The RESPLENDENT EPIMACHUS (_Seleucides resplendens_, or _Seleucides
alba_) is recognisable by the tufts upon the breast, formed of large,
rounded, and brightly bordered feathers, and by the graceful plumes that
adorn its sides; these latter are downy in their upper portions, and
terminate in very long and webless shafts. According to Rosenberg, this
extraordinary bird is about thirty-two and a half inches in length. The
velvet-like feathers of the head, neck, and breast are black, but gleam
with a deep green or violet shade; the tufts upon the sides of the breast
are also black and edged with dazzling emerald green; the plumes upon the
sides are of a splendid golden yellow, but soon lose their brilliancy
after death, changing to a dirty white; the wings and tail are glossy
violet, and appear in some lights to be marked with stripes. The plumes
for which this species is so celebrated are most remarkable; the longest
of them reach to the tail, and there terminate in long, horsehair-like
threads of a bright yellow towards their root, and for the rest of their
length of a brown colour. The eyes are scarlet, the beak black, and the
feet of a yellowish flesh tint. In the female the top of the head and
lower part of the throat are black, the velvety feathers upon the head
shining with a bright purple lustre; the lower part of the back, the
wings, and tail are reddish brown, the large quills being black upon
their inner web; the whole of the lower parts of the body are greyish
white or a dirty yellowish brown, marked with small undulating black
streaks. The young males at first resemble their mother, but after the
first moulting the throat is grey, after the second the belly acquires
its yellow tint, and the tufts upon the sides begin to make their
appearance.
[Illustration: THE COLLARED EPIMACHUS (_Epimachus magnus_).]
The Resplendent Epimachus is found exclusively upon the island of
Salawati, frequenting rocky districts in considerable numbers, and
subsisting, we believe, upon insects and various kinds of fruit. They
usually congregate in small parties, and fly together in search of food,
seeming, when upon the wing, to glide through the air with great facility.