feathers, which stuck straight out from each shoulder. Ali
assured me that the bird stuck them out this way itself, when
fluttering its wings, and that they had remained so without his
touching them. I now saw that I had got a great prize, no less
than a completely new form of the Bird of Paradise, differing
most remarkably from every other known bird. The general plumage
is very sober, being a pure ashy olive, with a purplish tinge on
the back; the crown of the head is beautifully glossed with pale
metallic violet, and the feathers of the front extend as much
over the beak as inmost of the family. The neck and breast are
scaled with fine metallic green, and the feathers on the lower
part are elongated on each side, so as to form a two-pointed
gorget, which can be folded beneath the wings, or partially
erected and spread out in the same way as the side plumes of most
of the birds of paradise. The four long white plumes which give
the bird its altogether unique character, spring from little
tubercles close to the upper edge of the shoulder or bend of the
wing; they are narrow, gentle curved, and equally webbed on both
sides, of a pure creamy white colour. They arc about six inches
long, equalling the wing, and can be raised at right angles to
it, or laid along the body at the pleasure of the bird. The bill
is horn colour, the legs yellow, and the iris pale olive. This
striking novelty has been named by Mr. G. R. Gray of the British
Museum, Semioptera Wallacei, or "Wallace's Standard wing."

A few days later I obtained an exceedingly beautiful new
butterfly, allied to the fine blue Papilio Ulysses, but differing
from it in the colour being of a more intense tint, and in having
a row of blue stripes around the margin of the lower wings. This
good beginning was, however, rather deceptive, and I soon found