414 
ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. 
[rART III. 
parrots, cockatoos, and lories, almost all of which are beautiful ; 
and of pigeons, more than half of which are very beautiful ; as 
well as to the numerous kingfishers, most of which are excessively 
brilliant. Then we have the absence of thrushes, and the very 
small numbers of the warblers, shrikes, and Timaliidae, which are 
dull-coloured groups ; and, lastly, the presence of numerous gay 
pittas, flycatchers, and the unequalled family of paradise-birds. 
A large number of birds adorned with metallic plumage is also a 
marked feature of this fauna, more than a dozen genera being so 
distinguished. Among the remarkable forms are Peltops, a fly- 
catcher, long classed as one of the Indo-Malayan Eurylaemidao, 
which it resembles both in bill and coloration ; Mach ccrirhynchus, 
curious little boat-billed flycatchers ; and Todopsis , a group of ter- 
restrial flycatchers with the brilliant colours of Pitta or M alums. 
The paradise-birds present the most wonderful developments of 
plumage and the most gorgeous varieties of colour, to be found 
among passerine birds. The great whiskered-swift, the handsomest 
bird in the entire family, has its head-quarters here. Among king- 
fishers the elegant long-tailed Tanysipterce are preeminent, whether 
for singularity or beauty. Among parrots, New Guinea possesses 
the great black cockatoo, one of the largest and most singular birds 
in the order ; JSfasiterna , the smallest of known parrots ; and 
Charmosyna } perhaps the most elegant. Lastly, among the 
pigeons we have the fine crowned- pigeons, the largest and most 
remarkable group of the order. 
Plate X. Illustrating the Ornithology of New G'uinea. — The 
wonderful ornithological fauna we have just sketched, could 
only be properly represented in a series of elaborate coloured 
plates. We are obliged here to confine ourselves to representing 
a few of the more remarkable types of form, as samples of the 
great number that adorn this teeming bird-land. The large 
central figure is the fine twelve- wired paradise-bird (EpimacJws '<■ - '< e . 
allrns), one of the most beautiful and remarkable of the family. 
Its general plumage appears, at first sight, to be velvety black ; 
but on closer examination, and by holding the bird in various 
lights, it is found that every part of it glows with the most ex- 
quisite metallic tints— rich bronze, intense violet, and, on the 
