The UMBRELLA BIRD, or UMBRELLA CHATTERER (_Cephalopterus ornatus_), is one of the most extraordinary of birds, as far as regards the singular ornaments with which it has been provided. It is about the size of a Crow, and the whole of its plumage being of a deep black it has a good deal of the corvine character in its aspect. Its head is adorned with a large and spreading crest, which appears intended to act as a parasol: this crest is composed of long, slender feathers, rising from a contractile skin on the top of the head; the shafts are white, and the plumes glossy blue, hair-like, and curved outwards at the tips. When the crest is laid back the shafts form a compact white mass, sloping up from the back of the head, and surmounted by the dense hairy plumes. Even in this position it is not an inelegant ornament, but when fully opened its peculiar character is developed. The shafts then radiate on all sides from the top of the head, reaching in front beyond and below the tip of the beak, which is thus completely concealed from view. The crest forms a slightly elongated dome, of a beautiful shining blue colour, having a point of divergence rather behind the centre, like that in the human head. The length of this dome from front to back is about five inches, the breadth from four inches to four and a half. As if this remarkable crest was not enough to distinguish the bird amongst its fellows, it is likewise furnished with a second singular ornament, resembling which nothing is to be found in the feathered creation. This is a long cylindrical plume, depending from the middle of the neck, and carried either close to the breast, or puffed out and hanging down in front, the feathers lapping over each other like scales, and bordered with fine metallic blue. On examining this plume, it is found not to be composed of feathers only; the skin of the neck is very loose, and from the lower part grows a long, fleshy process, about as thick as a Goose's quill, and an inch and a half long, to which the feathers are attached, thus producing a beautiful tassel depending from the breast, and forming an appendage as unique and elegant as the crest itself. The plumage of this strange bird is of an almost uniform black; the feathers on the mantle edged with dark greenish black; the crest is blackish blue; the quills and tail-feathers deep black. All the small feathers have white shafts; the eye is grey; the upper mandible blackish brown, the lower greyish brown, and the feet pale black. The length of this species is about nine inches and a half; the wing measures eleven inches and three lines.