Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/573

Rh K I F - E I G 553 wick. He also designed the memorial statue of Luther for Worms, but died before he could carry it out. The principal among Rietschel's religious pieces of sculpture are the well-known Christ- Angel, and a life-sized Pieta, executed for the king of Prussia. He also worked a great deal in rilievo, and produced many grace- ful pieces, especially a fine series of bas-reliefs representing Night and Horning, Noon and Twilight, designed with much poetical feeling and imagination. For a good biography of Rietschel and account of his works see Appermann, Ernst Rietschel, Leipsic, 1863. (J. II. M.) RIFLE. See GUNMAKING, vol. xi. p. 281-5. RIFLEMAN-BIRD, or RIFLE-BIRD, names given by the English in Australia to a very beautiful inhabitant of that country, 1 probably because in coloration it resembled the well-known uniform of the rifle-regiments of the British army, while in its long and projecting hypochondriac plumes and short tail a further likeness might be traced to the hanging pelisse and the jacket formerly worn by the members of those corps. Be that as it may, the cock bird is clothed in velvety-black generally glossed with rich purple, but having each feather of the abdomen broadly tipped with a chevron of green bronze,' while the crown of the head is covered with scale-like feathers of glittering green, and on the throat gleams a triangular patch of brilliant bluish emerald, a colour that reappears on the whole upper surface of the middle pair of tail-quills. The hen is greyish-brown above, the crown striated with dull white; the chin, throat, and a streak behind the eye are pale ochreous, and the lower parts deep buff, each feather bearing a black chevron. According to James Wilson (III. Zoology, pi. xi.), specimens of both sexes were obtained by Sir T. Brisbane at Port Macquarie, whence, in August 1823, they were sent to the Edinburgh Museum, where they arrived the following year ; but the species was first described by Swainson in January 1825 (Zool. Journal, i. p. 481) as the type of a new genus Ptiloris, more pro- perly written Ptilorrhis, 2 and it is generally known in orni- thology as P. paradisea. It inhabits the northern part of New South Wales and southern part of Queensland as far as Wide Bay, beyond which its place is taken by a kindred species, the P. victorise of Gould, which was found by John Macgillivray on the shores aud islets of Rockingham Bay. Further to the north, in York Peninsula, occurs what is considered a third species, P. alberti, very closely allied to and by some authorities thought to be identical with the P. magnified (Vieillot) of New Guinea the " Promerops " of many writers. From that country a fifth species, P. tvilsoni, has also been described by Mr Ogden (Proc. Acad. Philadelphia, 1875, p. 451, pi. 25). Little is known of the habits of any of them, but the Rifleman-bird proper is said to get its food by thrusting its somewhat long bill under the loose bark on the boles or boughs of trees, along the latter of which it runs swiftly, or by search- ing for it on the ground beneath. During the pairing- season the males mount to the higher branches and there display and trim their brilliant plumage in the morning sun, or fly from tree to tree uttering a note which is syllabled "yass" greatly prolonged, but at the same time making, apparently with their wings, an extraordinary noise like that caused by the shaking of a piece of stiff silk stuff. Verreaux informed Mr Elliot that he believed they breed in the holes of trees and lay white eggs; but on that score nothing is really known. The genus Ptilorrhis, thought by Gould to be allied to Climacteris, has been generally placed near Epimaclius, which is now considered, 1 Curiously enough its English name seems to be first mentioned in ornithological literature by Frenchmen Lesson and Garnot in 1828, who say ( Voy. " Coquille," Zoologie, p. 669) that it was applied "pour rappelo.r que ce fut un soldat de la garnison [of New South Wales] qui le tua le premier," which seems to be an insufficient reason, though the statement as to the bird's first murderer may be true. 2 Some writers have amended Swainson's faulty name in the form Ftilornis, but that is a mistake. with Drepanornis and Seleucides, to belong to the Para- diseidze, or Birds-of-Paradise, and in his Monograph of that Family all the species then known are beautifully figured by Mr Elliot. (A. N.) RIGA (Esth. Ria-Lin), a seaport of Russia, in 56 57' N. lat. and 24 6' E. long., 375 miles south-west of St Petersburg, is in population the fifth city of the empire, while in foreign trade it ranks next to St Petersburg and Odessa. It is the seat of the governor-general of the Russian Baltic provinces, and also the capital of the province of Livonia. The Gulf of Riga, 115 miles long and 100 miles in width, with shallow waters of inconsider- able salinity (greatest depth 27 fathoms), freezes to some extent every year. The town is situated at the southern extremity of the gulf, 8 miles above the mouth of the Diina (Dwina), which brings Riga into water communication with an extensive region, as also with the basins of the Dnieper and Volga. Below the town the Diina, from 580 to 2300 yards in breadth, divid6s into several branches, among islands and sand banks, receiving before it enters the sea the Bolderaa river, and expanding towards the east into wider lacustrine basins. At its sea entrance the water riaii of Iliga. on the bar has an average depth of only 14 feet, and the entrance of the river is protected by the fortress of Diina- miinde, connected by rail with Riga, while another line on the right bank connects the city with the Miihlgraben village opposite. As the Diina freezes at Riga for an average of 127 days annually, the port remains closed for navigation from December to March. The roadstead at the mouth of the river, though now protected by a mole, is still too much exposed, so that only such vessels as cannot pass the bar remain there, the others discharging part of their cargo at Bolderaa or Miihlgraben and then entering the Diina, which also they leave only partially laden. Improvements designed to obviate these incon-^ veniences are now going on both at the outer harbour and at the new one, the " Zollhafe'n." Riga consists of four parts the old town and the St Petersburg and the Moscow suburbs standing on the right bank of the Diina, and the Mitau suburb on the left bank, connected by a floating bridge which is removed in winter, and by a viaduct, 820 feet long, resting on light piers of solid stone, and leaving a passage for ships. The old town still preserves its Hanseatic features high storehouses, with spacious granaries and cellars, lining the narrow, winding, and busy streets. The only open spaces are the market-place and two other squares, one of which, facing the citadel, is ornamented by a granite column erected in commemoration of the defeat of Napoleon I. The old XX. 70