The geographical distribution of animals, with a study of the relations ...

;414 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. [part hi.parrots, cockatoos, and lories,almost all of which are beautifuland of pigeons, more than half of which are very beautiful ; aswell as to the numerous kingfishers, most of which are excessivelybrilliant. Then we have the absence of thrushes, and the verysmall numbers of the warblers, shrikes, and Timaliidse, which aredull-coloured groups ;and, lastly, the presence of numerous gaypittas, flycatchers, and the unequalled family of paradise-birds.A large number of birds adorned with metallic plumage is also amarked feature of this fauna, more than a dozen genera being sodistinguished. Among the remarkable forms are Peltops, a flycatcher,long classed asone of the Indo-Malayan Eurylsemidae,which it resembles both in bill and coloration; Machcerirhynchus,curious little boat-billed flycatchers ;and Toclopsis, a group of terrestrialflycatchers with the brilliant colours of Pitta or Malurus.The paradise-birds present the most wonderful developments ofplumage and the most gorgeous varieties of colour, to be foundamong passerine birds. The great whiskered-swift, the handsomestbird in the entire family, has its head-quarters here. Among kingfishersthe elegant long-tailed Tanysvpterm are preeminent, whetherfor singularity or beauty.Among parrots, New Guinea possessesthe great black cockatoo, one of the largest and most singular birdsin the order ; Nasiterna, the smallest of known parrots ; andCharmosyna, perhaps the most elegant. Lastly, among thepigeons we have the fine crowned- pigeons, the largest and mostremarkable group of the order.Plate X. Illustrating the Ornithology of New G'ttinea.—Thewonderful ornithological fauna we have just sketched, couldonly be properly represented in a series of elaborate colouredplates. We are obliged here to confine ourselves to representinga few of the more remarkable types of form, as samples of thegreat number that adorn this teeming bird-land. The largecentral figure is the fine twelve-wired paradise-bird {Seleucidesalbus), one of themost beautiful and remarkable of the family.Its general plumage appears, at first sight, to be velvety blackbut on closer examination, and by holding the bird in variouslights, it is found that every part of it glows with the most exquisitemetallic tints—rich bronze, intense violet, and, on the