EPIMACHUS ASTRAPIOIDES, Rothschild, 
Green-breasted Sickle-billed Bird of Paradise. 
Epimachus astrapioides, Rothschild, Bull. Brit. Ora. Club, vii. p. xxii (1897). 
This species has been described by the Hon. Walter Rothschild, who has given to it the very appropriate 
name of astrapioides. It is certainly wonderfully like an Astrapia in plumage, but is, of course, by reason 
of its sickle-shaped bill, a member of the genus Epimachus. 
The steel-green gloss on the wings and tail-feathers is a mark of affinity with E. speciosus and E. meyeri, 
and the spangles on the back are also metallic green and not purple as in E. ellioti. Although there is a 
slight purplish shade under certain lights in E. astrapioides, there is nothing like the prevailing purple colour 
seen in E. ellioti. The present species is entirely different below from the three other species, for it has a 
glossy purplish-black throat, followed by a bronzy-red gorget which merges into the coppery-green of the 
fore-neck and breast, the abdomen and flank-feathers being more of a grass-green. The long fan-shaped 
plumes on the side of the fore-neck are also different from those of E. speciosus , having a distinct shade of 
coppery-purple before the bright steel-blue at the end of these feathers. The crown of the head and the 
hind-neck are purple, the latter with a shade of metallic copper and oily-green. Total length about 33 inches, 
wing 7' 3, tail 23'4, tarsus 2. 
