Chapter XXIII: Introduction (22)

Fam. VIII. CINCLIDAE.–The Dippers or Water-Ousels form a single genus, _Cinclus_, probably more akin to the Wrens than to the Thrushes. The bill is moderate and straight, without bristles at the gape, the maxilla being slightly curved and notched; the smooth metatarsi are fairly long and strong; the wings are abbreviated, rounded, and concave; the tail is extremely short, and the whole body peculiarly squat-looking. The colour above is normally greyish-black or brown, _C. ardesiacus_ being, however, delicate grey; the lower parts are similar or white, commonly with a black belly, while a chestnut band crosses the breast in the British _C. aquaticus_ and in _C. albicollis_. White spots often occur above and below the eye; _C. leuconotus_ and _C. leucocephalus_ have nearly white heads, and the former shews white on the back. {520}The sexes are alike, but the young are spotted. Both plumage and down are close and nearly impervious to water.

These birds range throughout the Palaearctic Region, just reaching the southern slopes of the Himalayas, China, and Formosa. One species occupies the Atlas Mountains, while others occur along the heights of Western America, and the Andes southwards to Peru. Individuals of a dark form from Northern Europe occasionally stray to Britain, but such migration is exceptional.

Dippers frequent rapid streams in hill-country, which seldom freeze, and appear as cheery in winter as in summer; their flight is powerful, rapid, and direct, with quick wing-strokes and sudden descent; their cry upon the wing is loud and clear, their song when stationary Wren-like. They sit on stones in the water, bobbing up and down and jerking their tails, while they use both legs and wings below the surface, whither they dive noiselessly in search of insects, their larvae and pupae, or molluscs. Fish-spawn has not been found in the stomach. The domed, but flattened, nest is composed chiefly of moss or grass, with an inner bed of dry materials, which are generally oak or beech leaves, though in India sometimes ferns and roots. It is affixed to rock-faces, ledges, or boulders in streams, placed in crevices of masonry, or even built in holes in the soil or in débris caught on bushes, common situations being behind water-falls, under bridges, or beside mill-wheels. _C. albicollis_ seems to make an open fabric in Italy. From four to seven dull white eggs are laid very early in the season, two or even three sets being often produced–occasionally in the same nest. This the young sometimes leave by the end of March, being able to swim before they are fully fledged.

{521}Fam. IX. TROGLODYTIDAE.–The Wrens have their headquarters in Tropical America, but even reach Greenland, Patagonia, and the Falkland Islands. Four genera with some eight species inhabit the Himalayas, the hills of West China, the Burmese countries, Sumatra and Java; while _Troglodytes_, including the common Wren, occupies most of the Palaearctic and Nearctic Regions. An altitude of eleven thousand feet is attained in certain cases.

The bill is generally moderate, slender, and somewhat arched; being, however, stouter and almost hooked in _Thryothorus_ and _Campylorhynchus_, much elongated in _Catherpes_, _Salpinctes_, and _Microcerculus_, high and compressed in _Cyphorhinus_, remarkably conical, straight, and pointed in _Sphenocichla_. The maxilla may be notched, but rictal bristles are almost entirely absent. The long robust metatarsi are scutellated anteriorly, except in _Pnoëpyga_; _Salpinctes_ shews scales behind; _Cistothorus_ has a very large hind claw. The wings are rounded and concave; the tail is usually short and graduated, though it is exceptionally long in _Cinnicerthia_, _Sphenocichla_, and _Urocichla_, and is hardly visible in three species of _Pnoëpyga_. The last-named genus has only six rectrices, _Urocichla_ has ten. The coloration is ordinarily brown, with a great tendency to barring; spots, stripes, and streaks are not uncommon; chestnut, bay, orange, and grey often relieve the dulness; _Troglodytes formosus_, _Catherpes_, and _Henicorhina_ exhibit white spots above or even below; and two species of _Microcerculus_ have a white alar bar.

Wrens frequent marshy, as well as dry or rocky localities, being familiar and yet wary; they habitually hop about with upturned tails, fly sharply from cover to cover, and hunt for insects, their larvae, and spiders, among fallen leaves, in crevices of rocks, and so forth, while they occasionally eat worms, small molluscs, crustaceans, and seeds. The characteristic note is shrill and Warbler-like, though harsher sounds accompany it, but _Cyphorhinus cantans_, the {522}Organ-bird of the Amazons, _Troglodytes domesticus_ (_aedon_), _Microcerculus_, and other American forms utter melodious flute-like strains. The nest is usually a domed structure of ferns, grass, moss, leaves, or even twigs, often lined with hair or feathers, which is placed in bushes, hedges, cacti, reeds, and cavities of masonry, or on trees, rocks, banks, and the like; _Salpinctes_, _Catherpes_, _Urocichla_ and sometimes _Pnoëpyga_ make no covering; _Campylorhynchus_ fashions a large purse-like structure, with a long passage for entrance. The eggs vary in number from three to nine, and are white, with or without spots or freckles of red, purplish, or brownish; in _Thryophilus pleurostictus_ they are said to be blue.

Fam. X. CHAMAEIDAE.–This contains only _Chamaea fasciata_ and _C. henshawi_ of California, which by various American authorities have been referred to the Wrens or the Tits, though not agreeing closely with either. This is the only _Family_ of land birds peculiar to the Nearctic Region. In both sexes the lax plumage is brown above and buffish below, with faint tail-bars and pectoral streaks; the bill is short, straight, and compressed, and is furnished with rictal bristles; the metatarsi are stout and nearly smooth; the wings are rounded and concave; the tail is graduated. _Chamaea_ inhabits dry plains and bushy hill-sides, flits about or searches for insects with elevated tail, utters a Wren-like trill, and builds a nest of twigs and grass in low bushes, adding hair or feathers to the lining, and laying three or four pale greenish-blue eggs.

Fam. XI. HIRUNDINIDAE.–The Swallows and Martins compose a well-defined cosmopolitan Family, certainly far removed from the Swifts (p. 420), with which they used to be joined. The latter have ten tail-feathers, and hardly any scutellation on the legs, the former twelve rectrices, and an anteriorly scutellated metatarsus. The bill is short, broad, and usually much depressed, being notched at the tip and split nearly to the eyes. The feet are very small and weak, with the middle digit more or less adherent to its neighbours; _Tachycineta_ has a stoutish hallux, _Chelidon_ feathered toes, and _Cotile riparia_ a tuft at the back of the metatarsus. The wings are extremely long and pointed, while the exterior margin of the outer primary has hooked barbs in the males of _Psalidoprocne_ and _Stelgidopteryx_. The tail varies in length, and is often very deeply forked, _Petrochelidon_, _Stelgidopteryx_, _Chelidon dasypus_ and _Psalidoprocne_ nitens having it {523}exceptionally square; while the lateral feathers may be almost linear, as in _Hirundo rustica_, or even wire-like, as in _H. smithii_.

_Chelidon_ is purplish- or bluish-black, or brown, having a white rump occasionally barred with black, and white or buffish under parts; _Tachycineta_ is similar, or greener and somewhat bronzy, in certain cases lacking the white rump, in others shewing white mottlings above. _Hirundo_ is glossy metallic black, with a variable amount of chestnut or rufous on the head, rump, or lower surface; the last of these regions exhibiting much white or having a black pectoral band, while streaky markings are not uncommon. _Cheramoeca_ is blue, black, white, and brown above, and white below with a black breast-patch; _Procne_ is either entirely blue-black or has some white beneath, _P. tapera_ alone being brown, with a longitudinal band of the same colour on the white lower surface. _Atticora_ is blue-black or greenish above, black and white or brown underneath; _Petrochelidon_ is steel-blue with concealed white striations, the forehead, nape, rump, and most of the lower surface being chestnut, rufous, or buff, with or without stripes; _Psalidoprocne_ is uniform blue, green-black, or sooty, _P. albiceps_ having a white crown and chin. _Cotile_, _Phedina_, and _Stelgidopteryx_ are dull brown above, the first being white, grey, brown, or rufous below, the second white with longitudinal brown streaks, and the third white and rufous with yellow middle to the breast and abdomen in two species. The plumage of most Swallows is very metallic, and white spots are often prominent on the tail feathers in _Hirundo_, _Chelidon_, _Cotile_, and _Petrochelidon_. The female is duller than the male in _Procne_ only.

The range of _Hirundo_ and _Cotile_ is practically worldwide, reaching from beyond the Arctic Circle in summer to South Africa, India, and Brazil in winter, not to mention resident southern species; no Swallow, however, occurs in New Zealand, nor is _Cotile_ found in the Australian Region. Four species of _Petrochelidon_ are found in America, two in Southern Africa, two in the Australian Region, and one in India–a remarkable distribution. _Psalidoprocne_, _Phedina_, and _Cheramoeca_ are Ethiopian, Mascarene (with Madagascar), and Australian respectively: _Tachycineta_ and _Procne_ extend over the New World from its Arctic portions to Patagonia, _Atticora_ from that country to Guatemala, _Stelgidopteryx_ from Canada and British Columbia to Bolivia and Brazil. _Chelidon_ is confined to the Old World, migrating in autumn to Central {524}Africa, Borneo, and Burma. The summer migrants to Britain are _Hirundo rustica_, the Swallow, _Chelidon urbica_, the Martin, and _Cotile riparia_, the Sand-Martin. Swallows traverse immense distances on their periodical journeys, while all perhaps shift their quarters to some extent for the winter.

Hardly any sort of country comes amiss to these birds, though the neighbourhood of water is preferred, and for some species seems necessary. Spending their life chiefly in the air and alighting comparatively little, they rapidly dart, twist, double, sail aloft, or skim the water's surface in company, at times chasing each other in sport or even fighting savagely. Insects, which form the whole of their sustenance, are habitually taken on the wing, and the young are sometimes fed, or building materials snatched up, in full flight. A few species not uncommonly perch on trees, as _Hirundo rustica_, _Tachycineta albiventris_, _Petrochelidon nigricans_, _Psalidoprocne nitens_ and _Procne tapera_; the last-named, moreover, is exceptional in being non-gregarious, while it flits about with depressed wings and slow butterfly-like flight when not hawking. The majority are rarely seen on the ground, unless they are procuring mud for nidification; but many roost on reeds or in their nests, and just before migration they settle in crowds on branches, fences, wires, and ridges of roofs. _Hirundo_, _Chelidon_, and _Psalidoprocne_ bask in the sun on gravelly places. The twitter or warble of Swallows–uttered on the wing or at rest–and their squeaks of anger or alarm, are well-known; the scream of _Procne_ and the chirp of _Stelgidopteryx_ being somewhat exceptional; when excited, however, the bill is not uncommonly snapped noisily. The nest may be cup-shaped as in our Swallow, _Cotile rupestris_, _C. fuligula_, and {525}_C. concolor_, and made of agglutinated pellets of mud with a lining of straw, chaff, leaves, or feathers; it may be similarly constructed but semi-ovate, with a hole near the top, as in the Martin; or retort-shaped with a tube for entrance at the side, as in several members of the genera _Hirundo_ and _Petrochelidon_: in these cases it may be placed inside buildings, under eaves, against rocks or walls. _Procne_–when not accommodated with a box–some species of _Tachycineta_, _Petrochelidon nigricans_, and other forms, not uncommonly prefer holes in trees, lining them as usual, if at all; while many species of _Cotile_, _Psalidoprocne_, and _Cheramoeca_ tunnel in banks, or, more rarely, choose holes in masonry. _Procne furcata_ utilizes the holes of _Conurus patachonius_; _P. tapera_ the nests of _Furnarius rufus_ in Argentina; _Tachycineta leucorrhous_ occasionally that of _Anumbius_; _Atticora cyanoleuca_ that of the Dendrocolaptine _Geositta_, itself within that of a biscacha. The eggs are from four to seven in number, generally pure white in Martins, and whitish with reddish-brown, grey, and lilac markings in Swallows; but the cases are occasionally reversed. Two or even three broods are reared in a season, and tended with the greatest care. Colonies are frequently formed, especially by Bank- and Cliff-Swallows. In Britain the Sand-Martin arrives first, but the Swallow comes early in April, while individuals have even been obtained in winter.

Fam. XII. CAMPEPHAGIDAE.–The "Cuckoo-Shrikes" are commonly placed near the _Laniidae_, but are possibly connected with the _Muscicapidae_ or the _Corvidae_. The bill is usually strong, and of moderate length, being hooked, arched, and wide at the base; it is especially stout in _Artamides_, decidedly weaker in _Campephaga_, long and thin in _Edoliisoma_. The metatarsus may be elongated and comparatively robust as in _Pteropodocys_, _Lalage_, and _Symmorphus_, or short and less powerful, as in _Pericrocotus_; the wings are normally long and pointed, and more particularly so in _Pericrocotus_, _Lalage_, _Symmorphus_, and _Graucalus_. The tail is also fairly long, and frequently rounded, though it may be forked, as in _Pteropodocys_, and to a less extent in _Campechaera_, or graduated as in _Pericrocotus_, _Campephaga_, and _Graucalus_. The plumage is soft, with characteristically stiff shafts on the lower back; the nostrils are nearly concealed by the feathers; the rictal bristles are feeble. The usual coloration is either bluish-grey with a certain amount of black and white, or chiefly black and white. The black has generally a purplish or {526}a greenish gloss; while barring occurs occasionally in the cocks, and much more commonly in the hens, where the tints are duller, the grey lighter, and the hue in some cases brown or even rufous. The Mascarene _Oxynotus_ is almost unique among Birds in having the males of the two species alike, the females very different. Shaft-streaks on the feathers are fairly frequent; two species of _Lalage_ have a chestnut lower surface, and one the rump similar; while _Symmorphus_ is either brown above and whitish below, or black and white with buff rump and under parts. _Campechaera_ is green and golden-yellow in both sexes, but shews some black, white, and grey as well; _Lobotus_ is olive-yellow with dark green head and throat, orange-chestnut rump and breast, greenish tail, and an orange lobe at the gape. _Pericrocotus_ is usually black, adorned with lovely scarlet, crimson, orange, or yellow markings, and with a little white, but two species lack the brilliant tints, and others replace the black by brown or grey; the females in this genus usually have yellow where the males have red, though they also shew red in two cases. Three African species of _Campephaga_ vary from the ordinary grey or blackish coloration in being glossy bluish-black, with scarlet, orange, and yellow shoulder-patches respectively, and one in being steel-green, with purple face and neck, and steel-blue lower surface. In these forms the females have yellow markings. Finally, _Graucalus azureus_ is azure and black, with a shade of cobalt.

The restless and active members of this Family are generally seen in small flocks in wooded country, gardens, orchards, and hedge-rows. They are found up to an altitude of ten thousand feet throughout the Ethiopian, Indian, and Australian Regions, and even reach Amurland; _Graucalus_ inhabits all three Regions, but _Oxynotus_ is peculiar to Mauritius and Réunion. The flight is easy, undulating, and strong, though of brief duration; while the birds hop and frisk about the branches, or move briskly from tree to tree, as they examine the crevices of the bark or the leaves, and occasionally pluck the fruit. They may occasionally be noticed darting to the earth to secure caterpillars, of which they are extremely fond, or sallying into the air after insects, like Flycatchers. _Pericrocotus_ is said to hang to the boughs like a Tit; _Pteropodocys_ lives chiefly on the ground. The mellow and lively notes are of a whistling or twittering nature, varied by jarring sounds; but all the species are rather silent. The nest, {527}composed of twigs and grass, or of moss and leaves, is usually very shallow, and is covered with lichens and spiders' webs; it is placed on slender branches of trees, or more rarely in bushes. The two to five Shrike-like eggs are brownish, whitish, or apple-green, with markings of brown, rufous, or purple. Those of the isabelline-coloured _Hypocolius ampelinus_, which possibly belongs to the Ampelidae, are white with plumbeous spots.

Fam. XIII. DICRURIDAE.–The Drongos, usually associated with the _Laniidae_, range throughout the Ethiopian, Indian, and Australian regions, as far east as New Britain and New Ireland {528}(_Dicranostreptus_). _Chibia bracteata_ is the only species in Australia, while _Buchanga leucogenys_ is said to reach Japan; _B. waldeni_ is peculiar to Mayotte, and _Edolius forficatus_ to Madagascar and Joanna Island. Both sexes are typically black, with a metallic gloss of blue, purple, or green, though a few are greyer or browner, or have a little white below. The variable bill is usually large and more or less curved, with a hooked tip, a notched maxilla, and fairly strong rictal bristles–much developed in _Chaetorhynchus_. The metatarsi are short, the toes small, the wings long. The tail has only ten rectrices, and is generally very deeply forked, though less so in _Dicrurus_, _Chibia_, and _Chaetorhynchus_. In _Chibia_ the two outer feathers are slightly elongated and turned up, in _Dissemuroïdes_ they are produced and recurved at the tip, in _Dicranostreptus_ they are extraordinarily lengthened and turned to face one another. In _Bhringa_ and _Dissemurus_ the long bare shafts terminate in racquets, and have a twist that brings the upper side inwards in the former, and one in the racquet itself in the latter. On the forehead a large, erect tuft occurs in _Edolius_, a still more extensive recurved crest in _Dissemurus_, a bunch of long, silky hairs in _Chibia hottentotta_. A few similar hairs are found in _C. pectoralis_, and scanty plumes in _C. bimaënsis_; _Dissemuroïdes_ having the one or the other. Various species exhibit a tendency to lanceolate hackles on the head and neck, while the feathers of the former are scaly-looking in _Chaetorhynchus_. The bill and feet are black; the eyes red, white, or brown.

These wary, active birds frequent gardens, open country, and forests up to at least eight thousand feet, more usually in pairs {529}than in companies; their flight is strong and rapid, but undulating and not sustained, while they are often seen perched on bushes or exposed branches, and occasionally hover like a Kestrel. The song or whistle is ringing and melodious, varied by harsh chattering or creaking sounds; the food consists of insects of all kinds, which are captured on the ground, on leaves or flowers, on the backs of cattle, or at times upon the wing, individuals often returning to their perches like Flycatchers. Drongos are good mimics, fight viciously, and are very courageous, mastering even Hawks and Crows. The nest is a shallow cup of twigs, roots, leaves, fine grass, lichens, hair, and cobwebs, often so slight that the contents can be seen from below: it is usually woven into a horizontal fork like that of an Oriole, but may be fixed among bamboos, and often overhangs water. The eggs, rarely more than three or four in number, are sometimes plain white, but usually pink, buff, or white, with red, brown, claret, purplish, or grey spots and blotches. Not uncommonly a second set is found in a nest whence the first has been taken. A curious instance of "unconscious mimicry" is that of _Buchanga atra_ and the Indian Cuckoo _Surniculus dicruroïdes_, the plumage being exactly the same, though the feet distinguish them at once.

Fam. XIV. AMPELIDAE.–In this group most forms have a short, depressed bill, though it is longer with bristly gape in _Phaenoptila_, and stouter in _Dulus_; they have abbreviated metatarsi, not scutellated in _Phaenoptila_; the wings are long and pointed in _Ampelis_, shorter and roundish elsewhere; the tails vary from short and even in _Ampelis_ to long and rounded in _Phaenopepla_, or cuneate with elongated median feathers in _Ptilogenys caudatus_.

Both sexes of our irregular winter-visitor the Waxwing (_Ampelis garrulus_) are silky greyish-brown, with blackish wings, and tail relieved by yellow and white; a black forehead, eye-stripe, and throat; chestnut under tail-coverts and basal margin of the erectile crest; and, in the adults, flattened wax-like tips to the shafts of the secondaries or even the rectrices. The young are streaked below. Breeding near the Arctic Circle, and changing its quarters erratically, it occurs in the New as well as in the Old World, while in winter it migrates southwards to at least lat. 43° N. The flight is easy, graceful, and often high; the notes are of a trilling or of a chirping nature; the food consists of insects, berries, and other fruit. The nest of twigs and fibrous lichens, or {530}of grass and bark, is placed on firs or birches, and contains from five to seven purplish-grey or drab eggs, with spots of black, brown, or lilac. The smaller North American _A. cedrorum_ lacks the yellow and white on the wing; _A. phoenicoptera_, of Japan, North China, and East Siberia, has red, but not wax-like, tips to the remiges and rectrices.

_Dulus dominicus_, of San Domingo, is dark brown, varied with greenish and yellow, the yellowish-white lower surface shewing broad brown streaks. Several pairs often join their nests of twigs into a circular mass. _Phaenoptila melanoxantha_, of the Costa Rican hill-valleys, is glossy black, having an olive rump-band, and similarly coloured under parts with yellow sides and grey middle. The female is olive above with black crown. _Phaenopepla nitens_, of Mexico and the Southern United States, is bluish-black, with white on the primaries and vent-region; it has an erectile occipital crest. The hen is dark grey, with brown abdomen and a different distribution of white. This shy, active bird has the graceful movements of a Flycatcher, with a habit of jerking the tail; the song is plaintive or whistling; the food consists of insects and fruit. The flat nest, of fibres, grass, and down, contains from two to five greyish eggs, speckled with brownish-black and neutral tints: _Ptilogenys cinereus_, of the highlands of Central America, is plumbeous, with black remiges, black and white rectrices, loose broad lavender crest-plumes, and yellow under tail-coverts and flanks; the female is chiefly brown.

Fam. XV. ARTAMIDAE.–The "Wood-Swallows" constitute a group of very doubtful position, ranging from the Australian to the Indian Region and in one case (_Pseudochelidon_) to West Africa. In the last-named the bill is broad, but elsewhere it is {531}long, pointed, and slightly curved, with wide gape. The metatarsi are short and strong; the wings are much elongated; the tail is short and occasionally emarginate, with soft, exserted shafts to the rectrices in _Pseudochelidon_, which is glossy greenish-black with red beak and feet. _Artamus_, where powder-down patches occur on the sides, thighs, and lower back, exhibits black, brown, rufous, or grey tints, relieved by white–especially below, or towards the tip of the tail; the bill is blue with black extremity, the feet are greyish. The sexes hardly differ.

These woodland birds often float nearly motionless in the air, occasionally moving ahead with a few strokes of the wing; at other times they wheel and twist about like Swifts. They hawk for insects, or sally after them from their perches, feeding also upon the ground, on the larvae and on seeds. Congregating like Swallows, they have in Australia a curious habit of hanging in ball-like masses from the branches; the note is plaintive or chirping. The nests, often found in close proximity, are placed in forks of trees, on their side-shoots, in holes, behind loose bark, in deserted habitations of other birds, or in bushes; the outer materials being twigs and grass, those of the lining fibres and feathers. From two to four white, greenish, or flesh-coloured eggs are deposited, spotted and streaked with umber, red-brown, grey, lilac, or occasionally black.

Fam. XVI. LANIIDAE.–Few Families are more difficult to define than this. A typical Shrike is easily recognised; but such forms as _Pachycephala_ and _Hemipus_ are closely connected with the _Muscicapidae_; _Calicalicus_ and _Neolestes_ with the _Pycnonotidae_; _Gymnorhina_ and its allies with the _Corvidae_; while some authors include the _Campephagidae_. Dr. Gadow[287] recognises five Sub-families: (1) _Gymnorhininae_, (2) _Malaconotinae_, (3) _Pachycephalinae_, (4) _Laniinae_, and (5) _Vireoninae_; but the last-named is here allowed Family rank, while _Prionopinae_ is admitted in its place.

The bill is stout, notched, and often strongly hooked, while it is either curved or straight; in _Falcunculus_ it is more than usually compressed, in _Rhectes_ the maxilla has the edge finely serrated, in _Xenopirostris_ the mandible is upcurved, leaving a distinct gap above it. In the _Gymnorhininae_ the culmen is long, straight, and slightly rounded, with slit-like nostrils near {532}the middle. The variable metatarsus is very strong in the larger forms, and much weaker in the _Prionopinae_; it is perhaps shortest in the _Malaconotinae_, where–as in all the Family–the scutes tend more or less to fuse. In _Calicalicus_ and _Nicator_ the basal joints of the third and fourth toes are united. The wings–usually moderate–may be very long and pointed, as in _Gymnorhina_ and _Pityriasis_, or abbreviated and much rounded, as in _Telephonus_ and _Laniarius_; the rather short tail is rarely emarginate, but frequently has acuminate feathers; while it may be square or rounded, or at times graduated, as in _Laniarius_, _Laniellus_, _Paeoptera_, _Telephonus_, _Ptererythrius_, some species of _Lanius_, and still more _Urolestes_, where the two median rectrices are exceptionally elongated. _Falcunculus_ and _Oreoeca_ have well-developed erectile crests; _Rhectes_, _Sigmodus_, _Pseudorhectes_, and _Melanorhectes_ also exhibit lengthened head-plumes; _Platylophus_ has these feathers broad and extraordinarily long; while _Prionops_ has in addition frontal feathers overhanging the nostrils. _Pityriasis_ has a bare yellow crown, the ear-coverts and lower throat being covered by brown bristles with red bases: _Leptopterus_, _Prionops_, and _Sigmodus_ have a fleshy wattle round the eye. Rictal and nasal hairs may be highly developed or absent. The sexes are generally similar, except in the Pachycephalinae, and to some extent in the Prionopinae.

Sub-fam. 1. _Gymnorhininae._–The remarkable red and black _Pityriasis gymnocephala_ inhabits Borneo; the black and white _Gymnorhina_ Australia, with Tasmania; the black, white, and grey _Strepera_ the same countries, _Cracticus_ Papuasia also. _Gymnorhina_ and _Cracticus_ have the beak bluish-white. _Strepera_ occurs in parties in open wooded districts or swamps, feeding chiefly upon the ground on insects, their larvae, and a little fruit; while it runs, hops, or leaps from branch to branch with great agility, but generally flies low and feebly. It is a bold bird with a shrill, ringing, oft-repeated cry. The nest, as large as that of a Crow, is placed in the fork of a low tree, and is formed of sticks and twigs with a lining of bark, grass, leaves, wool, or hair; three or four pale chocolate- or reddish-brown eggs, with faint red or lilac markings, being deposited. _Gymnorhina_, the Piping Crow, resembles _Strepera_ in habits, though its single, clear notes are somewhat different, and it can be taught to whistle or mimic. _G. hyperleuca_ of Tasmania is called the Organ-bird, as _Cyphorhinus_ (p. 522) is in Amazonia. The eggs vary from brown to whitish, {533}bright green, or sky blue, with smears, dashes, spots, or freckles of lilac and brown. The shy _Cracticus_ is more arboreal, and eats mice, young birds, lizards, and even crabs, in addition to insects, upon which _C. destructor_ darts like a Flycatcher, impaling its prey subsequently after the fashion of a Shrike. The cry in this genus bears a general resemblance to that of the above forms; the eggs are equally variable, and may have zonal markings.

Sub-fam. 2. _Malaconotinae_.–These African and Indian birds are commonly black, white, and chestnut; _Laniarius_, however, is chiefly red, green, and yellow; _Nicator_, _Neolestes_, and several species of _Ptererythrius_ shew much yellow and green; while _Artamia leucocephala_ is greenish-black, and _A. bicolor_ chiefly cobalt, both having the head and under parts white. The feathers of the back are very broad, soft, and fluffy. _Vanga_, _Artamia_, _Xenopirostris_, and _Calicalicus_ are peculiar to Madagascar; unless _Clytorhynchus pachycephaloïdes_ of New Caledonia and the New Hebrides be referred to _Xenopirostris_. Between _X. polleni_ and _Tylas eduardi_ (Pycnonotidae) a most curious instance of "unconscious mimicry" exists. The retiring members of this Sub-family are commonly seen hopping or climbing about thick undergrowth in search of insects and their larvae, or hunting for worms and spiders on the ground; they run well and fly fairly, while some forms, as _Dryoscopus cubla_ and _D. rufiventris_, puff out their feathers until the body resembles a black and white ball. The voice of _Laniarius rubiginosus_ has been compared to that of a Nightingale, and other species utter ringing notes, sweet or melancholy whistles, or at times loud, discordant cries or "churrs." The nest–where known–consists of twigs, grass, wool, hair, and feathers, and contains from three to five greenish-white eggs with brown spots; it is placed in a bush, or among close-growing plants. The male occasionally incubates.

Sub-fam. 3. _Pachycephalinae_.–This group, which extends from most of Polynesia and Australia to Tenasserim and the Great Sunda Islands, shews brown, black, white, grey, yellow, and olive hues, the yellow being somewhat characteristic. The majority of the members hop actively about leafy trees, or search the ground for insects, their larvae, and berries; _Falcunculus_ takes short, quick flights, clings to the boughs like a Tit, and often tears off the bark; while _Pachycephala simplex_ prefers swampy ground, and behaves like a Flycatcher. Some species have a low, mournful, reiterated note, others a continuous whistle, often ending with a {534}smacking sound, others again have a sweet song. The nest of _Pachycephala_ is a neat, though sometimes frail, cup of twigs, roots, and grasses, often placed on horizontal boughs, and containing three or four creamy or brownish eggs, with scattered or zonal umber markings and a few lilac spots; _Falcunculus_ usually selects a gum-tree, and uses bark, grass, and cobwebs, laying two or three elongated whitish eggs, with olive, black, and greyish dots or lines; those of _Oreoeca_ are bluer.

Sub-fam. 4. _Laniinae._–The Shrikes proper extend over the Palaearctic, Indian, and Ethiopian Regions, and alone of the Family occur in the New World, _Lanius borealis_ and _L. ludovicianus_ inhabiting North America. The lax plumage is either black, grey, and white, or is varied with rich red-brown. _Urolestes_ has the feathers of the crown and neck lanceolate, and those of the sides long and fluffy; _Laniellus_ is exceptional in being spotted. The young are browner, and are often transversely barred below, a fact also true of the _Gymnorhininae_. In the large genus _Lanius_ are included all the British Butcher-Birds, _L. excubitor_, _L. minor_, _L. pomeranus_, _L. collurio_, the Great Grey, Lesser Grey, Woodchat {535}and Red-backed Shrikes, of which only the last-named breeds in our island. The Sub-family contains many of these quarrelsome, rapacious birds, often seen perched on the tops of bushes, or chasing each other along the hedge-rows. The flight is strong and rapid, but undulating and brief; the food, which may be taken on the wing, or procured upon the ground, consists of small mammals and birds, insects, snakes, lizards, frogs, or even crabs and fruit, the creatures not devoured at once being impaled on thorns or spiky leaves. The larders are usually near the nest, which is a bulky mass of twigs, grass, and the like, with a softer lining, placed in a thick bush or fairly high up a tree; the four to seven eggs vary from green to reddish-buff or whitish, and are spotted, blotched, and generally zoned, with brown, red, olive, green, or a little grey. Sometimes the male incubates. The usual note is harsh and grating, but shriller cries or sweeter songs are not uncommon, while certain species are good mimics. Pellets of the indigestible portions of the food are ejected after eating, as in Birds of prey, and elsewhere.

Sub-fam. 5. _Prionopinae._–The "Wood-Shrikes" are usually dull in colour, though some have the normal browns, greys, and blacks relieved by bright chestnut, fawn, or yellowish-white, and several are black and white, or uniform black. They frequent trees and bushes, and eat molluscs and fruit; but live chiefly upon insects captured on the branches or on the ground, if not by darting into the air from a perch. Their flight, rapid but short, is commonly performed with quivering wings; they hop easily upon the ground; while their notes take the form of a rather pleasing Thrush-like song or a harsh chatter. The slight, loose nest, built in a low fork, in the hollow of a stump, or even on a rocky ledge, is made of moss, grass, bark, roots, wool, feathers, lichens, cobwebs, or downy seeds; the three eggs being white, greenish, or buff, often with brown, black, and grey blotches, dashes, freckles, or zones.

_Grallina_, the "Magpie-Lark" of Australia and New Guinea, doubtfully placed here, possesses vocal organs abnormal for an Oscinine bird.[288] Graceful and tame, it frequents homesteads, stream-sides, and swamps, having a heavy, flapping flight, uttering a shrill, plaintive whistle, and plastering a nest of mud and grass on some horizontal bough. The three or four eggs are white or pinkish, marked or zoned with red, brown, and lilac.

The Helmet-bird of Madagascar (_Euryceros prevosti_), a purplish-black {536}and chestnut species, with a compressed, swollen and hooked steel-blue beak exhibiting a pearly interior, should perhaps stand in a separate Family, _Eurycerotidae_, and not with the Shrikes.

Fam. XVII. VIREONIDAE.–The small group of "Greenlets" ranges from Winnipeg and Nova Scotia to Argentina. The compressed or depressed beak varies from stout and strongly hooked, as in _Vireolanius_ and _Cyclorhis_, to small and comparatively weak as in _Hylophilus_; both mandibles being notched, and the gape bristly. The metatarsi are usually short and robust with slightly united anterior toes, but are longer and more feeble in _Vireo_; the wings may be elongated and pointed, as in _Vireosylvia_, or abbreviated and roundish, as in _Vireo_ and _Neochloe_; the tail is normally short and even, with narrow feathers, but is rounded in _Neochloe_. The frontal feathers are somewhat erect. The coloration is olive, or green and grey above–with a black, brown, ashy, or reddish cap–and is grey, whitish, or yellow beneath; the wing frequently exhibits white bands, and the head white, dusky, or rufous stripes. White or yellow orbital rings occur in _Lanivireo_, a red-brown tail in _Hylophilus ochraceiceps_, a blue crown in _Vireolanius pulchellus_, a chestnut pectoral band in _V. melitophrys_. The bill and feet are sometimes red; the eyes white, red, or yellow. The sexes frequently differ in colour.

These active and fearless birds inhabit forests up to an altitude of ten thousand feet, as well as ravines, swamps, or even streets of towns; they are usually observed in pairs among the higher branches of trees, creeping and hanging to the twigs, or chasing one another about in play. Seldom do they seek the ground, but they take fairly long flights, and dart out after passing insects, which, with the larvae and a few berries and seeds, form the diet. The continuous song consists of loud, reiterated, flute-like notes, supposed in one case to resemble "Whip-Tom-Kelly"; some forms also utter harsher chirps or mews. The nest, a deep, firm cup of leaves, grass, bark, lichens, spiders'-webs and cottony materials, lined with fibres, fir-needles, delicate stems, or rarely down, is supported by some horizontal fork, over which the rim is commonly turned; the four or five eggs are white, generally spotted with red-brown, black, or purplish.

Fam. XVIII. SITTIDAE.–The Nuthatches, though closely allied to the _Paridae_, show a certain affinity to the _Certhiidae_ (p. 571). Typically they are stout little birds with long, pointed wings, and short nearly square tails; the bill is fairly long and strong, and is straight and awl-like, being notched only in _Sitella_ and _Hypositta_, and slightly upcurved in the former.

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Bristles usually occur at the gape, while the nostrils are concealed by the same or feathers. The metatarsi are short and powerful, the scutes being fused in _Hypositta_; the hind toe is unusually developed; the claws are long, curved, and sharp. The colours in _Sitta_, which ranges over nearly all the Palaearctic and Indian Regions, and throughout North America to Mexico, are slaty-blue and rusty-red of various shades, relieved by black and white; the slaty tints shewing chiefly above, often in combination with a black or brown cap. _Dendrophila_ and _Callisitta_, of the Indian Region and Timor, are blue and black, with creamy or ochreous lower parts. _Sitella_, of Australia and New Guinea, exhibits brown, grey, black, rufous, and white, often having a white head, or a rusty or white wing-patch; _Daphoenositta_, of the latter country, adds to these hues pink at the base of the bill and on the graduated tail; _Hypositta_ of Madagascar is greenish-blue, with browner head and under surface, and coral-red bill.

{538}Nuthatches are quiet, non-migratory birds, which frequent forests or open country with old timber, where they may be seen darting quickly from tree to tree with undulating flight, or creeping jerkily in Tit-like fashion up and down the trunks or over rocks. They seldom seek their food upon the ground, but search every cranny, and dig in rotten wood for insects, their larvae, and so forth, or collect nuts, acorns, beech-mast, and seeds; while the nuts are cracked by fixing them in chinks and hammering them with the whole weight of the body, which swings backwards and forwards from the hip-joint. In winter they are exceedingly tame. The spring call is a noisy, querulous "whit-whit," recalling that of the Wryneck, but sibilant sounds and sweeter cries are not uncommon, few persons being aware that the British species (_Sitta caesia_) has at least four sets of notes, one of which is very Thrush-like. _Sitella_ has a weak, piping voice. In England the nesting-cavity is usually chosen in a tree, but occasionally in a wall, haystack, or the like; this is commonly lined with scales from conifer trunks, and the entrance blocked up with a plaster of clay pierced by a round hole: abroad, however, holes in rocks are often utilized, and nests made of moss, bark, hair, and feathers. The Indian species do not always plaster up their holes, and the American apparently never do so. _Sitella_ forms a curious funnel-shaped nest with a very thin rim, in forks or on branches, using as materials bark, moss, down, cobwebs, and lichens, the bark being applied externally like shingles. The three or four greenish or bluish-white eggs, with blackish, grey, or lilac markings, are very unlike those of _Sitta_, which are white, with fine pinkish-red and lilac spots or blotches, and number from five to eight.

Fam. XIX. PARIDAE.–The Tits usually have a moderate and slightly decurved bill, though it is elongated in _Sphenostoma_ and _Certhiparus_, abbreviated with roundish outline in _Acredula_, _Psaltria_, and _Psaltriparus_, more pointed in _Aegithalus_ and _Auriparus_; the maxilla having little trace of a notch, or the gape of bristles. The metatarsi are short, except in _Acredula_, where the legs are longer and the scales tend to fuse; the robust front toes are partially united, and possess strong claws. The wings are rounded and abbreviated, especially in _Aegithalus_; the tail varies considerably, being short and nearly square in _Parus_, long and graduated in _Acredula_ and _Psaltriparus_, intermediate in _Psaltria_ and _Sphenostoma_, and emarginate in _Aegithalus_. The nostrils, generally hidden {539}by bristly feathers, are exposed in _Xerophila_ and _Sphenostoma_. Crests occur in the last-named and at times in _Parus_.

The colour of the soft, lax plumage is commonly dull; but _Parus_ may be glossy greenish-black and yellow, as in the Sultan-bird (_P. sultaneus_); black with white on the wings, tail, or lower parts, as in _P. niger_ and a few other African species; blue and white, with a little black and grey or a yellow fore-neck, as in _P. cyanus_ and _P. flavipectus_; blue, black, greenish, yellow, and white, as in the British Great and Blue Tits (_P. major_ and _P. caeruleus_); olive, brown, or grey, varied with black, white, chestnut, or buff, as in our Crested Tit (_P. cristatus_); or lastly, the tints while including but little yellow or blue, as in our Coal and Marsh Tits (_P. britannicus_ and _P. palustris_), may be greyish or olive on the back, with a black head, white cheeks, and buffish-white under parts, the former species having a white nuchal patch. _Psaltria_ is brown, grey, white, and buff; _Psaltriparus_ is similar; _Xerophila_ and _Sphenostoma_ are brown, with yellowish-white, buff, or brown and white lower surface; _Certhiparus_ is red-brown, with a grey nape and dull white breast. _Acredula_, containing the Long-tailed Tits, is black and white with a more or less pronounced rosy wash, or may be rufous, or brown and grey, with pinkish or fawn under parts, two species having chestnut heads. _Aegithalus_ and _Auriparus_ are rufous-brown, yellow-green, or greyish above, with black and white, orange-red, or yellow heads; and are commonly rufous and white, yellow, or whitish below, occasionally with bay marks. The sexes are very similar, the young often yellower.

Titmice are ordinarily non-migratory, _Parus_ occupying most of the globe, except South America and the Australian Region east of Lombok and Flores; _Psaltria_ is confined to Java, _Acredula_ to the Palaearctic and Indian countries, _Aegithalus_ to {540}the same with the Ethiopian Region, _Psaltriparus_ and _Auriparus_ to North America, _Xerophila_ and _Sphenostoma_ to Australia, _Certhiparus_ to New Zealand.

These familiar birds, active and often noisy, are found in flat or hilly, open or wooded districts, up to an altitude of ten thousand feet or more. They are decidedly arboreal, seldom frequenting the ground, and usually combining into flocks, except when breeding. The food consists mainly of insects, their eggs, larvae, and pupae, but at times of conifer-seeds, acorns, beech-mast, nuts, and the like; while in winter a suspended meat-bone, fat, or crumbs, prove great attractions. No doubt a certain amount of fruit is eaten in summer, and buds are plucked in spring; but the latter commonly contain injurious grubs. The Great Tit will kill smaller birds. The flight is weak and undulating, but on the trees the birds hop, climb, cling head downwards, and pry into the crannies in most workman-like style. _Xerophila_ is, however, more terrestrial. The sharp reiterated notes are varied by sibilant sounds, those of the Blue Tit being fairly representative; yet some are harsher; others, as in the Long-tailed Tits, softer; while certain Crested Tits are credited with a song. The nest is normally a mass of moss–and sometimes grass–with a felted lining of wool, hair, or fur, containing from five or six to twelve or more white eggs, which are in most cases spotted or freckled with various shades of red, but rarely with purplish or chocolate-colour. Sometimes more than one is laid in a day. The fabric is placed in holes in trees, stumps, rocks, walls, or the ground; pumps, post-boxes, and so forth are frequently selected: nooks behind loose bark, deserted habitations of other birds, or the foundations of those of Hawks and Crows are sometimes chosen; while _Sphenostoma_, and occasionally _Xerophila_, build open nests in shrubs. _Acredula_, _Aegithalus_, and _Psaltriparus_ make a purse-shaped structure with an entrance near the top; the first-named, thence called Bottle-Tit, placing it in hedges, bushes, undergrowth, forks of trees, or even ivy, and using as materials, moss, wool, lichens, and cobwebs, with a thick feather-lining; the two latter generally suspend it to branches and fashion it of grass, fibres, and leaves, often adding twigs externally or down internally. _Aegithalus_ occasionally makes a tubular passage. _Auriparus_ deposits in a similar or bulkier nest pale bluish or greenish eggs with red-brown specks, while those of _Sphenostoma_ are blue with blackish {541}markings. _Acredula_ apparently incubates with its tail over its back. The hen's bravery when sitting, her hissing challenge, and her speedy return when driven off, are characteristic of Tits.

Fam. XX. PANURIDAE.–Family rank is now pretty generally accorded to _Panurus biarmicus_, the "Bearded Tit" or "Reed-Pheasant," though its affinities are still doubtful. Dr. Gadow,[289] judging from the internal structure, inclines to the view that it is akin to the Finches, but others place it next to the Tits. The bill is short, curved, rather conical, and without a notch; the metatarsus is long and scutellated anteriorly; the wings are short and rounded, the tail is extremely long and graduated. The plumage is orange-brown above, with a grey crown and a black streak from the lores down the cheeks, where the feathers are elongated and point backwards; the wings are varied with black and white; the throat is greyish, the breast pinkish; the abdomen coloured like the back; the under tail-coverts are black, the bill is yellow. The hen has a buff head, while she lacks the black "moustache" and under tail-coverts.

This pretty species, which ranges through most of Europe, except Scandinavia and Northern Russia, and reaches Central Asia, may be seen to advantage on the Norfolk Broads, where it is resident, and still breeds in diminished numbers. In windy weather the separate pairs keep hidden, but at other times, though shy, a quiet observer may see them flitting above the reeds, uttering their clear "ping-ping," or clinging to the flowering tops. Insects and small molluscs, with seeds in winter, constitute the food. From April to August a nest of broad grasses, sedges, and the like, lined with reed-flowers, or exceptionally with vegetable-down, {542}is built in aquatic herbage, or rarely in moderately high plants, to contain the round creamy eggs with sparing brownish-black lines and scrawls. These number from four to eight, or even ten, should two hens lay together. The alarm-note is plaintive. Towards autumn the adults and young form large flocks.

Fam. XXI. ORIOLIDAE.–The Old World Orioles, not to be confounded with the so-called "American Orioles" (_Icteridae_), inhabit the Palaearctic, Indian, and Australian Regions, reaching eastward to Turkestan, China, and Papuasia. The bill is strong, rather long, straight, and notched, or, in _Sphecotheres_, curved; the metatarsus is short, the toes are small, the wings are long, the tail is moderate and slightly rounded. _Sphecotheres_ has naked lores and orbits. The Golden Oriole (_O. galbula_) which breeds exceptionally in England, is orange-yellow, with black lores and mainly black wings and tail; the similar Indian Mango-bird (_O. kundoo_), has a black post-ocular streak; other species shew black napes or heads. _O. viridis_ and its allies are olive-yellow or brownish, often with dusky streaks, _O. steerii_ being white beneath with broad black stripes; _O. cruentus_ is blue-black, with crimson wing-bar and mid-breast; _O. ardens_ chiefly crimson, with black head and fore-neck; _O. trailli_ maroon, with black head, throat, and wings; _O. hosii_ black, with {543}chestnut under tail-coverts. The bill is crimson, pinkish, or bluish. _Sphecotheres_ is yellow-green or olive-yellow, at times brighter below, and is relieved by black, grey, and white, the orbits being yellowish or flesh-coloured, the bill blackish.

These shy, restless, and quarrelsome birds frequent gardens, groves, and mangrove swamps, avoiding the ground, flying heavily but swiftly from tree to tree, and hopping among the higher branches. They eat insects and fruit; and utter flute-like notes, varied by mewing calls or "churrs" of alarm. The nest is a pocket of bark, grass, and fibres, with the rim woven over two forking twigs–leaves, moss, and hair being occasionally added. The three to five white or salmon-coloured eggs have dark purplish or brown-pink spots, and more rarely streaks; those of _Oriolus viridis_ being more dusky with brown and lilac markings. _Sphecotheres maxillaris_ makes a shallow nest of twigs, and lays three olive or green eggs, blotched or zoned with red-brown.[290]

Fam. XXII. PARADISEIDAE.–The Birds of Paradise have no rivals in splendour, unless it be the Humming-birds, among which, however, there is no such marvellous development of accessory plumes. They are undoubtedly allied to the Corvidae, as is evidenced in particular by _Lycocorax_ and _Manucodia_, while these also connect the more typical forms with the comparatively plainly garbed Bower-birds, often placed in a separate Family, _Ptilorhynchidae_. Few species are as large as Crows, and some are not bigger than Thrushes. Whether known to earlier traders or not, the first undoubted account of Birds of Paradise published in Europe was that of Maximilianus Transylvanus (1523), followed by that of Antonio Pigafetta, both relating to a couple of birds brought by Magellan's company from Batchian,[291] where they were called Manukdewata, or "Birds of the gods." Natives when preserving the skins used to cut off the wings and the feet, a fact which gave rise to absurd stories of Paradise-birds (_Paradisea apoda_) never perching, gazing perpetually at the sun (_passaros de sol_), suspending themselves by the tail-feathers, and so forth. The hen was also said to lay her eggs on the back of her spouse.

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The bill is usually short and stout, but is Crow-like in _Manucodia_ and _Lycocorax_, long and decurved in _Ptilorhis_, _Paryphephorus_, _Ianthothorax_, _Seleucides_, and _Falcinellus_, and becomes slender and sickle-shaped in _Drepanornis_; the maxilla is in some cases notched, and in _Scenopoeetes_ bidentate. The metatarsi are strong and fairly long, the outer and middle toes are slightly united, and the hallux is large. The wings are moderate or short, being especially rounded in Bower-birds; the tail may be enormously elongated and graduated, as in both sexes of _Falcinellus_, _Astrapia_, and _Paradigalla_; less graduated and shorter, as in _Drepanornis_; of medium length, {545}and square or rounded, as in many forms; or much abbreviated, as in _Cicinnurus_. _Astrapia stephaniae_ has the two median rectrices concave and decurved over; those feathers in the males of _Paradisea_, _Cicinnurus_, _Diphyllodes_, _Schlegelia_, _Paradisornis_, and _Uranornis_ exhibiting more or less wire-like shafts, which terminate in large racquets in _Cicinnurus_, smaller discs in _Paradisornis_. They are broader, convex above, wavy, and horny in _Uranornis_, and are curled outwardly in _Diphyllodes_ and _Schlegelia_, while they cross each other twice in the last, but once in _Cicinnurus_. _Pteridophora_ has an extraordinary streamer behind each eye. That these however, are by no means the only remarkable developments, will be seen from the following descriptions of the most striking species, all of which are confined to Papuasia and Australia, except the Moluccan genera _Semioptera_ and _Lycocorax_. The feathering often extends over part of the bill.

_Manucodia_ and _Phonygammus_ are the only Passerine birds known to have a convoluted trachea.[292]

_Ptilorhis paradisea_, the Rifleman-bird,[293] is velvety-black with a purple gloss, having the head, throat, and median rectrices green, the abdomen bronzy; the crown-feathers are scale-like, and the silky flank-plumes considerably elongated. _P. magnifica_ is somewhat similarly coloured, with a stiff pectoral shield of metallic green; _Ianthothorax_ and _Paryphephorus_, with erectile nuchal collars, are near allies. _Seleucides ignotus_ the Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise, which has six long, recurved and filiform appendages to the lax, projecting feathers of each side, is black, with purplish head, wings, and tail, bronzy back, broad erectile breast-plumes margined with emerald, yellow sides and belly. _Drepanornis albertisi_ is rufous-brown, with green throat and ante-ocular region, white belly and dusky breast; the sides of the last exhibit dark-edged bronzy plumes, which can be expanded like a fan, succeeded by long grey decomposed feathers with lilac margins; and small bluish tufts surmount the bare orbits and post-ocular region. _Falcinellus speciosus_ is black with rainbow-like reflexions; the broad plumes of the sides of the upper breast being banded with metallic blue and green, and having wide tips which open upwards into a fan; while the long pointed flank-feathers compose similarly coloured tufts.

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_Astrapia nigra_, the Paradise-Pie of old authors, is bronzy-black above and green below, with golden-green occiput and nape, purplish black throat, coppery fore-neck, and violet tail, the feathers round the head forming an erectile frill. _A. stephaniae_ has the head and neck bluer, the breast purplish-bronze. The smaller _A. splendidissima_ has a more brilliant nape-region, red fore-neck, and much buff on the tail. _Macgregoria pulchra_ is black, with mainly orange-buff primaries, and an orange wattle covering most of the face. _Paradigalla carunculata_ is black, with green and bronzy sheen above; the front of the head being naked, with three wattles on each side–one broad and yellow above the bill, another moderate and blue at the gape, a third small and red below it. _Paradisea apoda_, the Great Bird of Paradise, is rich brown, becoming purplish beneath; the head and neck are pale yellow, the forehead, lores, cheeks, and throat metallic green. The wiry median rectrices have very slight apical and basal webs, while long, thick, extensile tufts of delicate decomposed golden-orange feathers, tipped with brown, grace the sides. Of its congeners, _P. minor_ has the mantle straw-coloured; _P. raggiana_ has a light yellow gorget, and red lateral plumes like those of _P._ (_Uranornis_) _rubra_, the Red Bird of Paradise. _P._ (_Paradisornis_) _rudolphi_ is greenish-blue and dusky above, with blackish head, neck, and under surface, and a purplish occipital patch. From the sides of the body spring two series of elongated, decomposed feathers; the outer and stiffer being ultramarine, changing terminally to lilac with a brown external tinge, the inner smaller and deeper blue. Below these come a row of short chestnut plumes and finally a set of black. The two long median rectrices are violet-black with small blue racquet-tips.

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