206 
12. Cyllene glabrata, A. Adams. C. testa ovato-fusiformi, 
glabrata , cinered , fasciis albis tribus transversis rufo-articu- 
latis ornatd , longitudinaliter subplicatd , inferne evani- 
dis, superne et inferne transversim striata ; aperturd angustd; 
columella antice oblique plicatd, labro antice subsinuato. 
Hab. Pasicao, 9 fathoms, fine sand; II. C. 
5. On the Umbrella Bird (Cephalopterus ornatus), 
<c Ueramimbe,” L. G. By Alfred R. Wallace. Com¬ 
municated by Mr. S. Stevens. 
Having had the opportunity of observing this singular bird in its 
native country, a few remarks on its characters and habits may not 
perhaps be uninteresting, at a time when a consignment from me 
will have arrived in England. 
The Umbrella Bird is about the size of a crow, averaging about 
18 inches in length. Its colour is entirely black, but varied with 
metallic blue tints on the outer margin of the feathers. The colour 
of the iris is greyish white. It is a powerful bird, the bill being very 
large and strong, the feet short, and the claws acute. 
Were it not for its crest and neck plume, it would appear to an 
ordinary observer nothing more than a short-legged crow. 
The crest is perhaps the most fully developed and beautiful of 
any bird known. It is composed of long slender feathers, rising 
from a contractile skin on the top of the head. The shafts are white 
and the plume glossy blue, hair-like, and curved outward at the tip. 
When the crest is laid back the shafts form a compact white mass, 
sloping up from the top of the head, and surmounted by the dense 
hairy plumes. Even in this position it is not an inelegant crest, but 
it is "when it is fully opened that its peculiar character is developed. 
The shafts then radiate on all sides from the tip of the head, reach¬ 
ing in front beyond and below the top of the beak, which is com¬ 
pletely hid from Hew. The top then forms a perfect, slightly 
elongated dome, of a beautiful shining blue colour, having a point of 
divergence rather behind the centre, like that in the human head. 
The length of this dome from front to back is about 5 inches, the 
breadth 4 to 4| inches. The other singular appendage of this bird 
is the neck plume. This is a long cylindrical plume of feathers de¬ 
pending from the middle of the neck, and either carried close to the 
breast or puffed out and hanging down in front. The feathers lap 
over each other, scale-like, and are bordered with fine metallic blue. 
On examining the structure of this plume, it is found not to be 
composed of feathers only, growing from the neck, as seems to have 
been hitherto supposed. The skin of the neck is very loose ; looser 
and larger, in fact, than in any bird I know of. From the lower 
part grows a cylindrical fleshy process about as thick as a goose- 
quill and an inch and a half long. From this grow the feathers to 
the very point, thus producing the beautiful cylindrical plume quite 
detached from the breast, and forming an ornament as unique and 
elegant as the crest itself. 
