33 2 
PERCHING BIRDS. 
Allied Genera. 
female, although less sombre than in some of the group, has none of the bright 
plumes of her partner, being bright chestnut-recl above, with the crown of the 
head and back of the neck brown, while the under-parts are huffy brown, irregularly 
barred with blackish brown. 
Inhabiting the island of Salwatti and the north-western parts of New Guinea, 
the twelve-wired bird of paradise, according to Mr. Wallace, “frequents flowering 
trees, especially sago-palms and pandani, sucking the flowers, round and beneath 
which its unusually large and powerful feet enable it to cling. Its motions are 
very rapid.. It seldom rests more than a few moments on one tree, after which it 
flies off, and with great swiftness, to another. It has a loud, shrill cry, to be heard 
a long way off, 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.” Both Mr. Wallace and Dr. Guillemard have been fortunate enough 
to see this splendid bird in the living state. To capture them, the natives search 
the forest until they discover a roosting-place, where the hunter conceals himself 
beneath the tree, and having marked the particular bough on which the bird 
is accustomed to perch, ascends the stem at night, and secures his prize by the 
simple expedient of stealthily putting a cloth over it. 
There are three other genera included in the long-beaked group, 
or Epimachince, namely, Ptilorhis, Epimachus, and Drepanornis. 
The first of these three are inhabitants of Northern Australia and New Guinea, 
and are commonly known as rifle-birds. While agreeing with the twelve-wired 
paradise-bird in the relative proportions of the tail, they differ in having a jugular 
shield of metallic plumes occupying the throat and fore-neck, as well as by the 
absence of the “ wires.” The scale-breasted bird of paradise (P. magnified) 
is the Papuan representative of this genus, and is characterised by the shield 
of stiff metallic green feathers on the breast, and a small tuft of somewhat hairy 
plumes on the sides of the same; the back and wings being velvety black, 
faintly glossed with purple. The long - tailed bird of paradise {Epimachus 
speciosus), together with an allied Papuan species, represent the second of 
the three genera, sufficiently distinguished by the great elongation of the gradu¬ 
ated tail, which is much longer than the body. Resembling the twelve-wired 
species in its dark velvety plumage, glossed with purple and bronze, this bird has 
the tail, which exceeds two feet in length, tinted above with a splendid opalescent 
blue; but its chief ornament is the group of broad feathers arising in a fan-like 
manner from the sides of the breast, which are dilated at their extremities, and 
banded with vivid blue and green; the beak being long and curved, and the feet 
black. In total length this bird measures between 3 and 4 feet. It is an inhabitant 
of the mountains of New Guinea, sometimes found near the coast. 
The fourth genus is represented by the Albertis bird of paradise {Drepanornis 
albertisi), which differs from all the others in having a long, slender, sickle-shaped 
beak, downy plumage, a moderately long graduated tail, and the flank-feathers 
developed into a brown fan-like shield. “ Above the beak,” writes its discoverer, 
Signor Albertis, “ are two tufts or horns, formed of small feathers deeply marked 
with green and copper-coloured reflections. The long feathers which grow from 
