. 
“ I may take this opportunity of remarking that the various published figures of Seleucides do not give a 
very accurate idea of the bird, as they fail to represent the peculiar way in which the leg-feathering ceases 
altogether some way above the ‘ knee,’ leaving the large and muscular legs bare for about an inch or so 
above that joint.” 
Adult male. General colour above velvety black, with a strong gloss of oil-green when viewed from the 
light, with coppery bronze reflections ; scapulars and wing-coverts resembling the hack ; greater coverts 
and secondaries fiery purple, the primaries black, with an external gloss of violet; tail fiery purple; head 
all round of a velvety texture, coppery purple above, oily green on the sides of the face and throat; fore- 
neck and chest velvety black, forming a shield, somewhat shaded with oily green in the centre, the lateral 
plumes all tipped with bright metallic emerald-green, forming a fringe ; rest of the under surface of body 
bufify yellow, the plumes of the flanks elongated and silky, and furnished with six thread-like shafts, 
produced to a great length, and curved backwards on the body; under wing-coverts black : “ bill black, feet 
pale coral-red, iris cherry-red ” ( L . Loria) : “ iris holly-berry red, hill black, inside of mouth and throat grass- 
green, legs and feet the colour of pink coral ” (/A H. H. Guillem ard ). Total length 12 inches, culmen 2'7, 
wing 645, tail 3T5, tarsus 1'75; threads reaching 102 inches beyond the flank-feathers. 
Adult female. General colour above bright chestnut-red; back of the neck and sides of the same black; 
