cling. Its motions are very rapid. It seldom i-ests more than a few moments on one tree, after which it 
flies straight off, and with great swiftness, to another. It has a loud shrill cry, to be heard a long way, 
consisting of ‘cah, cah,’ repeated five or six times in a descending scale ; and at the last note it generally 
flies away. The males are quite solitary in their habits, although, perhaps, they assemble at certain times 
like the true Paradise-birds. All the specimens shot and opened by my assistant Mr. Allen, who obtained 
this fine bird during his last voyage to New Guinea, had nothing in their stomachs but a brown sweet liquid, 
probably the nectar of the flowers on which they had been feeding. They certainly, however, eat both fruit 
and insects ; for a specimen, which I saw alive on board a Dutch steamer, ate cockroaches and paya fruit 
voraciously. This bird had the curious habit of resting at noon with the bill pointing vertically upwards. 
It died on the passage to Batavia ; and I secured the body and formed a skeleton, which shows indisputably 
that it is really a Bird of Paradise. The tongue is very long and extensible, but flat, and a little fibrous 
at the end, exactlv like the true Paradiseas. 
“ In the island of Salwatty the natives search in the forests till they find the sleeping-place of this bird, 
which they know by seeing its dung upon the ground. It is generally in a low bushy tree. At night they 
climb up the tree, and either shoot the birds with blunt arrows, or even catch them alive with a cloth. In 
New Guinea they are caught by placing snares on the trees frequented by them, in the same way as the 
Red Paradise-birds are caught in Waigiou.” 
Only on one occasion has the present species been known to have been brought alive to Europe, a single 
example having been procured by Signor G. E. Serruti in New' Guinea, and presented by him to the late 
King of Italy. It survived, however, only a few months in Europe. 
I take the following descriptions from Mr. Sharpe’s ‘ Catalogue of Birds — 
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 back ; 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 wuth bright metallic emerald-green, forming a fringe ; rest of the under surface of body 
buffy 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 w'ing-coverts black ; bill black. 
Total length 12 inches, culmen 2-/, wing 6-45, tail 3-15, tarsus T75 ; threads reaching 10*2 inches 
beyond the flank-feathers. 
Adult female. — General colour above bright chestnut-red ; back of the neck and sides of the same black ; 
the feathers of the mantle also mottled with black, the bases of the feathers being of this colour ; crown 
of head and nape velvety black, with a purplish gloss when seen away from the light ; wing-coverts and 
secondaries chestnut-red, like the back, the primaries black, chestnut on their outer webs ; tail uniform 
chestnut ; space around and behind the eye bare, as also a spot on the auricular region ; ear-coverts 
black ; sides of face and throat greyish white, faintly mottled with dusky bars of blackish ; rest of under 
surface of body buffy brown, w'ashed here and there with pale rufous, the whole transversely barred with 
somewhat irregular cross lines of blackish brown, broader on the fore neck and breast, and more faintly 
indicated on the abdomen, and especially on the long flank-feathers and under tail-coverts ; under wing- 
coverts bright chestnut, with dusky blackish cross bars. Total length T2-5 inches, culmen 2-55, wing 6 5, 
tail 4‘3, tarsus 1'7. 
Young male. — At first resembles the adult female. A specimen collected by Mr. Wallace is in perfect 
plumage as regards its head, mantle, and breast, the rest of the body being in the chestnut plumage of 
the female, the tail being still entirely chestnut. At the same time the beautiful purple colour is being put 
on the wings by a gradual change of feather, and not by a moult ; half the inner secondaries are chestnut, 
but more or less mottled with black, the purple colour appearing very plainly on the inner webs. 
The first Plate represents the male bird, of the natural size ; and I have thought it necessary to give a 
second illustration of this species, in order to show some of the changes of plumage. The second Plate 
represents a female and a young male in its first plumage, together with another bird, of tbe same sex, 
commencing to put on his adult livery. 
