urface with the most
intense opalescent blue. Its chief ornament, however, consists in the
group of broad plumes which spring from the sides of the breast, and
which are dilated at the extremity, and banded with the most vivid
metallic blue and green. The bill is long and curved, and the feet
black, and similar to those of the allied forms. The total length of
this fine bird is between three and four feet.

This splendid bird inhabits the mountains of New Guinea, in the same
district with the Superb and the Six-shafted Paradise Birds, and I was
informed is sometimes found in the ranges near the coast. I was several
times assured by different natives that this bird makes its nest in
a hole under ground, or under rocks, always choosing a place with two
apertures, so that it may enter at one and go out at the other. This is
very unlike what we should suppose to be the habits of the bird, but it
is not easy to conceive how the story originated if it is not true;
and all travellers know that native accounts of the habits of animals,
however strange they may seem, almost invariably turn out to be correct.

The Scale-breasted Paradise Bird (Epimachus magnificus of Cuvier) is now
generally placed with the Australian Rifle birds in the genus Ptiloris.
Though very beautiful, these birds are less strikingly decorated with
accessory plumage than the other species we have been describing, their
chief ornament being a more or less developed breastplate of stiff
metallic green feathers, and a small tuft of somewhat hairy plumes on
the sides of the breast. The back and wings of this species are of
an intense velvety black, faintly glossed in certain lights with rich
purple. The two broad middle tail feathers are opalescent green-blue
with a velvety surface, and the top of the head is covered with feathers
resembling scales of burnished steel. A large triangular space covering
the chin, throat, and breast, is densely scaled with feathers, having a
steel-blue or green lustre, and a silky feel. This is edged below with
a narrow band of black, followed by shiny bronzy green, below which the
body is covered with hairy feathers of a rich claret colour, deepening
to black at the tail. The tufts of side plumes somewhat resemble those
of the true Birds of Paradise, but are scanty, about as long as the
tail, and of a black colour. The sides of the head are rich violet, and
velvety feathers extend on each side of the beak over the nostrils.

I