Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 6 (1802).djvu/270

208 down to the knee. Scapulars of a brownish tinge. Upper tail coverts, and prime quill feathers, which are somewhat curved at the ends, brown black. Edges of the quills gray. The legs long and very strong, covered with large scales, especially in front. The feet, which are likewise large, and the nails, are black; the last some-what crooked, convex above and flat beneath; the hind nail near three quarters of an inch long.

The tail consists, in the whole, of sixteen feathers; all of which, except the two upper or middle ones, and the two exterior on each side, have long slender shafts furnished on each side with delicate long filaments, four inches or more in length, placed pretty close towards the rump, but more distant from each other as they approach the extremity, and resemble much those of the Greater Paradise Bird. The two middle or upper ones are longer than the rest, slender, narrow at the base, growing wider as they approach the ends, which are pointed; webbed on the inner edge all the way, and furnished with some distant hair-like threads near the end on the outer side, of a pale gray colour beneath, and brown black above, as is the rest of the tail. The two exterior feathers on each side are of an extraordinary construction, rather more than an inch wide at the base, and growing wider as they proceed to the ends, where they are full two inches broad and curve outwardly; the curved part is black with a narrow white border; the quills of these feathers are double for two thirds down from the rump. The general colour of the under sides of these two feathers is of a pearly hue, elegantly marked on the inner web with bright rufous coloured crescent-shaped spots, which, from the extraordinary construction of the parts, appear wonderfully transparent, although at first sight seemingly the darkest; they are also elongated into slender filaments of an inch or more, especially towards the extremities.

The figure of the male, which accompanies this description, was taken