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 obtained at Dorey a young male of this bird, in a state of plumage which is
no doubt that of the adult female, as is the case in all the allied species. The
upper surface, wings, and tail are rich reddish brown, while the under surface is
of a pale ashy colour, closely barred throughout with narrow wavy black bands.
There is also a pale banded stripe over the eye, and a long dusky stripe from the
gape down each side of the neck. This bird is fourteen inches long, whereas the
native skins of the adult male are only about ten inches, owing to the way in
which the tail is pushed in, so as to give as much prominence as possible to the
ornamental plumage of the breast.
At Cape York, in North Australia, there is a closely allied species, Ptiloris
alberti, the female of which is very similar to the young male bird here
described. The beautiful Rifle Birds of Australia, which much resemble those
Paradise Birds, are named Ptiloris paradiseus and Ptiloris victories, The Scale-