. BN ANT ONTOS Ne oy es a mee eee ye BS. Ce “ f x of Ni ’ fl F eg cl £ 3 Cay ig Tf, r » 4 a y ‘ Car >a ee 2 A a Lae of) ie” S, i oe [ i i ease Z a ere to i VB < 1) Vig ; CIS ANANSI): > 4 z SA % 7 [P<] At } i Zia F t y 3 RI ; OX ROCK f TOG OU OU IU = ee 7 | —_- ; > S : saa J al g : ce F ) ue ji ib GOs % f : B See we 8 F NY ci* “4 Cy an og in ! a ey, << is ak Z pmsecen ee 2 a : = ae ae a Ne! ee bes Fam Get eg MONOGRAPH OF THE PARADISELD 4 OR BIRDS OF PARADISE, PTILONORHYNCHID OR BOW ER-BIRDS. BY R. BOWDLER SHARPE, LLD, PLS, ZS, era, ASSISTANT KEEPER, ZOOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT, BRITISH MUSEUM; HOLDER OF THE GOLD MEDAL FOR SCIENCE FROM ILLM. THE EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA; HON, MEMBER OF THE NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE; FOREIGN MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF LISBON; HON. MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY (NATURA ARTIS MAGISTRA) OF AMSTERDAM; MEMBER OF THE IMPERIAL SOCIETY OF NATURALISTS OF MOSCOW ; FOREIGN MEMBER OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF FRANCE; FOREIGN MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION; MEMBER OF TICE HUNGARIAN ORNITHOLOGICAL CENTRAL BUREAU; MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION; HON. MEMBER OF THE MANCHESTER LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY; HON. MEMBER OF THE HASLEMERE MICROSCOPE AND NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY; AUTHOR OF A ‘MONOGRAPH OF THE ALCEDINIDA, A ‘MONOGRAPH OF THE HIRUNDINIDAQ’ (WITH CLAUDE W. WYATT), AND OF VOLS. I, IL, UL, IV., VI, VIL, X., XIL, XIII, XVII (pr.), XXIIL., XXIV., KXVI. (er.) OF THE ‘CATALOGUE OF BIRDS IN THE COLLECTION OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, evc., ere. IN PMO WOLUMIES. WOILW ME IT. LONDON: HENRY SOTHERAN & CO., Sr WICC AIDIOLIE NW, NW. | 140 STRAND, W.C. 1891-1898. [All rights reserved. | ne tr ee Pt ¥ ns OY CY Cr ey Cry ey: Vi AN \ PAK ff A He Els? OF CONDENS TITLEPAGE . LIST OF CONTENTS . LIST OF PLATES . Phonygama keraudreni . 9 jamesi gouldi » hunsteini . Manucodia chalybeata orientalis » jobiensis . rubiensis atra . comru . . Lycocorax pyrrhopterus . 3 obiensis 3 morotensis 5, Paradigalla carunculata . 5. Macgregoria pulchra . Parotia sexpennis . lawesi . carole . berlepschi helenee . Lophorhina superba . Pe, minor . Loboparadisea sericea . Loria mariz . Ptilonorhynchus violaceus . purpureo-violacea . VOLUME IL. Page i iil ¥ Page 27.) Amblyornisstlayitronsi ss) se 51 28. - inornata ol, 53 Or - gulls = o 0 o o 08 30. Cnemophilus macgregorii . . . . 57 Si, Prono metionmm. . o o » 30), o o o « fe . 42. lauterbachi . AG AMNews maGeMONS . s o o o o BD 44, * JOOOMNS 5 o co 0 0 oo BY 45. oa Antal! an So) 46. . melanocephalusy ss oll Alf. s MAOUIONUS «==5 6 0 5 ol OB 48, 3 viridis; 4 so 5 ee 00) AQ, - EGOS, 5 og ll 50. “ geislerorum . . . . . 99 Ele 3; stone, = ee 52. Tectonornis dentirostris. . . + - 103 Lisl OF Prats V ORUNTE We I. Phonygama keraudreni. | XXIJI. Amblyornis inornata, 9 et ¢ juy. ele 2 purpureo-violacea. | XOXaIE - subalaris. 10, e hunsteini. XXIII. Cnemophilus macgregorii. IV. Manucodia chalybeata. XXIV. Prionodura newtoniana. Vi. - atra. | XXYV. Xanthomelus aureus. Wil, < comrii. XXVI. = ardens. VII. Lycocorax pyrrhopterus. XXVII. Sericulus melinus. VIII. 3 obiensis. fig. 1. Chlamydodera cerviniventris. XXVIII. IDX, 5 morotensis. fig. 2. maculata, ¢. X. Paradigalla carunculata. | XXIX. ‘ occipitalis. XI. Macgregoria pulchra. XXX. 3 nuchalis. XII. Parotia sexpennis. XXXI. 3 orientalis. Nee > Jlavwesi. XXXII. #luredus melanotis. XIV. Pe Galolees XXXII. - arfakianus. XY. Lophorhina superba. XXXIV. - melanocephalus. DG V sie - minor. XXXV. Ss maculosus. XVII. Loboparadisea sericea. XXXVI. % viridis. XVIII. Loria marie. XXXVII. es buccoides. XIX. Ptilonorhynchus violaceus. XXXVIII. a geislerorum. fig. 1. Amblyornis flavifrons. XXXIX. © stonil. xx. fig. 2. - inornata, g ad. XL. Tectonornis dentirostris. JIT) 7, PHONYGAMA KERAUDRENI (ZLess. & Garn)). Keraudren’s Manucode. 7 w4 Sy Barita keraudreni, Less. & Garn. in Férussac, Bull. Sc. Nat. viii. p. 110 (1826).—lid. Voy. Coquille, Zool. Atlas, ple ie) GisZG)): Phonygama keraudreni, Less. Dict. Class. xiii. p. 399 (1828).—Id. Man. d’Orn. 1. p. 141 (1828).—Id. Voy. Coquille, Zool. i. pt. 2, p. 636 (1828).—Id. Traité, p. 344 (1831).—Id. Compl. Buff., Ois. p. 403, cum tab. (1838).—Gray, Gen. B. ii. p. 303 (1846).—Bp. Consp. i. p. 368 (1850).—Rosenb. Nat. Tijdschr. Nederl. Ind. xxv. p. 236 (1863).—Id. J. f. O. 1864, p. 123.—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 173 (1865).— Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. iii, p. 180 (1877).—Id. Journ. Linn. Soc. Zool. xvi. p. 442 (1882),— Eudes-Deslongch. Ann, Mus. Caen, i. p. 41 (1880).—D’Hamony. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1886, p- 510. Chalybaus cornutus, Cuvier, Regne Anim. i. p. 354 (1829). Phonygama lessonia, Swains. Classif. B. ii. p. 264 (1837). Manucodia keraudreni, Sclater, Journ. Linn, Soc. ii. p. 162 (1858).—Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, p. 194.—Id. Cat. B. New Guinea, pp. 37, 59 (1859).—Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 158.—Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, p. 436.—Id. Hand-l. B. iii. p. 17, no. 6258 (1870).—Elliot, Monogr. Parad. pl. 8 (1873).—Pavesi, Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. vi. p. 315, tav. x. (1874).—Beccari, op. cit. vii. p. 713 (1875).—Salvad. op. cit. vii. p- 781 (1875), ix. pp. 41, 189 (1876), x. p. 150 (1877).—Pavesi, op. cit. ix. p. 66 (1876-77).—D Albert. op. cit. x. pp. 13, 120 (1877)—Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. iii. p. 102 (1878), iv. p. 97 (1879).—D Albert. & Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xiv. p. 95 (1879).—D’ Albert. Nuova Guinea, pp. 582, 584, 588 (1880).—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, etc. ii. p. 510 (1881).—Id. op. cit. ili. p. 551 (1882).— Musschenbr. Dagboek, pp. 195, 228 (1883).—Rosenb. Mitth. orn. Ver. Wien, 1885, p. 40. Chalybeus keraudrent, Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, p. 120 (1867).—Rosenb. Reis naar Zuidoostereil. p. 47 (1867).—Id. Malay. Arch. pp. 370, 558 (1879). Chalybea keraudrenit, Schlegel, Dierent. p. 175 (c. 1869).—Id. Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk. iv. p. 50 (1871). Phonygama jamesti, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. iii. p. 181 (1877).—Id. Proc. Linn. Soe. xiii. p. 500 (1877).— Elliot, Ibis, 1878, p. 56. Manucodia keraudrenert apsu), Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. 8. W. iii. p. 265 (1879). Tuts Manucode is an inhabitant of New Guinea and the Aru Islands. In the former it. is widely distributed, for it has been found by Lesson and Wallace near Dorey, and D’Albertis at Andai, by Beccari at Warbusi and Ramoi, and by the late Mr. Bruijn’s hunters at Sorong, Nirba, Mansinam, and in the Arfak Mountains. D’Albertis met with the species on the Fly River, and again at Hall Bay and Yule Island, while Dr. E. P. Ramsay has recorded it from the vicinity of Port Moresby. At Aleya also the late Dr. James procured the specimen which I named after him, Phonygama jamesi. Count Salvadori considers that this species cannot be upheld, and I must confess that, with the series of specimens in the British Museum, I am at present unable to decide the question, though a re-examination of the type shows me that none of the other New Guinea birds have such a steely-green head. The specimen procured by the late Carl Hunstein at East Cape also seems to me to resemble Dr. James’s example. In the Aru Islands the present species has also been obtained by Von Rosenberg and Beccari; but, as the Count points out, there are some slight differences in specimens from these islands, the size being perceptibly larger, and the tint of the metallic gloss being of a more steel-blue character, as in examples from Sorong. Nothing appears to have been written about the habits of this Manucode, beyond the statement of Von Rosenberg’s that it was very rare in the Aru Islands, where it is only found in the woods, and not universally on the coast and in the interior forests like JZ atra; its food consists of insects, small crustaceans, and fruit. - The peculiar trachea of these Manucodes is well known, and Professor Pavesi has written a memoir on the subject, founded on examples sent to him by Dr. Beccari. According to Pavesi the male has the trachea external and with several coils, the adult female has but a single coil, while the young females bear no trace of an external trachea at all. The following description is copied from my third volume of the ‘Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum ” :— Adult male. General colour above burnished steel-blue, the feathers of the head velvety in texture, as well YAXYOXEATYAY . 4 as those of the plumes of the hin sides of the face and chin 5 feathers ; washed with black on their inner web: bill green on the abdomen 3 and legs black ; iris red. tail 5:59, tarsus 1°35. Adult female. Siuil blackish violet with scarcely any gloss. The Plate represents an adult bird in two positions, ar to the male, but a little smaller. from the sides of the d-neck and throat also lanceolate ; wings and tail purple, occiput extend two long tufts of steel-blue under surface of body burnished steel-blue the edges of the quills steel-blue, the latter Total length 13 inches, culmen 1°3, wing 6°35, The young bird, according to Count Savadori, is drawn from a specimen in the British Museum s of steel-blue ed steel-blue, le, the latter 3, wing 6°35, it Savadori, is fuseum. PHONYGAMA JAMESI, Sharpe. Jamess Manucode. Manucodia keraudreni, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genov. ix. p. 40 (1876, nec Less.). Phonyyama jamesi, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. iii. p. 181 (1877).—Id. Journ. Linn. Soe. xiii. p. 500 (1877). — Elliot, Ibis, 1878, p. 56. Manucodia keraudreni, Salvad. Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche, ii. p. 510 (1881, pt.).—Id. op. cit. il. p- 551 (1882). Phonygama keraudreni (nec Less.), Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc. xvi. p. 442 (1882). I riesr described this species from a specimen procured at Aleya by the unfortunate Dr. James, who was murdered by the natives of South-eastern New Guinea. Mr. D. G. Elliot, in 1878, expressed his opinion that P. james could not be specifically separated from P. keraudreni, and Count Salvadori united it to the latter species. In deference to the opinion of these two excellent authorities on the Paradiseide, 1 myself acquiesced in the suppression of P. jamesi as a species, but not without a protest that I believed it to be really distinct. After a careful re-examination of the specimens in the British Museum and the Rothschild collection, I have come to the conclusion that P. jamesi is really distinct from P. keraudrent; and in this determination I am upheld by the Hon. Walter Rothschild, who has made a special study of the Paradiseide. P. jamesi, though closely allied to P. keraudreni, is of a bright steel-green colour below, and has the throat, the sides of the head, the neck, and crest-plumes green instead of steel-blue as in P. keraudrent, which also shows a sheen of purplish on these portions of the body. The typical specimen of P. jamesi was procured by Dr. James at Aleya, on the mainland of South-eastern New Guinea, near Yule Island. A second specimen was procured by Mr. A. Goldie on the Laloke River, and the late Carl Hunstein also met with the species near East Cape. Both these specimens were recorded by me in the ‘ Journal of the Linnean Society’ (WZ. cc.), but they were not retained by the British Museum, which, however, possesses a second example, in addition to the type, from Mr. Broadbent’s collection made in the interior of S.E. New Guinea, inland from Port Moresby. The following description of the type specimen is taken from my third volume of the ‘ Catalogue of Birds ’:— General colour above burnished green, with a slight shade of purplish blue here and there on the back ; under surface of body burnished green like the upper, with a subterminal lustre of purplish blue on some of the feathers ; head and neck all round of a burnished oily green, the plumes of the crown close-set and velvety, those of the neck and throat narrowly lanceolate ; from the occiput two long tufts of green feathers ; wings and tail purple, the wing-coverts burnished green like the back, the quills and tail-feathers black on their inner webs, except the innermost secondaries, which are entirely purple: bill and legs black. Total length 12:3 inches, culmen 1:3, wing 6-2, tail 4:9, tarsus 1-45. The species is so closely allied to P. keraudrent that a separate figure has not been considered necessary. \ <@ < vA ah c% Wy AU ere CN 7) a NAS Lp Bien ASE S ern Bros. unp Vint K igi & Vever : \ ‘ AA fk a PHONYGAMA PURPUREO-VIOLACEA, Meyer. Purple-and-Violet Manucode. Phonygama purpureo-violacea, Meyer, Zeitschr. ges. Orn. ii. p. 375, Taf. xv. (1885).—Id. Ibis, 1886, p. 242.— D’Hamonv. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xi. p. 510 (1886).—Sharpe in Gould’s B. New Guin. vol. i. pl. 35 (1887).—Salvad. Agg. Orn. Papuasia, ii. p. 148 (1890).—De Vis, Ann. Rep. Brit. New Guin. p. 60 (1890).—Id. Colonial Papers, no. 103, p. 112 (1890).—Id. Ibis, 1891, p. 36.—Salvad. Agg. Orn. Papuasia, ili. p. 239 (1891). Wrartine in 1887,-in the late Mr. Gould’s ‘Birds of New Guinea,’ I suggested that the present species might possibly be the same as Phonygama hunstein’, described by me from a specimen procured by Mr. Hunstein at East Cape in South-eastern New Guinea, I came to this conclusion after an examination of a series of birds collected by Mr. H. O. Forbes in the Astrolabe Mountains. During the six years which have elapsed since I last examined into this question I have seen but few specimens of P. purpureo-violacea, but every one of them bas so far confirmed the characters assigned by Dr. Meyer to the species. I now therefore consider that P. hunsteint must be kept distinct from the other species of the genus Phonygama, differing especially in its larger size. I was at one time inclined to unite the present species with P. games?, and made the following remarks :— «The series before us at the present moment leaves very little doubt that the Phonygama recently described by Dr. Meyer, and figured by us in the accompanying Plate, is distinct from P. keraudreni and P. lunsteini ; but it is apparently the same as Phonygama jamesi, a species described by us in 1877 from Aleya, in South-eastern New Guinea. The chief difference between these two species is_ that P. purpureo-violacea is more purple above and stecl-blue below, and P. games? is metallic green above and steel-green below. But between these extremes of colour every transition is fonnd in the series now before us; and it should be noted that the type specimen of P. jamesi is moulting, and that the old feathers of the wing are very dull purple, while the new ones are bright purplish blue externally. In fine, without asserting dogmatically that P. yamese and P. purpureo-violacea are the same, we have very little doubt in our own minds that they are, and that the steel-blue and green shades become gradually faded into purple or purplish blue.” On looking over the series of specimens in the British Museum, I am now inclined to think that P. jamesi may be distinct from P. purpureo-violacea, the latter being entirely purple above and below instead of steel-blue or steel-green. The following description is taken from a specimen procured at 7000 feet elevation on the Owen- Stanley Range by Mr. Goldie and now in the British Museum :— Adult. male. General colour above purple, slightly shot with steel-blue or purplish blue on the lower back ; wings rather more bronzy purple than the lower back, inclining to purplish blue on the margins of some of the feathers; the small coverts adjoining the bastard-wing steel-green ; quills black, externally purple, the primaries shaded with steel-blue on the margins ; tail-feathers purple, the inner webs black, the centre feathers somewhat bronzy ; head with crested lateral tufts metallic steel-green all over, somewhat inclining to oily-green under certain lights, the hinder neck metallic purplish blue; sides of face and throat metallic steel-green, shading off on the fore neck and underparts into dark steel-blue, washed with purple; under wing-coverts like the breast; quills black below. Total length 10°5 inches, culmen 1°3, wing 6-4, tail 4:7, tarsus 1°4. The figures in the Plate represent an adult bird in two positions, drawn from a specimen procured by Mr. Goldie in the Owen-Stanley Range and now in the British Museum. PHONYGAMA GOULDI (Gray). Gould’s Manucode. Manucodia keraudreni (nec Less.), Gould, Birds of Australia, Suppl. pl. 9 (1855). Manucodia gouldi, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 158, note——Gould, Handb. B. Austr. i. p. 236 (1865).—Gray, Hand-l. B. ii. p. 17, no. 6259 (1870).—Masters, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, i. p. 50 (1877). Phonygama gouldi, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. iii. p. 181 (1877).—Finsch, Vog. der Siidsee, p. 37 (1884). Manucodia (Phonygama) gouldi, Ramsay, Tab. List Austr. Birds, p. 11 (1888). Phonygama keraudreni (nec Less.), Witmer Stone, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1891, p. 448. Tis species represents in the Cape York Peninsula of Australia the species of Phonygama which inhabit New Guinea, such as P. keraudrent, P. gamesi, P. purpureo-violacea, and P. hunsteii. In the occurrence of a true Phonygama in North-eastern Australia we may have a parallel case to the other Papuan forms which are met with on the Australian continent, viz. Caswarius, Tanysiptera, Craspedophora, &c. Gould’s Manucode was discovered in the Cape York Peninsula by the late John Macgillivray during the voyage of the ‘Rattlesnake.’ For some time it was believed by Gould to be identical with P. keraudrent of New Guinea, but the differences were pointed out by Gray, and the species is now generally admitted to be distinct. It is a green bird and has the wings green, like the rest of the plumage, without any of the steel-blue or purple reflections seen in the New Guinea forms. Dr. Otto Finsch met with the species near Somerset in the Cape York Peniusula, where he found it by no means common. It keeps out of sight, but its cry is often heard and resembles the bray of a child’s toy-trumpet. The following description is taken from my third volume of the ‘ Catalogue of Birds ’:— General colour steel-green, of a somewhat oily-green cast on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; wings coloured like the back, the coverts and the outer webs of the quills with a slight shade of purplish blue, this colour being also faintly indicated on the interscapulary region ; wings black on the inner webs, excepting the innermost secondaries, which are bluish green ; tail black, glossed with deep purplish blue, the feathers greenish on their outer edges under certain lights; head green, as also the two long tufts projecting from each side of the occiput; sides of face, throat, and underparts green, the abdomen with an oily-green shade, the feathers of the throat pointed and lanceolate, these parts somewhat shaded with steel-blue under certain lights: bill and legs black ; ‘iris ochre-yellow ” (O. Finsch). Total length 11-5 inches, culmen 1-25, wing 6-15, tail 5°15, tarsus 1:50. It has not been considered necessary to give a separate figure of this species. Marterre Bros unp INI, Sharpe. UN S T Ds 1 \MA Y GA V Ly JO) Te c 2 H 5 II | W. Hart delet Lith . TTT LITT INHIh FE vy VGUICTIUOIT ‘ : JN 2 9% ' III O ORIOL r ; aU XS 4 AA — PHONYGAMA HUNSTEINI, § sharpe. Hunstein’s Manucode. Phonygama hunstein, Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc. London, xvi. pp. 442, 443 (1882).—D’Hamony. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1886, p. 510.—De Vis, Ann. Rep. Brit. New Guinea, p. 60 (1890).—Id. Colonial Papers, no. 103, p. 112 (1890).—Id. Ibis, 1891, p. 36.—Salvad. Agg. Orn. Papuasia, ii. p. 149 (1890), iii. App. p. 239 (1891).—Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xiii (1894).—Rothschild, Novit. Zool. iii. pp. 11, 233, 235, 246 (1896). , Manucodia hunsteini, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xviii. p. 426 (1882).—Id. Orn. Papuasia, iii. App. p. 551 = (1882). . roe Manucodia thomsoni, Tristram, Ibis, 1889, p. 554. Phonygama thomsoni, Salvad. Age. Orn. Papuasia, ii. p. 149 (1890), iii. App. p. 239 (1891).—Id. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. (2) x. p. 832 (1891).—De Vis, Rep. Coll. British New Guinea, p- 112 (1890).— Rothschild, Novit. Zool. iii. pp. 11, 235 (1896). Tus Manucode was described by me in 1882 from a specimen sent by the late Carl Hunstein, and supposed to be from. South-eastern New Guinea. That this locality is erroneous can hardly be doubted, as the real habitat of the species is now known to be Fergusson Island, in the D’Entrecasteaux group. Here it has been found by Mr. Basil Thomson, and also by Mr. Albert Meek, who says that it is met with in the hills, but seldom below 1500 feet. Hunstein’s Manucode is a large species, remarkable for its dull coloration, as compared with the metallic colours which adorn the other species of the genus. The green colour of the head, contrasting with the purplish-black colour of the upper and under parts, is also of a similar tint and of an oily-green lustre, without any remarkable gloss. Another peculiarity of the species, which both myself and Canon Tristram failed to observe, is the “ hen *-shaped tail, as the Hon. Walter Rothschild points out. The tail-feathers slope downwards on each side from the central pair; and Mr. Rothschild, who has several specimens in his collection, remarks :—‘‘The webs of the central rectrices in the fully adult male stand nearly perpendicular at the tip, but they are not twisted so far as to Open again as they do in Manucodia comri.” The female does not differ in colour from the male, but the wing is a trifle shorter. A young bird in Mr, Rothschild’s museum is nearly black, with a slight gloss of dull steel-green, but with no purple on the back, wings, or tail. The head is black, with scarcely any steel-green gloss, and the crest-feathers are scarcely indicated. The under surface of the body is dull black, with scarcely any gloss except on throat. Mr. Basil Thomson says that the convolutions of the windpipe are extraordinary, the latter being coiled under the skin. The figure in the Plate has been drawn from the type-specimen in the British Museum. imp Png. UY Vinterre Bre i 5 l WUTHOUTG TTT WNNNAWUUUUULL IN] ANN “a | Se 7¢) ro > c ‘ wey JX ws ICICI g CU 3 f K ; CUI JR U TOO LTLSTRTTLGOGA ITGTIUC ‘ \ La ae \ wel er N ; X y £ iN } i 1 \ . + 4 y Z | LS MANUCODIA CHALY BEATA (Pennant). Green Manucode. Le Calybé de la Nouvelle Guinée, Daubent. Pl. Enl. iu. pl. 364.—Montbeill. Hist. Nat. Ois. iii. p. 200 (1775). Oiseau de Paradis verd, Sonn. Voy. Nouv. Guin. p. 164, pl. 99 (1776). Le Chalybé, Forst. Zool. Ind. p. 38 (1781). Paradisea chalybata, Penn. Faunula Indica, in Forst. Zool. Ind. p. 40 (1781). Blue-green Paradise Bird, Lath. Gen. Syn. i. pt. 2, p. 482 (1782). Manucodia chalybea, Boda. Tabl. Pl. Enl. p. 39 (1783).—Sclater, Pr. Journ. Linn. Soc. it. p. 162 (1858).—Gray, Cat. B. New Guin. p. 37, pt. (1859).—Elliot, Mon. Parad. pl. 6 (1873).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Gen. vil. p- 781 (1875).—Pavesi, op. cit. ix. p. 74, fig. 9 (1876).—Gould, B. New Guin. i. pl. 34 (1877).— D’Hamonv. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xi. p. 510 (1886). Paradisea viridis, Scop. Del. Flor. et Faun. Insub. ii. p. 88 (1786).—Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 402 (1788). Paradisca chalybea, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 197 (1790).—Shaw, Gen. Zool. vii. p. 504, pl. 71 (1809). Le Calibé, Audeb. et Vieill. Ois. Dor. ii. p. 24, pl. 10 (1802).—Levaill. Ois. de Paradis, p. 64, pl. 23 (1806). Cracticus chalybeus, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat. v. p. 355, pl. B30. fig. 1 (1816).—Id. Enc. Méth p. 901 (1823).—Steph. in Shaw’s Gen. Zool. xiv. pt. 2, p. 61 (1826). Barita viridis, Cuv. Régn. An. i. p. 340 (1817).—Less. Man. i. p. 140 (1828). Barita chalybea, Wagl. Syst. Av. Paradisea, sp. 2 (1827).—S. Mull. Verhandl. Land- en Volkenk. p. 22 (1839-44).—Temm. Pl. Col. Tab. Meth. p. 9 (1840). Chalybeus paradiseus, Cuv. Régn. An. i. p. 354 (1829). Phonygama chalybeus, Less. Tr. d’Orn. p. 344 (1831). Phonygama chalybea, Swains. Classif. B. ii. p. 264 (1837).—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 173 (1865). Phonygama viridis, Less. Compl. de Buff., Ois. p. 404 (1838).—Gray, Gen. B. ii. p. 303 (1846).—Bp. Consp. Av. i. p- 368 (1850). Manucodia viridis, Gray, Gen. and Subgen. B. p. 65 (1855).—Id. P. Z.S. 1858, p. 194.—Id. Cat. B. New Guin. p. 59, pt. (1859).—Id. P. Z.S. 1861, p. 436.—Id. Hand-l. B. ii. p. 17, no. 6257, pt. (1870).—Sel. P. Z. S. 1876, p. 414.—Musschenbr. Dagboek, pp. 195, 228 (1883).—Rosenb. Mitth. orn. Ver. Wien, 1885, p. 40. Chalybea viridis, Schl. Handl. Dierk. i. p. 334 (1857).—Id. Dierent. Vog. p. 175.—Id. Ned. Tijdschr. Dierk. iv. p. 49 (1871). Chalybeus viridis, Schl. Mus. P.-B., Coraces, p. 122 (1867).—Sundev. Meth. Ay. Tent. p.45 (1872).—Rosenb. Malay. Arch. pp. 370, 558 (1879). Manucodia chalybeata, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Gen. vii. p. 968 (1875), ix. p. 189 (1876), x. p. 156 (1877).—D’ Alb. et Salvad. op. cit. xiv. p. 94 (1879).—Meyer, Abbild. Vog.-Skelet. p. 5, Taf. vii. et vil.¢ (1879).—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, ii. pp. 498, 680 (1881).—Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc., Zool. xvi. p. 442 (1882).—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, iii, p. 551 (1882).—Guillem. P.Z.S. 1885, p. 646.— Meyer, Zeitschr. ges. Orn. il. p. 374 (1885).—Salvad. Ibis, 1886, p. 155.—Finsch & Meyer, t. c. pp. 241, 242.—Salvad. Age. Orn. Pap, i. p- 147 (1890). Manucodia atra, D’Alb. (nec Less.) Sydn. Mail, 1877, p. 248.—Id. Ann. Mus. Gen. x. p. 20 (1877).—Rams. Pr, Linn. Soc. N.S. W. ii. p. 101, pt. 7 (1877). Manucodia chalybata, Sharpe, Cat. B: Brit. Mus. iii, p. 182 (1877).—Eudes-Deslongch. Ann. Mus. d’Hist. Nat. Caen, i. p. 43 (1880). Conswwerine the number of years that this species has been known to science, it is certainly curious that so little has been recorded concerning its manners and habits ; and, as will be seen below, even the exact characters of its plumage and its differences from allied species are still matters of some conjecture. The Green Manucode is principally known from New Guinea, but it cannot be said to be as common as M. atra in any part of the great island. The most perfect specimen which I have yet seen was obtained by Mr. Wallace at Dorey, and beyond that example the British Museum does not possess a single authentic specimen from North-western New Guinea. The species has, however, been extensively procured by recent travellers in the Arfak Mountains, at Andei and Mansinam by Bruijn’s hunters, and at Patat, Warmendi, and Profi by Dr. Beccari. D’Albertis met with it in Hatam, and Bruyjn received specimens from Nappan, while Beccari records the species from Dorei-hum. The bird from Rubi, supposed at first to be the true M. chalybeata, has since been separated from it as MZ. rubiensis by Dr. A. B. Meyer. “Ne 7 MG _ ; Ba) 1 £5," | ‘ro / ay AAARaE ULV. i EO ID em _— “ae ee Solomon Miller obtained the present species at Lobo, and D’Albertis met with it on the Fly River, which supposed to be its most easterly range. I find, however, that since the Birds’ the British Museum has received two specimens which mark a range of this Bird of Paradise in New Guinea. The late up to the present time has been publication of the ‘ Catalogue of still more easterly extension of the known a a : Hon. Hugh Romilly presented to the Museum some few years ago a valuable collection of birds from the S a ski he true JZ chalybeata. A secon i aa Astrolabe Range, and amongst them I find a skin of t a ly d specimen was presented by Sir James Ingham, the bird in question having been procured by his son in Cloudy Bay. The statements as to the occurret been pointed out by Count Salvadori. It is found, however, on the island of Mysol, ice of this bird in Salawati, Waigiou, and the Aru Islands are apparently erroneous, as has where the well-known Dutch traveller, Hoedt, met with it. Dr. Guillemard, who obtained a male specimen in Mysol, has stated his opinion that MZ. atra and M. chalybeata are the same species and that the I confess that at one time I myself entertained the same idea, as there is so much variation las if it must be a species of which JZ. chalybeata was the fully differences between them can be accounted for on the score of age. in the plumage of JZ. atra that it seemec adult bird. As Dr. Guillemard points out, it seems improbable that there should be two such closely allied, yet distinct, species coexisting in the same districts; but, as Count Salvadori has said in his rejoinder, . atra alone has been met with in the Ara Islands, and until the true JZ. chalybeata is found in the latter group it will be impossible to consider the two species identical. At present this statement is unanswerable. The following description of Mr. Wallace’s Dorey specimen is copied from the ‘ Catalogue of Birds’ :— Adult male. "ead purple, the feathers compressed and close-set ; the nape slightly washed with steel- greenish, as also the hinder neck and mantle; back rich purple, the feathers of the interscapulary region rather recurved ; wings and tail rich purple, the inner webs of the feathers blackish, the outer wing-coverts somewhat shaded with steel-black; sides of the face and neck deep green, the feathers compressed and velvety like those of the crown ; those of the chin, throat, and fore neck extending onto the sides of the neck, crinkled and curled and of an oily-green colour ; the rest of the under surface deep purple, the feathers being tipped with this colour, less broadly on the vent and under tail-coverts, a few of the abdominal plumes with a slight greenish reflection ; under wing-coverts black, the outer edge of the wing washed with green: bill and feet black; ‘iris red” (Guillemard). Total length 14:6 inches, culmen 1-65, wing 6°85, tail 5:9, tarsus 1°55. The Plate is reproduced from Mr. Gould’s ‘ Birds of New Guinea,’ and represents an adult bird of the natural size. River, which lat since the hich mark a ‘a. The late rds from the specimen was ly Bay. ire apparently nd of Mysol, M. atra and 1 for on the uch variation vas the fully closely allied, his rejoinder, in the latter inanswerable, fF Birds’ :— ed with steel- ipulary region * wing-coverts ympressed and e sides of the le, the feathers the abdominal wing washed ‘60, wing 6°85, ult bird of the MANUCODIA ORIENTALIS, Saivad. Eastern Manucode. Manucodia chalybeata, part., Finsch & Meyer, Zeitschr. ges. Orn. 1885, p. 374.—lid. Ibis, 1886, p. 241.— Salvadori, Aggiunte Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche, ii. p. 147 (1890).—Id. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. (2) x. p. 821 (1891).—Meyer, Abhandl. k. Mus. Dresd. 1890-91, no. 4, p. 12 (1891).—Id. J. f. O. 1892, p. 260. Manucodia orientalis, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. (2) xvi. p. 103 (1896).—Rothschild, Novit. Zool. i. p. 252 (1896). Accorpine to Count Salvadori, this species differs from the true J. chalybeata in having a more slender bill, and the feathers of the neck have a more pronounced blue gloss, while the feathers above the eye are longer in the adult bird and form two ridges. This form, which Mr. Rothschild regards merely as a race of M. chalybeata, inhabits Eastern New Guinea. It has been found on the coasts near Milne Bay and to the north of Huon Gulf, while Dr. Loria has procured it in several places on the Owen Stanley Mountains, where also Mr. Alfred Meek met with it. The adult specimens from South-eastern New Guinea in the British Museum differ from M. chalybeata from Dorey in having more steel-blue or green on the crown, the latter being decidedly purple in the Dorey bird. According to Dr. Loria, the bill and feet and the iris are dull red. The bird feeds on fruit. Of this and the following species it has not been considered necessary to give figures. MANUCODIA JOBIENSIS, Salvad. Jobi Manucode. Manucodia jobiensis, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. vii. p. 969 (1875), vili. p. 404 (1876), ix. p. 189 (1877). —Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iii. p. 184 (1877).—Elliot, Ibis, 1878, p. 56.—Meyer, Abbild. Vog.-Skel. p. 56, Taf. vii. A (1879).—Eudes-Deslongch. Ann. Mus, Caen, i. p. 45 (1880).—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche, ii. p. 502 (1881).—Musschenbr. Dagboek, pp. 196, 229 (1883).—Rosenb. Mitth. orn. Ver. Wien, 1885, p. 40.—Guillem. P. Z. S. 1885, p. 646.—Meyer, Zeitschr. ges. Orn. 1885, p. 374.—Id. Ibis, 1886, p. 242.—D’Hamony. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1886, p. 510.—Salvad. Aggiunte Orn. Papuasia, ii. p. 147 (1890).—Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xii (1894). Tue Manucode of Jobi Island has been separated by Count Salvadori on the following characters :— The head is of a metallic green, instead of steel-blue as in M. chalybeata. ‘The underparts are shining green, and the fore-neck and upper breast are green, with velvety black transverse bands, while the lower breast and abdomen are of a less lustrous green without the black velvety bands. In AZ chalybeata the fore-neck and upper breast are glossy green with golden spots, and the rest of the under surface is steel-blue, inclining to violet under certain lights, and the feathers of the lower breast have a velvety black transverse band. ‘The interscapular feathers incline more to green, and the black velvety edgings are less conspicuous. The bill is more compressed, and commences at a more acute angle in the middle of the forehead, a difference which is well marked and constant. In the shape of the bill JZ jsodcenss approaches MZ. atra, NS T'S ad AE fi aN iA TAIN Te VEL APA OF \% NT ARNYS GVOVOVEVS <7 V7 Pelt tt ra . always has the culmen broader. In the above-mentioned ae M. THERE is intermediate oe M. chalybeata and WM. atra. No specimen of ce poe is in ee Museum, but I notice considerable variation in the tints of the metallic lustre in a Bemee of M. chaly cata. a Count Salvadori states that Dr. Beccari obtained the species at Surin in Jobi, ane Mr. Bruijn’s hunters Dr. Guillemard met with November, and considered the species to be The bill and fe ss than those given by Count which it near Ansus in et were black in the specimen he obtained, and the iris red, Salvadori, but, as Dr. Meyer remarks, these are at Wonapl. uncommon in th His measurements are le probably attributable to a difference in Sex. | , The trachea is like that of M. chalybeata and the convolution 1s confined to a single loop. It is figured by Dr. Meyer (/.c.). In the female and young male of M. chalybeata the convolution of the trachea is not present. e island. MANUCODIA RUBIENSIS, Meyer. Rubi Manucode. Manucodia rubiensis, Meyer, Zeitschr. ges, Orn. ii. p. 374 (1886), iii. p. 36 (1886).—Id. Ibis, 1886, p. 242.— D’Hamony. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1886, p. 510.—Salvad. Aggiunte Orn. Papuasia, ii. p. 147 (1890).—Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xili (1894). Tuis species, of which I have not seen a specimen, has been described by Dr. A. B. Meyer. It is said to be similar to J. chalybeata, but is much smaller. Dr. Meyer writes :—‘‘ From Bune the most southern point of the Bay of Geelvink, which is very remarkable in its ornithology, two examples lie before me, which are distinguished by their small size from those of other localities. | Moreover, the under surface of the neck seems to be green instead of blue, and the curling of the feathers is only very slightly developed. The bill is but little stronger than in Phonygama keraudrent.” Laglaize has also procured this species at Kafu. 5 HATTA 6 2 3 3 » 8 ie MANUCODIA ATRA (fZess.), Glossy-mantled Manucode. Barita viridis, var., Less. Man. d’Orn. i. p. 140 (1828). Phonygama ater, Less. Voy. Coq., Zool. i. pt. 2, p. 638 (1838).—Id. Traité d’Orn. p. 344 (1831).—Id. Compl. Buff., Ois. p. 404 (1838).—Gray, Gen. B. ii. p. 303 (1846). Phonygama atra, Bp. Consp. Av. i. p. 368 (1850).—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 173 (1865). Phonygama viridis (nec Scop.), Wall. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (2) xx. p. 476 (1857).—Rosenb. Nat. Tijdschr. Nederl. Ind. xxv. p. 235 (1863).—Id. J. f. O. 1864, p. 121. Manucodia atra, Scl. Journ. Linn. Soc. ii. p. 162 (1858).—Gray, P. Z. S. 1858, p. 194.—Id. Cat. B. New Guin. pp. 37, 59 (1859).—Id. P. Z.S. 1859, p. 158, 1861, p. 436.—Id. Hand-l. B. ii. p. 17, no. 6260 (1870). —Elliot, Monogr. Parad. pl. 7 (1873).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genoy. vii. p. 781 (1875).—Id. & D’Albert. tom. cit. p. 828 (1875).—Pelz. Verh. zool.-bot. Gesellsch. Wien, 1876, p. 719.—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. ix. pp. 40, 189 (1876), x. p. 156 (1877).—Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soe. xiii. pp. 317, 500 (1877).—Id. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. i. p. 183 (1877).—Salvad. P. Z.S. 1878, p. 98.— Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. 8. Wales, ili. p. 101 (1878), p. 265 (1879), iv. p. 97 (1879).— D’Albert. Nuova Guinea, pp. 582, 584, 587 (1880).—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche, ii. p. 504 (1881).—Id. Voy. ‘ Challenger,’ ii. Birds, p. 82 (1881).—Forbes, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 347.—Eudes- Deslongch. Ann. Mus. Caen, i. p. 45 (1880).—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, iii. App. p. 551 (1882).— Musschenbr. Dagboek, pp. 126, 229 (1883).—Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, viii. p. 25 (1883).—Finsch, Vog. der Siidsee, p. 28 (1884).—Meyer, Zeitsch. ges. Orn. i. p. 293 (1884).— Nehrk. J. f. O. 1885, p. 34.—Rosenb. Mitth. orn. Ver. Wien, 1885, p. 40.—Guillem. P. Z.S. 1885, p- 646.—Meyer, Zeitschr. ges. Orn. 1885, p. 374.—Id. Ibis, 1886, p. 342.—D’Hamony. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1886, p. 510.—Salvad. Aggiunte Orn. Papuasia, il. p. 148 (1890).—Id. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. (2) ix. p. 584 (1890).—Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xiv (1894).—Madarasz, Aquila, i. p. 91 (1894).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. (2) xvi. p. 103 (1896).—Reichen. J. f. O. 1897, p. 222. Manucodia viridis, pt., Gray, P. Z.S. 1858, p. 194, 1861, p. 436.—Id. Hand-l. B. ii. p. 17, no. 6257 (1870). Manucodia chalybea, pt., Gray, Cat. B. New Guinea, p. 37 (1859).—Sclater, P. Z.S. 1881, p. 450. Chalybeus ater, Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, p. 121 (1867).—Rosenb. Malay. Arch. pp. 370, 395, 558 (1879). Chalybeus viridis (nec Scop.), Rosenb. Reis naar Zuidoostereil. p. 47 (1867). In my third volume of the ‘Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum’ [ separated Manucodia atra from M. chalybeata, on the strength of the different colour of the crinkled feathers of the throat and 5 fore-neck, these being oily-green in the last-named species, and steel-black with an edging of velvety- ’ § § ] sing J black in 4. atra. A far better definition of the distinctive characters of the two species is given by Count Salvadori in his ‘ Ornitologia della Papuasia,’ where he separates JZ. atra from JZ. chalybeata Wy S | I on account of the smooth metallic feathering of the interscapulary region, whereas in JZ, chalybeata the feathers of this portion of the back have velvety-black transverse bands. I find that this difference holds good throughout the series in the British Museum, and even immature birds of both species can be recognized by these characters. Manucodia atra Nas a somewhat extended distribution in the Papuan Sub-region, being found ] 8 S throughout the greater part of New Guinea, as well as in the adjacent Aru Islands, Mysol, Waigiou 5S dS ] J ° c)) ’ Ghemien, Batanta, and Salawati. Its range in New Guinea includes the Arfak district in the north- west, as well as the Fly River and Port Moresby districts in the south, and it also extends to German New Guinea. Besides being the most common species of the genus, it is found at a lower altitude than the others. § I S ) Lesson states that its habits resemble those of Crows, and that it feeds on fruit on the large trees. Dr. A. R. Wallace, who observed it on the Aru Islands, writes :—‘‘ It is a very powerful and active bird; its legs are particularly strong, and it clings suspended to the smaller branches, while devouring the fruits on which alone it appears to feed.” D’Albertis states that it lives on fruits, and especially on fies, while Von Rosenberg found it feeding on insects and worms. In South-eastern New Guinea the 5s 5 5S species is found in small troops and is very common in the neighbourhood of Port Moresby, and on n ae ae ae “#8 a SA A EL EE Sd) A! dl Ni a. 5 {(; about twelve miles ‘nland, according to Dr. E. P. Ramsay, who says that its cr cama keraudrem and P. gould, y tlike sound of Phonys especially on the under surface of the body, is noteworthy in a range, some examples being much greener the Laloke River, has not the trumpe The difference in metallic tint, lifferent portions of the bird’s series of specimens from ¢ the Aru Islands are larger than those from New others, while the specimens from so remarks on the lighter D’Albertis first described the trachea of this species as below than Guinea. Count Salvadori al obtained in Salawati and Batanta. Signor shaped like the letter S, ’ Ter See ae iene : ae : D’Albertis’s observations and described and figured the trachea in the coloration and larger size of the individuals having only one coil, resting in the depression of the furcula. The late Mr. W. A. Forbes confirmed of the Zoological Society for 1882. lying on the ‘nter-clavicular air-cell, between the rami of the furcula 5 . F cs Mr. Forbes believed that in the female the trachea « Proceedings’ It is convoluted, but only to a small extent merely forming a short loop g much as in many specimens of the genus Craz. would be quite simple. The following description is adapted from Birds’ :— Adult male. Uead all round covered purple reflections; the neck all round glistening with metallic ends; general colour light, with metallic reflections of greenish or purple ; under certain lights, the quills externally glossed with greenish ; under surface of body glossy steel- black with purplish or greenish reflections ; under ee ‘hill and feet black; iris brilliant red” (CHE SEe kt, Guillemard). Total length 16 inches, culmen 1:6 wing 7°2, tail 6:9, tarsus 1°95. Adult female. Similar to the male, but smaller; ‘iris dull orange” CF. H. H, Guillemard). Total length 16 inches, culmen 0:45, wing 7, tail 6°8, tarsus 1e7e The figure in the Plate represents an adult male, drawn from a Dorei specimen in the British that given In my third volume of the ‘Catalogue of with compressed velvety plumes, steel-creen without any greenish like the head, the plumes slightly recurved and of upper surface steel-black, shaded, according to the wings and tail purple, with steel-black shades wing- and tail-coverts uniform with the breast; Museum. I 5 ei nn 3 y Ss a SS s Q fone as) N iii ans HUiilll MANUCODIA COMRIL, Seater. Curl-crested Manucode. Manucodia comrii, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, p. 459, pl. xlii—Id. Ibis, 1876, p. 364.—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Gen. ix. p. 191 (1876).—Sclater, P. Z.S. 1877, p. 43.—Gould, B. New Guin. i. pl. 33 (1877).—Ramsay, Proce. Linn. Soe. N. S. W. iv. p. 469 (1879).—Eudes-Deslongch. Ann. Mus. d’Hist. Nat. Caen, i. p. 47 (1880).— Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, ii. p. 491 (1881).—Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc., Zool. xvi. p. 442 (1882).— Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, iii. p. 551 (1882).—Musschenbr. Dagboek, pp. 196, 230 (1883).—Rosenb. MT. orn. Ver. Wien, 1885, p. 40.—D’Hamony. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xi. p. 510 (1886).—Tristr. Ibis, 1889, p. 554.—Salvad. Agg. Orn. Papuasia, ii. p. 147 (1890).—Id. Ann. Mus. Gen. (2) x. p. 239 (1891).—Id. Agg. Orn. Papuasia, ili. p. 239 (1891).—North, Rec. Austr. Mus. il. p. 32, pl, vil. (1892).— Meyer, Abhandl. k. zool. Mus. Dresden, 1892-93, no. 3, p. 15 (1893). Tus is the largest species of the Manucodes, and was discovered by Dr. Comrie in Huon Gulf, in South- eastern New Guinea, during the cruise of H.M.S. ‘Basilisk.’ Mr. Geisler also saw the species in this locality, but did not manage to procure a specimen. Dr. Meyer suggests that a comparison between the birds from New Guinea and D’Entrecasteaux Island should be instituted. In the British Museum are specimens from both the above-named localities, as well as from Normanby Island, and J cannot perceive the least difference between them, in size or colour. Mr. A. Goldie procured several specimens on Fergusson or D’Entre- casteaux Island, and the species has been met with in the same locality by Dr. Loria, who also procured it on Goodenough Island. The following is Dr. Sclater’s original account of the species :— ‘Dr. Comrie has placed in my hands for determination some bird-skins collected by him while serving as medical officer in H.M.S. ‘ Basilisk’ during its recent survey of the south-east coast of New Guinea under the command of Captain Moresby. The collection contains thirteen skins, belonging to eleven species, of which one is quite new to science, and two others are only known from single specimens.” “This Manucodia,’ Dr. Sclater continues, ‘‘ may be regarded as by far the finest and largest species of the genus yet discovered. It is immediately distinguishable from JZ. chalybeta and M. atra by its much larger size and longer bill, which is deeply suleated at the nostrils. The characteristic curling of the feathers is extended to a greater degree, and pervades the whole of the head and neck. The feathers of the abdomen are black at the base, broadly margined with purple. Dr. Comrie obtained a single specimen of this fine bird in May 1874 in Huon Gulf. It was shot flying amongst the trees in the scrubby forest, about a quarter of a mile from the coast.” The egg of this species is described and figured by Mr. A. J. North in the ‘Records’ of the Australian Museum for 1892. The photographic illustration which accompanies Mr. North’s paper represents an egg of the type of those of the Birds of Paradise with which we have recently been made familiar. Mr. North gives the following account of this interesting discovery :—‘« The Trustees of the Australian Mu- seum have lately received from the Rev. R. H. Rickard the egg of Manucodia comri, taken by him on Fergusson Island, off the south-east coast of New Guinea, in July 1891. The Rev. Mr. Rickard informs me that from the 20th of June to the 20th of July he had at various times engaged, in company with his black boy, in shooting Manucodes on this island, but rarely sawa female bird. Early in July he found a nest of this species in the lower branches of a bread-fruit tree at a height of twenty-five feet from the ground. ‘The female was on the nest, which was an open, loosely-made structure of vinelets and twigs, placed at the extremity of the branch. Having secured the bird, he found that she was in very indifferent plumage, as though she had been sitting for a long time, and the eggs, two in number, were chipped and just upon the point of hatching. The egg is an elongate ovoid in form, and is of a warm isabelline ground-colour, with purplish dots, blotches, and bold longitudinal streaks, uniformly dispersed over the surface of the shell, intermingled with similar super- imposed markings of purplish grey. Length 1-60 inch x 1:13 inch.” The following is the description of the type specimen, from Huon Gulf:— Adult. Above velvety black, the feathers slightly recurved at the ends, with a subterminal mark of metallic green ; scapulars metallic steel-green, edged with velvety black; lesser and median wing-coverts steel- green, shot with purple, with a narrow fringe of velvety black ; greater coverts, primary-coverts, and quills wa RE EE IAL EI IS i ME A SO ae) a LN) \ 7 NaN Prete - shot with steel-blue at the end of the secondaries and especially on the innermost of ¢l : st of these metallic purple, clossed with steel-blue near the ends and slightly glossed with purple externall 2 xternally . quills ; primaries black, ¢ vers metallic purple, the two centre ones recurved and twisted over, wi s , with the webs d s decomposed - posed ; tail-featl crown of head and neck cove certain lights ; the crown elossed with purplish and steel-blue and formed j rmed into red with frizzled plumes ; the lores, sides of face, and cheeks velvety black y black, with a green gloss under a ridge over the eye ; hind neck, sides of neck, and throat metallic oily-green, the feathers very cl and velvety to the touch; the fore neck and chest with longer and more thick-set plumes of a ae what steel-green in their gloss, and glossed with purple on the chest ; remainder of ee ae body bronzy purple, with a distinct subterminal bar of velvety black on each feather; lower i Ne _ thighs glossy steel-green, as also the under wing-coverts ; under tail-coverts pur re bill oa am ae Total length 17°5 inches, culmen 2°4, wing 9°5, tail 7, tarsus le Oa [he Plate represents an adult bird of the full size, drawn from the original specimen, now in the British s Museum. uuern Bros.ump- Mu CIM". oe ee Ree SSS eer ry tyro JOO! Minter ) 08 np LYCOCORAX PYRRHOPTERUS (Bp). Brown-winged Paradise-Crow. Corvus pyrrhopterus, Bp. Consp. Av. i. p. 384 (1850, ex Temm. MSS. in Mus, Lugd.). Lycocorax pyrrhopterus, Bp. Comptes Rendus, xxxvii. p. 829 (1853).—Id. No tes Coll. Delattre, p.7, note (1854 ).— Gray, P. Z. S. 1860, p. 355.—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 173 (1865).—Bernst. Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk. ii. p. 372 (1865).—Schl. op. cit. ili. p. 191 (1866).—Id. Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, p. 131 (1867).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genov. vii. p. 781 (1875).—Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. x. p. 185 (1877 ).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genov. xvi. p. 198 (1880).—Eudes-Deslongchamps, Ann. Mus. d’Hist. Nat. Caen, i. p. 46 (1880).—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, ii. p. 494 (1881).—D’ Hamonv. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1886, p. 510.— Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, Age. ii. p. 146 (1890). Pica pyrrhoptera, Schl. Bijdr. tot de Dierk. fol. pt. viii. p. 1, pl. i. (1858). Manucodia pyrrhopterus, Gray, Hand-l. B. ii. p. 17, no. 6261 (1870).—Musschenbr. Dagboek, pp. 197, 230 (1883).— Rosenb. MT. orn. Ver. Wien, 1885, p. 40. Tue three species of Lycocorax, which are structurally Birds of Paradise, so closely resemble the ordinary Crows in appearance that they may naturally be placed at the end of the family Paradisiide, the members of which are remarkable for the brilliancy and fantastic arrangement of their colouring. In this position they are placed by Count Salvadori in his ‘ Ornitologia della Papuasia.’ The present species is apparently confined to the islands of Batchian and Halmahéra, and it is easily recognized by the colour of the quills, which is reddish on the outer aspect of the primaries, the secondaries being brown. The general colour of the plumage is black, with very slight greenish reflections under certain lights. Nothing seems as yet to have been recorded regarding the habits of this species. Adult female. General colour above and below black, with a slight wash of dull oily green; tail black, with an almost imperceptible wash of green on the outer web of some of the feathers; least wing-coverts resembling the back; the rest of the wing brown, becoming paler and more reddish on the outer primaries, the lower surface of the quills inclining to ashy brown; bill and feet black. Total length 15°5 inches, culmen 1°75, wing 7:1, tail 671, tarsus 1:75. According to Count Salvadori, there is no apparent difference in the colour of the sexes. The description and figure are taken from specimens in the British Museum. The latter represents an adult bird of the natural size. ¥ i a Q § 5 9 > 5 a S W. Hert del. et) lith 5 IOTUUTYTONAGITH YULIYAN 2 7 "a | omy nq ee on CRo x oMete III om 77 mH} - LYCOCORAX OBIENSIS, Bernst. Obi Paradise-Crow. Lycocorax obiensis, Bernst. Journ. fiir Orn, 1864, p. 410.—Id. Neder]. Tijdschr. Dierk. ii. p. 350 (1865).—Schl. op. cit. ili. p. 192 (1866).—Id. Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, p. 132 (1867).—Sharpe, Cat. Birds in Brit. Mus. iii. p. 185 (1877).—Eudes-Deslongchamps, Ann. Mus. d’Hist. Nat. Caen, i. p- 47 (1880).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xvi. p. 199 (1880).—Id. Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche, ii. p- 495 (1881).—Guillemard, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1885, p. 573.—D’Hamonv. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, i. p. 510 (1886 ).—Sharpe in Gould’s B. New Guinea, i. pl. 36 (1888).—Salvad. Age. Orn. Papuasia, ii. p. 146 (1890). Manucodia obiensis, Gray, Hand-l. B. ii. p. 17, no. 6263 (1870).—Musschenbr. Dagboek, pp. 193, 230 (1883).— Rosenb. Mitth. orn. Ver. Wien, 1885, p- 40. Tue present species occurs in the islands of Obi Major and Obi Lattvo, in the Moluccas, where it was discovered by the late Dr. Bernstein, who described the species. It has a distinct greenish wash on the upper surface, and this character distinguishes it from its two allies Lycocorax pyrrhopterus, from Batchain and Gilolo, and Z. morotensis, from Morotai or Morty Island. The black secondary quills also distin- guishes the species from ZL. pyrrhopterus, which has brown secondaries, and the specimen in the British Museum justified me in separating it from ZL. morofensis, on account of the white bases to the quills of the latter. Count Salvadori likewise adopted this difference, these characters of the wing, to the separation of the two species ; but when Dr. Guillemard visited the Obi Islands in 1884, he obtained five specimens of L. obiensis, and of these the four males had the inner web of the primaries white at the base, so that this distinction from Z. morotensis is not upheld. Dr. Bernstein states that he met with the species both in Obi Major and Obi Lattoo, but he found it, like Z. morotensis, a difficult bird to procure, as its home is in the thick forest. He describes the note as resembling the word ‘ whunk.” The following description of an adult bird is copied from the British Museum ‘ Catalogue of Birds,’ and is taken from a specimen in that institution :— **General colour above and below of a dull rifle-green, somewhat glistening ; tail black, the feathers slightly washed with green on the outer web; quills blackish brown, paler towards the base on the inner web, the least wing-coverts edged with dull green like the scapulars, the rest of the coverts and secondaries slightly washed with green on the outer web, the primaries much paler brown; ‘bill and feet black ; iris crimson’ (Guillemard). Total length 13°5 inches, culmen 1-95, wing 7°75, tail 6°75, tarsus 1-9.” A female bird obtained by Dr. Guillemard was probably immature, as it was duller in colour and had the wings lighter brown, the primaries buff, and the iris brown instead of crimson. The Plate is reproduced from Mr. Gould’s ‘ Birds of New Guinea,’ and the figure represents an adult bird of about the size of life, drawn from one of Dr. Guillemard’s specimens. ed EL Pa Pe N/R VA) Li >) y¢ {) PS a Mante™ Pres 3 Bernstein ‘ ee CH Uther - Hart Manterr 2" i LYCOCORAX MOROTENSIS, Bernstein. Morty Island Paradise-Crow. Lycocorax morotensis, Bernst. MSS.—Schlegel, Ibis, 1863, p. 119.—Bernst. J. f. O. 1864, p. 408.—Finsch, Neu- Guinea, p. 173 (1865).—Schlegel, Ned. Tijdschr. Dierk. iii. p. 191 (1866).—Id. Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, p. 182 (1867).—Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. iii. p. 186 (1877).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genov. Xvi. p- 199 (1880).—Id. Orn. Papuasia, ii. p. 496 (1881).—Eudes-Deslongch. Ann. Mus. d’ Hist. Nat. Caen, 1. p. 47 (1880).—D’Hamony. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1886, p. 510.—Salvad. Agg. Orn. Papuasia, il. p. 147 (1890).—Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv, p. xiv (1894). Manucodia mortiensis, Gray, Hand-l. B. ii. p. 17, no. 6262 (1870). Manucodia morotensis, Musschenbr. Dagboek, pp. 197, 230 (1883). Manucodia morotensa, Rosenb. Mitth. orn. Ver. Wien, 1885, p. 40. Tue present species represents in the island of Morotai, or Morty Island, the Lycocorax pyrrhopterus of Batchian and Gilolo, and the Z. odiensis of the Obi group. The restriction of this peculiar genus to these small groups of islands in the Moluccas is one of the interesting facts connected with the distribution of the Birds of Paradise. L. morotensis is also found in the small island of Rau. It is easily distinguished from its two allies by the white base to the inner web of the primaries. The species was discovered in Morotai by the late Dr. Bernstein, who gave the following account of it :— «Like the other species of the genus, it inhabits the thick woods and is rarely seen outside of them. It generally lives in trees of moderate height, especially where they stand close together, in the tops of which it hides closely, so that, though often heard, it is a very difficult bird to see. It is most easily observed, if the hunter places himself in the early morning near some tree on the fruit of which the bird comes to feed. But even then the greatest attention must be maintained, as the bird does not come flying in hike a Pigeon, but glides quietly from the top of one tree to the summit of another, lights for an instant on some fruit-bearing bough, is seen for a second on the outer branches, and then dives into the thickest of the foliage. In all its ways of life there is very little Crow-like, and it seems to feed exclusively on the fruit of trees. Its cry is a short, interrupted, monotonous ‘ wuhk’ or ‘wunk,’ which is especially heard in the morning and evening. My hunters fancied that the note had some similarity to the ringing bark of a dog, and called the bird ‘ Burung andjing,’ or ‘ Dog-bird.’ ee Adult. General colour black above and below, the wings brown, the primaries lighter than the secondaries, and having the base of the inner web conspicuously white ; tail black, shaded with dull green on the outer web; bill and feet black. Total length 17 inches, culmen 2, wing 8°4, tail 7, tarsus 2. The description is taken from a specimen in the British Museum, and the figure in the Plate has been drawn from the same bird. = AL i SL < FA > : PBS ASZZ Wii CXL — GD ears eet Fi rer Awe Se LS ILILI ofho xe te a ee rive ITTY NIKINTZ . S IOI as See i¥¥ VY: ¥ I A\ Vaaer Bree ATA. Less. a Nad 0 = y < AZ Cry | <—J {Ly g S aS ¢ PARADIGALLA CARUNCULATA, Less. Wattled Bird of Paradise. Paradigalla carunculata, Less. Ois. Parad. p. 242 (1835).—Id. Rev. Zool. 1840, p. 1.—Bp. Consp. i. p. 414 (1850).— Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1857, p. 6.—Id. Proc. Linn. Soe. ii. p. 164 (1858).—Wallace, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1862, p. 160.—Rosenb. Journ. fiir Orn. 1864, p. 131.—Wallace, Malay Arch. i, pp. 257, 258 (1869).— Elliot, Monogr. Parad. pl. 17 (1873).—Beccari, Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. vu. p. 711 (1875).—Salvad. tom. cit. pp. 784, 899, ix. p. 190 (1876).—Sclater, Ibis, 1876, p. 250.—Sharpe, Cat. Birds in Brit. Mus. iu. p- 166 (1877).—Gould, Birds of New Guinea, i. p. 16 (1878).—Eudes-Deslongchamps, Ann. Mus. d’Hist. Nat. Caen, i. p. 20 (1880).—Salvad. Orn. della Papuasia, etc. i. p. 530 (1881).—Guillemard, Pore. Zool. Soc. 1885, p. 151.—D’Hamonv, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xi. p. 509 (1886).—Salvad. Agg. Orn. Pap. ii. p. 151 (1890).—Wallace, Malay Arch. 2nd ed. pp. 435, 437 (1890). Astrapia carunculata, Eydoux et Souleyet, Voy. ‘ Bonite,’ Zool. i. p. 83, Atlas, Ois. pl. 4 (1841).—Gray, Gen. B. ii. p. 326 (1846).—Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, p. 194.—Id. List B. New Guinea, pp. 37, 59 (1859).—Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, p. 436.—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 173 (1885).—Rosenb. Malay. Arch. p. 558 (1879).—Musschenbr. Dagboek, pp. 194, 227 (1883).—Rosenb. Mitth. orn. Ver. Wien, 1885, p. 40. Paradisea carunculata, Schlegel, Journ. fir Orn. 1861, p. 386. Ar first sight there is nothing very attractive in the appearance of this Bird of Paradise, which might be considered more curious than striking to look at. On a closer examination, however, it will be found that it is clothed in velvety plumage of a beautiful texture, while its wattles, of three colours, are unique among the family of Paradise-birds. In my ‘ Catalogue of Birds’ Ihave placed the genus Paradigalla in close proximity to Astrapia, and in this arrangement Count Salvadori concurs in the main, but he also points out that in many of its characters it also approaches Parotia and Lophorhina. (t has the velvety plumage of both the latter genera, and has the first two primaries pointed, as in Lophorhina. In Parotia these quills are curiously notched at the ends, and the secondaries are as long as the primaries, while the tail is much graduated, the centre feathers being the longest. In all these characters Paradigalla assimilates to Parotia, but it has the two centre tail-feathers very much lengthened and pointed, considerably exceeding the other tail-feathers in length. The early history of the species has been given in detail by Count Salvadori. It was first named by Lesson in 1835, in the Synonymic Index to his ‘Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux de Paradis ;’ but the description is not very complete, and he does not say whence he described the specimen or in whose collection the bird was. It may probably have been the one mentioned by him in 1840 as being in the collection of Dr. Abeille of Bordeaux. In 1841 Messrs. Eydoux and Souleyet, the Naturalists attached to the ‘ Bonite,’ described the present bird as Paradigalla caronculata, but made no allusion to Lesson’s having named the species. During the voyage of the ‘ Bonite’ they procured two mutilated specimens in New Guinea, one of which appears to have ultimately gone to Philadelphia. For many years these imperfect skins remained the only examples known in Museums, and even Baron von Rosenberg did not succeed in obtaining the species in perfect condition. The first examples of complete skins of the Paradigalla were obtained by Dr. A. B. Meyer, and during recent years many have been procured by Dr. Beccari and Mr. Bruijn’s hunters. Dr. Beceari has given the following note on his experience of the present species :— « As to Paradigalla, I shot one from my hut, whilst it was eating the small fleshy fruits of an Utica. It likes to sit on the tops of dead and leafless trees, like the Mino dumonti. ‘The finest ornaments of this bird are the wattles, which in the dried skin lose all their beauty. ‘The upper ones, which are attached one on each side of the forehead, are of a yellowish-green colour; those at the base of the lower mandible are blue, and have a small patch of orange-red beneath. The Arfaks call the Paradigalla ‘ Happoa.’” Dr. Guillemard states that M. Laglaize told him that the colour of the caruncles was as. follows :— The upper caruncle is orange, the middle one bright leaf-green, and the lower one red. It will be noticed that these colours are somewhat different from those given by Dr. Beccari; but as the latter gentleman made his observations on specimens killed by himself, there can be no doubt as to their accuracy. iF yet LN x Ana” | | . e : . es ° SC Malente o Sole 2 ae The following description of the male is copied from my Savalloe ns of Birds ’: black above and below, a little browner on the under Adult. male. General colour velvety ee Surface ; . : » inner § aries W yurplish gloss under certé : hee wings and tail black, the 1nnet secondaries with a purplish gloss under certain lights; head glossed vith metallic steel-green ; forehead, lores, and base of lower mandible bare; over each nostril a small tuft of black feathers ; on each side of the base of the bill an erect wattled skin; round the even ring of black plumes 5 space below and behind the eye bare: bill and legs black; * iris red” (Guillenard) “upper wattles, which are attached one on each side of the forehead, of a yellowish-green colour: those at the base of the lower mandible blue, haying a small patch of orange underneath ” (Becca), Total length 11:2 inches, culmen 0°55, wing 6°15, tail 4°85, tarsus 1:9. Adult female. Similar to the male, but smaller, Count Salvadori says that it is deep black, with an appearance of dull green on the crown and occiput, the wings and tail with scarcely any velvety appearance, and with a dull purplish shade under certain lights. The figures in the Plate represent adult birds of the size of life. They are reproduced from Mr. Gould’s ‘Birds of New Guinea.’ F J ALL eo 27avora tO OO Of . LBLVENON a ‘4 ‘ { 4 ( ( < { 4 1 { Ye 1" iAB i ese P FN t eyvayes? ( 7 STANT . AA | | e TaN VOVOVOVG. +y \/ \/2 Fi i a a cn cn Ve e BI A j ‘7 iJ e' LC) 4 Pa ' , nn } t , MACGREGORIA PULCHRA, Delis. 4.0. Keulemans & WHat del.ect lith og. UMP Mintern Bre: v MAQLNALCTUSATOGOONATTA GNA (HA Minter™ Bros unp TJ a Vi MACGREGORIA PULCHRA, De Vis. Orange-wattled Bird of Paradise. Maria macgregoria, Gigl. Boll. Soc. Geogr. Ital. p. 26 (1897: descr. nulla). Macgregoria pulchra, De Vis, Ibis, 1897, p. 251, pl. vi. Tus species was discovered by Sir William MacGregor on Mount, Scratchley, in British New Guinea, at a height of about 12,000 feet. Mr. De Vis writes :—‘“ Three examples of this bird, all (presumably) males, were obtained by Sir W. MacGregor, in May 1896, during his journey across British New Guinea from Mambare to the Vanapa River. Mr. A. Giulianetti, his Excellency’s collector, notes that ‘the species is pretty common all over the Scratchley Range up to about 12,600 feet elevation.” Mr. De Vis has forwarded to England one of the specimens procured by Sir W. MacGregor during the above-mentioned expedition, This specimen has been figured in the ‘This’ for 1897, and has been presented to the British Museum. Dr. Sclater has called attention to the fact that Professor Giglioli (¢. ¢.) is responsible for the publication of the name of Maria macgregoria—a name which appears to have been mentioned in a private letter addressed to Professor Giglioli by Sir W. MacGregor. As Dr. Sclater remarks: ‘‘ Unfortunately the generic term ‘ Maria’ has been already employed in Zoology (Bigot, Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1859, p 311: Diptera).” The genus Macgregoria is undoubtedly closely allied to Paradigalla, but the different position of the fleshy wattles on the sides of the face renders further comparison unnecessary. Adult male. General colour above and below black, with scarcely any purplish gloss, and with a large bare orange wattle covering the whole of the ear-coverts and the region of the eye; primaries orange-buff with black tips: iris red. Total length 13 inches, culmen 1:3, wing 7°4, tail 5°6, tarsus 2°4. ca v ‘ ba) A . » \ NN uN N WN pp sife @ Ip Sift e 1 Oiseau 4 mrad as Golden bre Paradisea : P p | Paradisea P A l Le Sifild, ( Parotia sea ( I | I Parotia au I Parotia sei rs - = a a ees ( Lophorhin Parotia se Tas ig a s| having bee On this Fre but Count Courage to reason T fo] An exce his ‘Ornit Guinea by Count Saly hist regen) PENNIS (Bodd). 1 Pi % | INAS DA WD myer TA < TONG ty, PARO TIA W. Hart del ef lith Virtern. Bre TENT TH ATITT | 2} 3| '4 2 ngs. UMP fintar Pros. a" PAROTIA SEXPENNIS (boa), Six-plumed Bird of Paradise. Le Sifilet de la Nouvelle Guinée, D’Aubent. Pl. Enl. pl. 633. Le Sifilet, ma aticode a ee Montbeill. Hist. Nat. Ois. iii. p. 198 (1774).—Forst., in Forrest, Voy. Molugq. et 4 la Nouv. Guin. p. 163 (1780).—Id. Ind. Zool. p. 38 (1781). Ey Onset de Paradis a gorge dorée, Sonnerat, Voy. Nouv. Guin. p, 158, pl. 97 (1776). Paradisea sefilata, eee Faunula Indica, in Forst. Zool. Ind. p. 40 (1781: ex D’Aubent.). Golden-breasted a of Paradise, Lath. Gen, Syn. ii. p. 481 (1782).—Id. Gen. Hist. B. iii. p. 194, pl. xlvii. 822 Paradisea sexpennis, Bodd, Tabl. Pl. Enl. p. 38 (1783).—Gray, Gen. B. ii. p. 322 (1847).—Id. P. Z.S. 1858, p- 194.—Id. Cat. B. New Guinea, pp. 36, 59 (1859).—Id. P. Z. S. 1861, p. 436.—Schl. J. f. O. 1861, p- 385.—Id. Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, p. 92 (1867).—Id. Dierent. p. 173, cum fig. (c. 1870).—Id. Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk. iv. pp. 49, 50 (1871).—Gray, Hand-l. B. ii. p. 16, no. 6253 (1870).—Rosenb. Reist. naar Geelvinkb. p. 116 (1875).—Id. Malay. Archip. p. 557 (1879).—Musschenbr. Dagboek, pp. 192, 225 (1883).—Rosenb. Mitth. orn. Ver. Wien, 1885, p. 40. Paradisea aurea, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 402 (1788).—Bechst. Kurze Uebers. p. 133 (1811).—Cuv. Régn. Anim, i. p. 404 (1817).—Dumont, Dict. Sc. Nat. xxxvii. p. 511 (1825).—Cuv. Régn. Anim. 2nd ed. i. p. 427 (1829).—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 173 (1865). Paradisea sewsetacea, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 196 (1790).—Daud. Orn. ii. p. 276 (1800).—Shaw, Gen. Zool. Vil. pt. 2, p. 496, pl. 66 (1809).—Ranz. Elem. Zool. iii. part 4, p. 77, tab. xili. fig. 2 (1822).—Wagl. Syst. Av., Paradisea, sp. 6 (1827).—Less. Man. d’Orn. i. p. 394 (1828).—Wallace, P. Z. S. 1862, pp. 154, Nove Le Sifilet, Vieill. Ois. Dor. ii. Ois. Parad. p. 18, pl. 6 (1802).—Le Vaill. Ois. Parad. i. pls. 12, 13, Com lluCnO cya (1806).—Less. Voy. Coq., Zool. i. pt. 2, p. 654 (1828). Parotia sexsctacea, Vieill. N. Dict. d’Hist. Nat. xxxi. p. 160 (1819).—Id. Enc. Méth. ii. p. 909, pl. 144. fig. 1 (1822).—Id. Gal. Ois. i. p. 148, pl. 97 (1825).—Less. Traité d’Orn. p. 337 (1831).—Id. Ilustr. Zool. pl. iv. (1831).—Id. Ois. Parad., Syn. p. 10, Hist. Nat. p. 172, pls. x., xi. (d ad.), xi. bis (¢juv.), xi. (2 ) (1831).—Swains. Class. B. ii. p. 332 (1837).—Less. Compl. de Buff., Ois. p. 462 (1838).—Wall. P. Z.S. 1862, pp. 159, 160.—Rosenb. Nat. Tijdschr. Nederl. Ind. xxv. p. 247 (1863).—Id. J. f. 0. 1864, p- 131. Parotia aurea, Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool. xiv. p. 75 (1826).—Gray, List Gen. B. p. 39 (1840).—Id. ibid. 2nd ed. p- 52 (1841).—Bp. Consp. Av. i. p. 414 (1850).—Gray, List of Gen, & Subgen. p. 65 (1855).— Wall. Ibis, 1861, p. 287. Parotia sewpennis, Scl. Journ. Linn. Soe. ii. p. 163 (1858).—Wall. Malay Archip. ii. pp. 408 (cum fig.), 419 (1869).—Elliot, Monogr. Parad., Introd. p. xix, pl. 10 (1873).—D’ Alb. P. Z. S. 1873, p. 557.—Scl. t. ¢. p. 697.—Beccari, Ann. Mus. Gen. vil. p. 712 (1875).—Salvad. t. c. pp. 782, 899.—Gould, B. New Guinea, i. pl. 25 (1875).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Gen. ix. p. 190 (1876), x. p. 155 (1877).—D’Alb. Nuova Guinea, pp. 70, 72, cum tab., & p. 582 (1880).—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, ete. i. p. 515 @USsi0) ee Guillem. P. Z.S. 1885, p.647.—D’Hamonv. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xi. p. 510 (1886).—Salvad. Age. Orn. Papuasia, etc. ii. p. 149 (1890).—Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xiii (1894). Lophorhina seepennis, Sundev. Meth, Nat. Ay. Disp. Tent. p. 45 (1872). Parotia sefilata, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. iii. p. 177 (1877).—Eudes-Deslongeh. Ann. Mus. d’Hist. Nat. Caen, p. 35 (1880). Tuis is a species of Bird of Paradise which has been known to science for the last hundred and thirty years, having been first figured by D’Aubenton in the ‘ Planches Enluminées,’ under the name of “ Le Sifilet.” On this French name Pennant founded his Paradisea sefilata, which is really the oldest name of the species ; but Count Salvadori, who has given the most complete synonymy of this species, says that he lacks the courage to adopt such a word as sefilata, a barbarous Latin translation of the French ‘ Sifilet.’ For th esame reason I follow the Count in this respect and adopt Boddaert’s name, which is next in order of date. An excellent account of the changes of plumage of this Bird of Paradise is given by Count Salvadori in his ‘Ornitologia della Papuasia. A large series of specimens were brought from North-western New Guinea by Signor D’Albertis and Dr. Beccari, as well as by Mr. Bruijn’s native hunters, and from this series Count Salvadori gives the following account of the sequence of plumages undergone by the males. These at first resemble the adult female, from which it is impossible to distinguish them, but the frontal plumes oe ee Le A LS | CD DA oe, JOS © 0, oe oa 9 FRILIV an Ia AN or ty LOBOPS J 6 Keulemans & W Hoots 17 R oo \ | XL \ ID) I Sk \ 4 \\ j aS bse ao S va y AA) ©) jy A C IE A > IRILCIE A 9 Rothschild Mintern Bres. up 3 LOBOPARADISEA SERICEA, Rothschild. Shield-billed Bower-bird. Loboparadisea sericea, Rothschild, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vi. p. xv (1896).—Id. Novit. Zool. iv. p. 169, pl. ii. fig. 2 (1897). Tue only specimen at present known of this curious bird is in the collection of the Hon. Walter Rothschild, at Tring. It has been described by him as a Bird of Paradise, but it is apparently a Bower-bird, though this is a question difficult to settle at the present moment. From a comparison of its characters it would appear to be related to Loria and Cnemophilus, as it has the nasal aperture covered by a wattle, in place of the feathers which hide the nasal opening in the two above-named genera. In the true Bower-birds the nasal aperture is exposed. Mr. Rothschild writes :—‘‘ The colour of the wattles is guessed from what they look like in the dried skin, which is said to have been bought from natives at Koeroedoe, on the northern coast of Dutch New Guinea. This place, Koeroedoe, is not to be mistaken for Korrido in Geelvink Bay.” The following is a description of the type specimen in Mr. Rothschild’s collection :— General colour above chestnut-brown, with a slight golden shade on the hind-neck and mantle; wings rather more chestnut than the back ; quills chestnut-brown, with dusky tips to the inner webs, decreasing in extent on the secondaries, which are almost entirely reddish brown ; lower back and rump sulphur-yellow ; upper tail-coverts and tail chestnut-brown; crown of head and nape dusky brown, contrasting slightly with the back; the sides of the face darker than the head; cheeks and under surface of body sulphur-yellow ; the under tail-coverts tipped with chestnut ; thighs reddish brown ; axillaries sulphur-yellow, slightly washed with chestnut; under wing-coverts and quill-lining chestnut : ‘bill with two large wattles reaching halfway down from the base, dull blue with yellow tips” (/. Rothschild). Total length 6°5 inches, culmen 0-75, wing 3°5, tail 2°1, tarsus 1°2. The figure represents the type specimen of the I have to acknowledge Mr. Rothschild’s kindness in permitting me to describe and figure the specimen. size of life, drawn from a painting by Mr. Keulemans. ~~ Us Cs bé So c Fin a a ae Pe Sod we’ Z\ 6 Ue rd \ er f fi JOOS 4 Se A I ¥¥ e ds ey Te CA ee a JX Ls NII. JOS JIN Se AX iv UU ee gl Oy Oo a : Ly Nt EN — i3 5 3 5 (2. ty ey wy < on AN Se Tt delet lth, Ww 5 5 $ a *Q g = LORIA MARIE (ne rin) “5 Lady Macgregor’s Bower-bird. Cnemophilus marie, De Vis, Annual Report British New Guinea, 1893-94, p. 104 (1894).—Sharpe, Bull. B.O Club, iv. p. xiv (1894). ee Loria maria, Sclater, Ibis, 1895, p. 343, pl. viii—Rothschild, Nov. Zool. iii. p- 14 (1896). Loria lorie, Rothschild, Nov. Zool. iii. p. 252 (1896). Tus interesting species was discovered on Mount Maneao, in South-eastern New Guinea, during Sir William Macgregor’s exploration of this mountain in 1894, by Captain Armit and Mr. Guise, who accompanied the expedition. The species was named after Lady Macgregor by Mr. C. W. De Vis, and he afterwards very kindly sent the type specimens over to England to Dr. Sclater, who figured them in the ‘This’ for 1895. These specimens have also formed the subject of my Plate in the present work, but I have endeavoured to give a more satisfactory rendering of the colours of this species, as the plate in the ‘Ibis’ is, I regret to say, not correct. In May 1894, Count Salvadori described as a new genns and species of the Paradiseide a bird from the Moroka district in the Owen Stanley range. Only a female was sent by Dr. Loria; but Count Salvadori recognized that it represented a new form, and he named it after its discoverer, Loria lorie. When Mr. De Vis sent over the types of his Cnemophilus marié to Dr. Sclater for examination, Count Salvadori was so good as to allow the type of his Lora lorie to be sent for comparison, and I had the pleasure of comparing these two species together. I fully agreed with Dr. Sclater that C. marie was a Loria, and, like him, I could not advise that the two species LZ. lorie and L. marie were identical, because neither of the females sent by Mr. De Vis showed the naked line of yellow skin from the gape to below the ear-coverts which the type of Loria lorie so strongly exhibited, and on which character Count Salvadori laid emphasis in describing the genus. I have therefore kept the name of Loria marie for the Mount Maneao bird. More recently, however, the Hon. Walter Rothschild has obtained four specimens of the genus Loria. A female was obtained by his collector in the Eafa district of the Owen Stanley range, between Mounts Alexander and Bellamy. Mr. Rothschild also has a beautiful male specimen from the Sakeytanumu range in the Kaiari district, between Mounts Alexander and Nisbet, as well as a young male from Mount Victoria. Although the female bird does not show the bare oral streak as in the type of LZ. dorte, I perceive indications of it in Mr. Rothschild’s specimen, and I expect that his later conclusions will prove to be correct, that Z. marie is identical with ZL. Jori@, and that Count Salvadori’s name will have to stand for the species. Mr. Rothschild has also a trade-skin, said to bave come from the Arfak district of North-western New Guinea, which is certainly identical with the Owen Stanley specimens. Adult male. General colour above velvety black with a purplish gloss; wing-coverts also velvety black, the quills likewise velvety in texture, but, when held away from the light, the inner secondaries appear of a beautiful metallic steel-blue, glossed with purple ; tail-feathers velvety black, with a metallic purple shade under certain lights; head exactly like the back, but the nasal plumes, lores, and a patch of feathers extending above the fore part of the eye metallic, changing under the light to greenish grey, emerald-green, or steel-green, sometimes showing a slight purplish tinge ; sides of face and under So of body velvety black, with a purplish gloss like the upper surface : bill black; feet dark green; iris brown, eyeball blue. Total length 8-5 inches, culmen 0°9, wing 4, tail 2°89, tarsus 15. : Adult female. Different from the male. General colour above olive-greerish, the eco et like: the back, but the greater series with a slight tinge of orange-brown ; quills dusky brown, with a strong tinge of orange-brown externally, more bronzy on the secondaries; tail-feathers dusky brown, externally bronzy brown and margined with olive-greenish like the back; head like the back, slightly brighter and clearer olive on the lores and above the eye; sides of face and throat and chest olive-greenish, like the sides of the body; the breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts lighter and more olive-yellow ; under wing-coverts light tawny ; quills asby below, with the inner webs light tawny : bill black ; feet green ; iris greyish black. ‘Total length 8-2 inches, culmen 0°9, wing 3°8, tail 2 69, tarsus 1-4, A JR 1 4 Oye). UN OO I A ¥ P a ANS vi as IN) JOR K eo On Cyt TS As | PAY phe ath i COD stead) C ONY JUL a a a we ert) DOU UO ‘Das ose. 2 Con - ‘FRY Cc’ Oe cy —, 7 ‘ rs ¥ rN AN. ap “ “FO . 7 q h dN Nie, i ~ ® SP nA TP i Lb. A young male, passing to the adult plumage, is in Mr. Rothschild’s collection. It is | See & : 4 i . nea velyety black like the adult, but still retains a considerable amount of the first plumage, which 4 cis : ’ ‘N must The metallic inner secondaries, when first developed i in have been like that of the adult female. the male, appear to be in the adults, while the metallic patch above the eye j s to be more purple than in the full-plumaged male. ea The Plate represents an adult male and female of the size i | of life, and the figures are drawn from the type specimens kindly lent to me by Mr. De Vis. The descriptions are taken fi ; nae ; rom specimens In the Tring Museum, and for the opportunity of describing them I have to p i" resent my best acknowledgments to the Hon. Walter Rothschild. of a deeper blue than “dun song aereypeyy: (7A) SOAOIW IOLA SOD NDAMON OMI Ld INA 4| 5 Int 7" HI 2 HUY = | ( WVeeill ). TOILA Clie IS Vv @X / 4 PTILONORHYNCHUS VIOLACEUS (reeiay_ Satin Bower-bird. Pyrrhocoraw violaceus, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat. vi. p. 569 (1816). Ptilonorhynchus holosericeus, Kuhl, Beitr. ar p. 150 (1820).—Wagler, Syst. Av., Ptilonorhynchus, sp. 1, p. 309 (1827).—Gould, B. Australia, iv. pl. 10 (1841).—Id. Handb. B. Austr. i. p. 442 (1865).—Ramsay Ibis, 1866, p. 330.—Sclater & Wolf, Zoological Sketches, 2nd series, pl. xxviii. (1867).—Gray foe list Birds, i. p. 294, no. 4335 (1869).—Ramsay, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, ee lato: “ Satin Grakle, Lath. Gen. Hist. iii. p. 171 (1822). Kitta holosericea, Temm. PI. Col. ii. pls. 395, 422 (1826).—Lesson, Traité d’Orn. p. 350, pl. 46. fig. 1 (1831). Ptilonorhynchus macleayw, Vig. & Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xv. p. 263 (1827 : ex Lath. MSS.). . Ptilonorhynchus squamulosus, Wagl. Syst. Av., Ptilonorhynchus, sp. 3, p. 309 (1827 : ex Illiger, MSS.). Ptilorhynchus holosericeus, Swains. Classif. B. ii. p. 271 (1837).—Gray, Gen. Birds, ii. p. 325 (1846).—Bp. Consp. Av. i. p. 370 (1850).—Cab. Mus. Hein. Th. i. p. 213 (1850).—Schl. Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, p. 117 (1867).—Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. ii. p. 187 (1878). Ptilorhynchus violaceus, Elliot, Monogr. Parad. pl. xxviii. (1873). Ptilonorhynchus violaceus, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. vi. p. 381 (1881).—North, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. (2) i. pp. 1155, 1171 (1887).—Ramsay, Tab. List Austr. B. p. 11 (1888).—North, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. (2) iii. p. 1776 (1889}.—Id. Descr. Cat. Nests & Eggs Austr. B. p. 175, pl. xi. fig. 6 (1889).—Cox & Hamilton, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. 8. W. (2) iv. p. 411 (1890).—Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xiv (1894). THE present species is the best known of all the Bower-birds, not only from its common occurrence in Australia, but also on account of its having been frequently seen in our Zoological Gardens, where it constructs in captivity those wonderful bowers with which its name is associated. The distribution of the Satin Bower-bird in Australia is extensive, reaching as it does from Rockingham Bay and the Port Denison district to New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. The late Mr. John Gould gave an excellent account of the Satin Bower-bird in_ his ‘Birds of Australia’ :— “It is a stationary species, but appears to roam from one part of a district to purpose of varying the nature, or of obtaining a more abundant supply of food. Judging from the contents it would seem that it is altogether frugivorous, or if not exclusively so, that insects form but a small portion of its diet. Independently of numerous berry- bearing plants and shrubs, the brushes it inhabits are studded with enormous fig-trees, to the fruit of which it is especially partial. It appears to have particular times in the day for feeding, and when thus engaged among the low shrub-like trees, I have approached within a few feet without creating alarm ; but at other times the birds were extremely shy and watchful, especially the old males, which not unfrequently perch on the topmost branch or dead limb of the loftiest tree in the forest, whence they can survey all round, and watch the movements of their females and young in the brush below. and may often be seen on the ground near the sides of rivers, another, either for the of the stomachs of the many specimens I dissected, “In autumn they associate in small flocks, particularly where the brush descends in a steep bank to the water’s edge. “The extraordinary bower-like structure first came under my notice in the Sydney Museum, to which an example had been presented by Charles Coxen, Esq., of Brisbane, as the work of the Satin Bower-bird. This so much interested me that I determined to leave no means untried for ascertaining every particular relating to this peculiar feature in the bird’s economy; and on visiting the cedar-brushes I discovered several of these bowers or playing-pl the most retired part of the forest: they differed of the Liverpool range, aces on the ground, under the shelter of the branches of overhanging trees, in : ; considerably in size, some being a third larger than others. The base consists of an ee and rather convex platform of sticks firmly interwoven, on the centre of which the bower itself is built : this, like the platform on which it is placed, and with which it is interwoven, is formed of sticks and twigs, but of a more slender and flexible description, the tips of the twigs so arranged as to curve inwards and nearly meet at the top: in the interior the materials are so placed that the forks of the ws A AA ef = . | (Bu! Ns Cre. OOev er Teer Ss po} en “rs soo JNJ LN Y ee 5 a INS eLis POO CO tO 4 3 A zi H f <- as ef i¥¥ JAN eo Fv 3 ey os 7a i «< roo: IX rd JAI NS) a" Pe BAAS St CO. 4 Xa RIK we Ne JS nS a _—_—— Ly et AZ) ae - a e240, J viy [7 iN CN 3 JOIUUOUK = a brs a >- A 5 . 2 Dae NO War SVN i (>a a —_ Mk? co \¥ CS @ 3 AR re. \ 7 Ff ae y o% na Mi owe ca MG ana £ wy f £ i a a oe EL Le. twigs are always presented The interest of this curious bower 1s much enhanced by the manner in which gaily-coloured articles that ean be collected, such as the blue tail-feathers outwards, by which arrangement not the slightest obstruction is offered to the passage of the birds. it is decorated with the most of the Rose-hill and Pennantian Parrakeets, bleached bones, the shells of snails, &c.; some of the feathers are inserted among the twigs, The propensity of these birds to fly o small missing article that may have been accidentally dropped in the while others with the bones and shells are strewed about near the entrances ff with any attractive object is so well known to the natives, that they always search the runs for any brush, I myself once found at the entrance of one of them a sinall neatly-worked stone tomahawk, of an inch and a half in picked up at a deserted encampment of the natives. “It has been clearly ascertained that these curious bowers are merely sporting-places in which the sexes length, together with some slips of blue cotton rags, which the birds had doubtless meet, and the males display their finery, and exhibit many remarkable actions; and so inherent is this habit, that the living examples, which have from time to time been sent to this country, continue it even in captivity. Those belonging to the Zoological Society have constructed their bowers, decorated and kept them in repair, for several successive years. “Ina letter received from the late F. Strange, he says—‘ My aviary is now tenanted by a pair of Satin-birds, which for the last two months have been constantly engaged in constructing bowers. Both sexes assist in their erection, but the male is the principal workman, At times the make will chase the female all over the aviary, then go to the bower, pick up a gay feather or a large leaf, utter a curious kind of note, set all his feathers erect, run round the bower, and become so excited that his eyes appear ready to start from his head, and he continues opening first one wing and then the othe uttering a low whistling note, and, like the domestic Cock, seems to be picking up something from the ground until at last the female goes gently towards him, when, after two turns round her, te suddenly nee dash, and the scene ends,’ ” Mr. A. J. North writes to me:—‘‘I forward you a photograph that may be of use to you in the preparation of your ‘Monograph of the Ptilonorhynchide, &c.’ It is that of a perfect bower of Ptilono- rhynchus violaceus in the possession of the Trustees of the Australian Museum. It was found on the ground in the scrub near the Jerulan Caves, N. S. Wales, in December last, by Mr. J. C. Wiburd, and is built ona SES platform of sticks and twies . S gs about three inches i pee . : 5 e inches in thickness, and is composed entirely of thin twigs slightly arched, some of whi Br ich 2t Or cross eac bower, is a tail-feather ie cross each other at the top. Near the tront of it, on the right side of. the atycercus elegans, Jt measures over all 2 feet in length, 1 foot in height, and 10 inches in bre i ‘ oreadth ; internally 8 inches j : . 3 ernally 8 inches in height by 4 inches in breadth. Scattered about the entrance are 47. ‘elve pieces of bone of a small Wall ‘OnSISting i twelve p Wallaby (consisting of portions of the skull, ear-bones, lambar verte and small bones of the feet), three pieces of moss, a spray of Acacia blossom, some small 7 . e a v ae S C Eucalyptus, an egg-bag of a spider, six specimens of a land-shell (which my ¢ bree, seed-cones of a olleague Mr. Charles Ene eee : g . Charles Hedle informs me is an unnamed and remarkably keeled and depressed variety of 7% os S c : O ter ‘ eet anf ee ; sites goulosa, Gould), and one specimen of Helecarion verreauxi. The photograph shows the front. vie , finitl e S s yiew oO 2 bower only. the ‘6 - ir ‘re : eo ese f° : see fet pe 2 These birds are at the present time committing great havoc in the orchards in the south coastal districts of the colony—probably from a scarcity of their normal food, owing to the late bush-fres and exceeding! 5 s ¢ 2xCce Dy dry season.” gly I have also received from Mr. ty Souef the ad . : Mr. Dudley Le Souef the accompanying beautiful photo graph of a bower . : of the present species found by him near Melbourne. , Dr. E. P. Ramsay describes the eggs of the Satin Bower-bird as follows :— “The eggs vary in proportionate length, but are usually long ovals, seldom even slightly swollen towards the thicker end; the ground-colour is of a rich cream or light stone-colour, spotted and blotched with irregular patchy markings, and a few dots of amber and sienna-brown of different tints, in some almost approaching blackish-brown, in others of a yellowish colour; the larger markings are, as usual, on the thicker end, but a few appear with the small dots on the thin end. In this, the usual form, the irregular short wavy lines previously mentioned seldom appear except where the larger spots or blotches are confluent; as if beneath the surface of the shell are a few irregularly shaped faint markings of slaty- grey or pale lilac. The eggs above described were taken from open nests composed of sticks and twigs, and lined with grass, by Mr. Ralph Hargrave, at Wattamolla, New South Wales.” The following descriptions are taken from my ‘ Catalogue of Birds ’:— Adult male, General colour above and below purplish black, the feathers having concealed greyish bases; upper tail-coverts black, broadly bordered and_ tipped with purple; quills and tail black, the feathers edged with purple: “bill bluish horn, passing into yellow at the tip; legs and feet yellowish white 5 iris beautiful light blue, with a circle of red round the pupil ” (Gould). Total length 12°0 inches, culmen 1:4, wing 6°6, tail 4-5, tarsus 2°15. Adult female. Different from the male. General colour above greyish green, with a shade of bluish on the edges of the feathers, the rump and upper tail-coverts greener than the back; lesser and median wing-coverts like the back, the latter edged with whity brown along the tips; greater and primary wing- coverts reddish brown, the innermost secondaries shaded with bluish and tipped with a bar of whity brown like the secondaries ;_ tail-feathers golden brown, with a slight shade of bluish ashy on the centre feathers ; lores and feathers round the eye a little browner than the head; ear-coverts and cheeks ashy brown, thickly streaked with yellowish-butf shaft-stripes ; throat ashy brown, with a tinge of greenish grey, and slightly athers; remainder of the under surface pale yellowish, mottled with dusky greenish margins to the fe s less pronounced the feathers all mottled with bars of blackish brown, tinged with bluish green, these bar e9t3 , o) 2 JOU JU AY SKU 7 i Ce Set wee s ° J _— C) . MJ ee ° ° n> i \ i | \ Fae "" oe OWe to LAK Ne \/ ———— cv GD OD a en eso — Poa ett Bp Bee dC on barred with dusky; under wing- at the base and on the inner web: of a deeper blue than in the male, 12 inches, culmen 1°3, wing 6-2, tail 4°6, tarsus Neve Young male. Resembles the female at first, but is generally to be distinguished by a few purplish-black feathers appearing on the head and back or on the quills. The body-plumes appear to be acquired by a direct moult; but the quills and tail-feathers become black by a change in the colour of the feather itself. The figures in the Plate represent a the abdomen and under tail-coverts, the lower abdomen being uniform yellowish; axillaries pale greenish coverts yellow, barred with dusky brown ; quills dusky below, bright yellow «bill dark horn-colour ; feet yellowish white, tinged with olive; irides and with only an indication of the red ring” (Gould). Total length n adult male and female of the size of life, with an illustration of a bower. ( (p< & <_ 5 a l. AMBILYO \MBLYORNIS FT, Av a. ee ei IS FLAVIFRONS, Rothschild ORN ATA 3 Schl. Adult Male Mintern Bres. up AMBLYORNIS FLAVIFRONS, Rother. ” Yellow: fronted Gardener Bower-bird. Amblyornis flavifrons, Rothschild, Novit. Zool. ii. p. 480 (1895).—Id. op. cit. iii. pl. i. figs. 3, 4 (1896) Tus distinct species of yellow-crested Bower-birds was described by the Hon. Walter Rothschild in 1895 from a specimen in his collection from Dutch New Guinea. He has now two additional specimens in the Tring Museum, and there can be no doubt that it is distinct from the two other species of Amblyornis. The whole crest is more yellow than in 4. inornata and A. subalaris, and this colour is continued down to the base of the bill, whereas in the other two species the forehead is brown like the back and the colour of the crest is orange. Mr. Rothschild further calls attention to the fact that the plumes of the crest in A. flavifrons, although very long and slender, have united webs like an ordinary feather, whereas in the other two species the webs are decomposed and each feather consists of a bundle of thin hair-like filaments. Again, as Mr. Rothschild observes, the colours of the underparts are distinctly separated at the chest iu A. flavifrons, while in A. inornata the colour of the chest fades gradually towards the vent, and in A. sudalaris the underparts are of a uniform brown, slightly spotted with buff. The following is a description of the type-specimen in Mr. Rothschild’s collection :— General colour above dark brown, a little more rufescent on the lower back and rump; wing-coverts like the back; quills and tail dusky brown, externally washed with olive; crown of head from the base of the forehead bright orange-yellow, including the enormous crest; the shafts of the crest-feathers lemon: yellow towards the base; lores and sides of crown dark sooty brown, as well as the sides of the face and throat, shading off into lighter brown on the fore-neck and chest; remainder of under surface of the body light cinnamon-brown ; axillaries cinnamon; under wing-coverts pale cinnamon; quills dusky below, yellowish along the inner web. Total length 8 inches, culmen 0:9, wing 5:2, tail 3-3, tarsus 1:3. The lower figure represents the typical example of 4. flavifrons of the natural size. AMBLYORNIS INORNATA, | Seti. a figure of the male of this species, in full plumage, which has I nave taken the present opportunity to give ; For more than twenty years no yellow-crested bird ha been discovered since the original Plate was drawn. been received from the Arfak Mountains, the home of 4. énornata; and I felt so convinced that the sexes were alike in colour, that I separated the southern form, A. subalaris, as a distinct genus, hich I re Xanthochlamys (Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xv). It seems, however, that the male birds in ee received before 1894 must all have been young or not in full plumage, for when Te male was discovered it turned out to have a magnificent orange crest, as was eres by Dr. Meyer from a specimen received by the Dresden Museum (Bull. Brit, Orn. Club, iv. p. xviti). do, Wie ene Since then fully adult males, in nuptial plumage, have been received by the af ¢ fie: a o only from Arfak, but from the Owen Stanley Mountains in South-eastern New ae : ae discovered on Mt. Victoria and in the Eafa district between Mts. Alexander and Bellamy. é therefore be no doubt that the following synonyms also belong to 4. mornata :— Amblyornis musgravii, Goodwin, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1889, p. 451. : é _ Ta. Colonial Papers, no. 103, Amblyornis macgregoria, De Vis, Ann. Rep. Coll. Brit. New Guinea, p. 61 oe i ee a p- 113 (1890).—Id. Ibis, 1891, p. 37,—Salvad. Aun. Mus. Civic. Genov. (“) * Id. Aggiunte Orn. Pap. ili. p. 243 (1891). Amblyornis musgravianus, Goodwin, Ibis, 1890, p- 1518 C ; , iv xiv (1894). Xanthochlamys musgravianus, Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xiv ( ) 1 i . ¢ 1 fs iv from S aay, > ahi VI - Goodwin IS totally differen It should be noted that the form of the playing-ground as given by f that sketched by Dr. Beccari. OFC OC OL OD U0 oe: JOO UU OE } Ot Cs. IX at oo = ®, IX ; d\n ds cs UE tT) Ga JP) U?SD~ Sula vy Nei @®_ S& Ww = + uty 2 3 be WINVUUI I OOO Ol On OOo OL oO 2 o. JOVOIITOS a” ig spa pan sag” gpl a= @, JOVI TIO. Schlegel ) STEAK [INLé OM IIR OSA \ rw CD { AMIE "i - ae ane ane ver_)ir IC ne Sale eres : WHEN Ms Pe Bower-bird was first discovered by Baron von Rosenberg, no one could have any 0 s -cullar « > S . “s S aE ee < re - . : : er of ti pect on talents for hut building and garden decoration. It is now known, however, that two allied species exhibit the same curious habits in South-castern New Guinea. in North-western New Guinea, and it has been procured in this region by all the best-known travellers who have visited this part of the globe; but for a detailed account of its ‘ bower,” science is indebted to the celebrated Italian naturalist, Dr. Beccari, who has published a description of it in the ‘ Annali’ of the Genoa Museum. ‘This was afterwards translated into the ‘Gardeners’ Chronicle’ for March 6th, 1878, and the following passage is transcribed from the last-named journal :-— dimensions of a Turtledove. The specific name ‘ evornata’ well suggests its very simple dress. It has nore of the ornaments common to the members of its family, its feathers being of several shades of brown atid showing no sexual differences. powers of building (the constructions were called ‘ nests") were given by the hunters of Mynheer Bruijn. They endeavoured to bring one of the nests to Ternate ; but it was found impossible to do this, both by reason of its great size and the difficulty of transporting it. On June 20, 1875, I left Andai for Hatam, on Mount Arfak. I had been forced to stay a day at Warmendi to give rest to my porters. At this time only five men were with me; some were suffering from fever, and the remaining porters declined to proceed. We had been on our way since early morning; and at I o'clock we intended to proceed to the village of Hatam, the end of our journey. of sunshine penetrated the branches. The ground was almost destitute of vegetation. A little track-way proved that the inhabitants were at no great distance. A limpid fountain had evidently been frequented. I found here a new Balanophora, like a small orange or a small fungus. I was distracted by the songs and the screams of new birds ; and every turn in the path showed me something new and surprising. I had just | killed a small new marsupial (Phascologale dorsalis, Pet. and Doria) that balanced itself on the stem of a | | great tree like a squirrel ; industry of an animal. was on a diminutive scale. I did not, however, then suspect that they After well observing the whole, I gave stric however, was an unnecessary caution, since the Papuans t bowers, even if they are in their way. unfortunately for them, to come near them. an hour’s walk we were at our journey’s end. not to shoot many of the birds. t ; CICIC) P< IRIN. ee male « vas the builder, or whether the wife ‘el al or unequal number the male alone 5 . sexes were in equal or unequal 1 assisted in the construction. I believe, however lects a flat even place around the trunk of It begins by constructing at the base of the tree a kind of cone, chiefly of ; 2 aa a c , a sm ‘ee that is as thick and as high as «The Amblyornis se a small tree that is as t : gh a walking-stick of middle size. moss, of the size of a man’s hand. is supported by it. On the top of the ce resting on the ground, leaving an aperture for the entrance. te many other branches are placed transversely in various ways, to A circular gallery is left between the walls and the central The trunk of the tree becomes the central pillar; and the whole building ntral_ pillar twigs are then methodically placed in a radiating Thus is obtained a conical and very manner, regular hut. When the work is comple make the whole quite firm and impermeable. cone. The whole is nearly 3 feet in diameter. of an orchid (Dendrobium), an epiphyte forming large tufts on the mossy branches of great trees, easily bent like straw, and generally about 20 inches long. m—which leads me to conclude that this plant was selected by the bird to prevent All the stems used by the Amblyornis are the thin stems The stalks had the leaves, which are small and straight, still fresh and living on the rotting and mould in the building, since it keeps alive for a long time, as is so often the case with epiphy- tical orchids. “The refined sense of the bird is not satisfied with building a hut. It is wonderful to find that it has the same ideas as a man; that is to say, what pleases the one gratifies the other. The passion for flowers and gardens is a sign of good taste and refinement. I discovered, however, that the inhabitants of Arfak did not follow the example of the Amblyornis. Their houses are quite inaccessible from dirt. “ The Garden.—Now let me describe the garden of the Amdb/yornis. Before the cottage there is a meadow of moss. This is brought to the spot and kept free from grass, stones, or anything which would offend the eye. On this green tuft flowers and fruits of pretty colour are placed so as to form an elegant little garden. The greater part of the decoration is collected round the entrance to the nest ; and it would appear that the husband offers there his daily gifts to his wife. The objects are very various, but always of vivid colour. There were some fruits of a Garcinia like a small-sized apple. Others were the fruits of Gardenias of a deep yellow colour in the interior. I saw also small rosy fruits, probably of a Scitamineous plant, and beautiful rosy flowers of a splendid new Vaccinium (Agapetes amblyornithis). There were also fungi and mottled insects placed on the turf. As soon as the objects are faded they are moved to the back of the hut. “The good taste of the Amblyornis is not only proved by the nice home it builds. It is a clever bird, called by the inhabitants ‘ Buruk Gurea’ (master bird), since it imitates the songs and screamings of nume- rous birds so well that it brought my hunters to despair, who were but too often misled by the 4méblyornis. Another name of the bird is ‘Tukan Kobon,’ which means a gardener.” When Mr. D. G. Elliot founded the genus Amblyornis, he separated it on account of the more exposed nostrils and from its having ten tail-feathers instead of twelve. When he wrote, only one specimen was known, and it has since turned out that Amblyornis has really twelve tail-feathers, two being deficient in the original specimen. The difference in the feathering over the nostrils is only one of degree, but, as Count Salvadori has pointed out, there are other good characters, such as the shape of the bill, with its smooth tomium, and the want of scutellations on the tarsus, which distinguish Amblyornis. One of the most striking of the characters in the genus is the similarity in colour of the sexes. Adult. General colour above brown, rather more reddish on the head and mantle; wing-coverts like the back ; quills and tail dusky brown, externally like the back ; lores and sides of face dull brown ; throat and under surface of body orange-brown, rather lighter on the abdomen; sides of breast washed with the same . as the back ; wallaries and under wing-coyerts brighter orange-buff; quills light brown below, pale er aes noes oy the inner web: bill blacks feet pale lead-eoloue ivi chestnut” (D'Alertis), ‘Tota 5 ve , wing 9°05, tail 3-4, tarsus 1-4, The female is similar to the male in colour. The description and figure are taken from Goleta hen ; a specimen in the British Museum, formerly in the Gould Z . 1e bower ’ \ is drawn from the materials published by Dr. Beccari. we 2 er ee eee —_ _——_ oS & tr vee: trae. a Peet Sk ets cc OS Ee A ys ee —_ Ne NN a 7 1 -_— OO LN Wee 6 NS Se aS) aes sa Muinterr Bros. ump 3 Sharpe. LLARILS Q EE) Ac > (UR C = WD) it eepepie ‘ a ial pe : f A | t Lith fy] del ¢ Har | 5 i 4 myn nn mii 2 HHA)UNI HUINIH See ae cr rw JIG © ve * GUIS TTI TIS I TIT AMBLYORNIS SU BALA RI Ss, Sharpe. Orange-crested Bower-bird. > ere Ded — Tey Li Uy Cet) Amblyornis subalaris, Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc., Zool. xvii. p. 408 (1884).—Finsch u. Meyer, Zeitschr. oes. Orn li. p. 390, pl. xxi. (1885).—Id. Ibis, 1886, p. 257.—Sharpe, Nature, p. ceexl (1886),—Id, in Goule’s B. New Guin. vol. i. pl. 47 (1886).—D’Hamony. Bull. Soc. Zool. Bianca xis, oil @eso eee Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. (2) il. p. 250 (1887).—Salvad. Age. Orn. Pap. ii. p. 165 Geol P. Z.S. 1889, p. 451.—Id. Ibis, 1890, p. 155.—De Vis, Ann. Rep. Brit. New Guinea, p. 61 (1890).—Ia. Colonial Papers, no. 103, p. 113 (1890).—Id. Ibis, 1891, p- 37.—Salvad. Age. Orn. Pap. iii. p. 243 (1891).—De Vis, Ann. Rep. Brit, New Guinea, 1890-91, p. 95 (1892). Tus remarkable species of Bower-bird was first discovered by Mr. Goldie, in the Astrolabe Range of the Owen-Stanley Mountains, in South-eastern New Guinea. He procured only the female oina which | remained in the British Museum for many months before I ventured to describe it as distinct from the Bower-bird of the Arfak Mountains, 4. inornata. It seemed to be, however, a distinct species, and J at last gave it a name, little dreaming that in the following year the male bird would be dis- covered, and would turn out to be such a beautiful and striking form of Bower-bird. Although resembling A. inornata in the plain brown plumage of the body, it excels that species in the possession Ginn gorgeous orange crest. This led me to suppose that 4. eornata might also be found to possess an equally brilliant decoration of the head, but Count Salvadori aptly remarks that too many specimens of the Arfak bird, of both sexes, have been received by European Museums to render it possible that the species possesses any crest or particular ornament, such as we find in the Bower-bird from South-eastern New Guinea. The adult males referred to above were procured by the late Mr. Carl Hunstein in that part of the Astrolabe Mountains which he called the Horseshoe Range, and Sir William Macgregor has also discovered the species on Mount Musgrave, at a height of from 6000 to 9000 feet, and on Mount Suckling, at a height of 4100 feet. He procured a male bird in the vicinity of its bower, which is described in Mr. De Vis’s Zoological Report attached to the Blue-book of 1892 :— “This bower is built of twigs arranged in the shape of a shallow circular basin, about 3 feet in diameter, | the side being some 6 inches higher than the centre. The whole of the basin is covered with a carpet of the greenest and most delicate moss, which, as it is of a different kind to that growing around on the ground, trees, roots, &c., led me to conjecture that it had been planted by the bird itself. The surface is scrupulously cleared of all leaves, twigs, &c. In the centre of the basin a small tree, without branches, about 2 inches in diameter, is growing. Immediately around this tree, and supported by it to the height of about 2 feet, is erected a light structure of small sticks and twigs, placed horizontally, and crossing one another. On the extreme outer edge of the basin a more substantial collection of twigs had been built up, which was arched above so as to join the collection around the centre pole, leaving a clear space beneath for the bird to pass through in his gambols. The basin has two entrances leading into it. They are 4 or 5 inches apart, and are formed by a depression or gap in the outer rim. The bower is placed immediately to the right of the | entrances. At the opposite side to the entrances, and on the highest part of the raised rim of the basin, is placed a quantity of black sticks (4 inches or so in Jength), black beans, and the black wing-coverings of | | large coleoptera. Black is evidently the most attractive colour to this bird.” I have reproduced the illustrations which accompany Mr. De Vis’s Report. I nl er, rn. fe, ‘ Ey lis enth late 5 | SECTION. i Ht || 3. Centre of pole with structure of twigs. I) 1. Formation of twigs. eas 2. Moss. 4, Bower. — M7 AIR HU f i POF NOVEM ) GROUND-PLAN. . Entrances. Od 1. Centre pole. 2. Bower. 4, Twigs, beans, and beetles. Mr. Goodwin’s account of the bower of the present bird differs somewhat from that given above. The following is a description of a pair of adult birds -— Adult male. General colour above uniform dark olive-brown, rather more olive on the back, rump, and upper tail-coverts ; wing-coverts like the back; bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills olive-brown exter- nally, internally dark brown; tail-feathers dark brown, washed with olive-brown externally ; crown of head with an immense crest of orange, the lateral and frontal feathers edged and tipped with blackish brown; base of forehead dusky olive-brown ; hind neck lighter olive-brown; lores ashy; sides of face, eyebrow, and ear- coverts dark olive-brown; cheeks and entire under surface of body light olive-brown, streaked down the centre of the feathers with ochreous buff, the sides of body and flanks rather browner; thighs dusky brown ; under tail-coverts fulvous, with ochreous-buff centres to the feathers, the long ones edged with dark brown ; under wing-coverts and axillaries orange-buff or tawny; quills below dusky, ochreous along the inner edge. Total length 8:3 inches, culmen 1, wing 9, tail 3:4, tarsus 1-3. Adult female. Differs from the male in having no orange crest, the head being like the back. Total length 8°3 inches, culmen 0-9, wing 4°8, tail 3-3, tarsus 1-4. Mr. Forbes procured specimens of both sexes, killed in the rainy season. The whole of the colours are paler and more olive, and the ochreous tints of the under surface are much paler, especially on the under wing-coverts. The male is distinguished from the female at this season of the year only by the greater amount of clear ochreous on the underparts. The figures in the Plate represent an adult male and female, drawn from a pair procured by Mr. Hunstein in the Horseshoe Range. >, LITUf) « Minter Bree L , (Goodwin) 7 2 r Gr 1 1 Rk i ie WLA. C ¢ Hiart delet Lith, Wy iii 5 | WWVAMtt 4 Inym nm \AMhtt 2 | omy Wu ~ Cry tt) CNEMOPHILUS MACGREGORII, pm pis. We oe . : Macgregor’s Bird of Paradise. Xanthomelus macgregori, Goodwin, Ibis, 1890, moss Cnemophilus macgregori, De Vis, Ann. Rep. Brit. New Guinea, p. 61 (1890).—Id. Colon. P : apers, no. 103, p. 115 (1890).—Id. Ibis, 1891, p. 40.—Sclater, Ibis, IWDIL, yo, 40ML pall, ox, Tuts remarkable form was discovered by Sir William Macgregor during his expedition to the Owen Stanley Mountains, and was procured at Mount Knutsford, at an elevation of 11,000 feet. The only specimen as yet known is an adult male, which is at present in the Queensland Museum, but the courteous Director, Mr. C. W. De Vis, sent it over to Europe to Dr. Sclater, who described and figured it in ‘The Ibis.’ Mr. Goodwin, who visited England shortly after the close of the Macgregor Expedition, to which he was attached as one of the naturalists, communicated an account of the Birds of Paradise observed by him to ‘The Ibis,’ and gave a description of this species from memory, which is characterized by Count Salvadori as a “descriptio incompleta.” Mr. De Vis, however, to whom was intrusted the description of the natural-history objects obtained by the expedition, gave a very full description of the species, for which he created the name of Cuemophilus. ‘That he was right in placing it in a distinct genus is beyond question. Dr. Sclater, in his paper on the species, has so well summarized its characters that I cannot do better than quote his remarks :— “There is certainly a general resemblance in colour and shape between Cremophilus and Xanthomelus, and the feet in both forms are large and strong, although this feature is carried to a much greater extent in Xanthomelus, which has the tarsi much stronger and rather longer than Cnemophilus. In Xanthomelus, moreover, the scutellations of the front of the tarsus are well marked, whereas in Cuemophilus the scutella are fused into one nearly uniform plate. The wings of Cxemophilus are much shorter and more rounded than those of Xanthomelus. But it is in the bill of these two forms that the greatest divergence is observable. “Tn Xanthomelus the bill is long and strong, the loral plumes are short, and the base of the bill, nostrils, and culminal ridge are quite bare. In Cnemophilus the Dill is shorter and not so thick, the loral plumes are elongated, projecting forwards, and covering the base of the bill so far as to partially cover the nostrils. Besides this the frontal plumes are elongated and elevated into a compressed ridge, which is carried forward over the culmen and backward to the base of the very singular thin crest, composed of five or six lengthened feathers, which spring up immediately behind the front. “In these last characters Cnemophilus is quite distinct from other birds, but obviously approaches Diphyllodes. I should be disposed, therefore, to place Cnemophilus along with the Paradise-birds rather than along with the Bower-birds, if these two groups are to be kept apart. But there can be no doubt that the Bower-birds are closely allied to the Paradise-birds, and several well-known recent authorities have united them into one family.” The figure in the Plate has been drawn from a picture painted by Mr. Keulemans from the type specimen which Mr. De Vis so kindly sent to England for examination. JVOUOCCU0U FO 0.6 ji WM Si ump Minterr Bros VYTONIANA, DeVis. \ A q N PRIONIDURA II 5 Imi 4 InImn 3 2 iii me HUI — a FITC 7€ FIICIUE é : IXILFI LILI FU Uy % FIL FLILICI CU, OAGACK 0 Ok 5 5 IJLILITIE PRIONODURA NEWTONIANA, Newton’s Bower-bird. De Vis. Prionodura newtoniana, De Vis, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, vii. p. 562 (1883) —Ramsay, Tabular List of Aust ee i. ; e . C De > c Co S iL SUES B. p. 11 (1888).—De Vis, Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensl, 1889, p. 245.—id. Rep. Exped. Bellenden-Ker Range, p. 87 (1889).—Meston, t. c. p. 120.—Sclater, Ibis, 1890, p. 264. Corymbicola mestoni, De Vis, MSS. : fide Meston, 1. ¢. Tus remarkable Bower-bird was described by Mr. De Vis from a single specimen procured in Queensland by Mr. Kendal Broadbent, and was at once recognized by it s describer as belonging to a new genus. As type specimen of Prionodura was a female or young male, the bird in neither case giving promise of having a brilliantly decorated adult male. is closely allied to Amblyornis, but differs in the style of ornamentation in the male. In a “Further Account of Prionodura newtoniana,’ with my Amblyornis subalaris, it has since transpired that the The genus * Mr. De Vis has given the subsequent history of the species, and I cannot do better than reproduce his own words :— ‘The bird was first discovered by Mr. K. Broadbent in the scrubs clothing the banks of the Tully River, a small river issuing from an angle formed by spurs of the Coast Range on its eastern aspect and entering the sea some little distance to the north of Cardwell. In the vale of the Herbert, on the western side of the principal spur and more immediately in the vicinity of Cardwell, the bird does not seem to occur, Mr. Broadbent having there searched for it more than once without success—lat. 18° is, therefore, probably its southern limit of range. Its true Jiabitat is now ascertained to be the bighlands north of the township of Herberton, where it was first observed by Mr. A. Meston in the course of a flying visit to the top of Bellenden-Ker. From near the summit of this mountain Mr. Meston brought down the skin of a male bird; and soon after, Mr. Broadbent, visiting Herberton in pursuit of the Tree-Kangaroo of that district, encountered the bird frequently about seven miles from town (fifty miles from the Bellenden-Ker), and collected a rich series of examples. How far northward the bird extends its range is as yet unknown. “ Prionodura is emphatically a Bower-bird. Both its observers in nature met with its bowers repeatedly and agree in representing them to be of unusual size and structure. From their notes and sketches it would appear that the bower is usually built on the ground between two trees, or between a tree and a bush. It is constructed of small sticks and twigs. These are piled up almost horizontally around one of the trees in the form of a pyramid, which rises to a height varying from four to six feet; a similar pile of inferior height, about eighteen inches, is then built round the foot of the other tree; the intervening space is arched over with stems of climbing plants, the piles are decorated with white moss, and the arch with similar moss mingled with clusters of green fruit resembling wild grapes. Through and over the covered run play the birds, young and old, of both sexes. A still more interesting and characteristic feature in the play-ground of this bird remains. The completion of the massive bower so laboriously attained is not sufficient to arrest the archi- tectural impulse. Scattered immediately around are a number of dwarf hut-like structures—‘ gunyahs,’ they are called by Broadbent, who says he found five of them in a space of ten feet diameter and Olpsantes that they give the spot exactly the appearance of a miniature blacks’ camp. These seem to be om yi bending towards each other strong stems of standing grass and capping them with a horizontal thatch of light twigs. In and cut and around the ‘ gunyahs,’ and from one to another, the birds in their play pursue each other to their hearts’ content.” ; ‘ Mr. De Vis gives further notes in the Report of the Bellenden-Ker expedition a Found at all ee the summit of Bellenden-Ker and in the scrubs around Herberton at a high elevation. In connection with the bower of this handsome bird we are indebted for an interesting fact to Broadbent's observation, that whereas towards the base of the mountain the bowers have the elaborate formation noticed lately in a Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, at higher levels ney gradually lose me ae character, and at the top are reduced to the simple trough-like form of bn bower of the oe a a me birds, for which they might be mistaken were those birds inhabitants of this disney ae : peer believe that Mr. Meston has acquainted us with the nest and egg of this bird. a hile hear bie ae of a male be noticed a rustling in a bush by his side, and looking in saw a bird which 1e oe par hesitation, was the female just disturbed from a nest built im a fork of the bush. The ee : ae ne shaped and loosely constructed of fibrous roots, lined with finer material of the on oe ee with a little green moss on the outer side. The egg is 27 mm. long) 9) mm. pro pe ee profusely freckled and blotched with pale brown.” “of the species is given by Mr. Meston in the ‘ Report of the Governm The following account of the habits of the species 1s given hy ; I : ent s th. 2 ¢ IAS Oo aneTP ‘ ’ Scientific Expedition to Bellenden-Ker Range.’ It will be noticed that he speaks of the species as Meston’s iS a a ayayo NS Jew . 7 . ino fr named asacompliment to Professor Alf ed Newton ; and without detracting from ower-bird ; but the bird is oe : : . : P lult male, it is obvious that the English name of this species the merit of Mr. Meston’s having shot the first ac | 1 1 } « ae zs ~ © 7 $ t follow the Latin designation and be associated with the celebrated naturalist in whose honour the name mus é sig of newtoniana was given. - | | | «Most remarkable of all the birds named by De Vis is Prionodura newtoniana, or ‘ Meston’s Bower-bird,’ i JS Cc S ’ The name requires some explanation. at 4800 feet. This was regarded by De Vis as one of an entirely new species and named Corymbicola mestoni. ° ates : * SoD 7 ) 1 that a young uncoloured male had been previously shot by Broadbent on the head On my first ascent of the mountain I shot a full-plumaged male specimen Subsequently it appearec | 2 of the Tully, and received from De Vis the name of Prionodura newtoniana. To me, therefore, belonged simply the honour of having shot the first full-plamaged HEME oe observed ane habits of this extrgondiaty bird, and the final name, to be known hereafter to science, is Prionodura newtomana, or Meston’s Bower-bird. Since the first male was found by me, several males and females have been shot by Broadbent on the Herberton Ranges at 3900 feet. The blacks on the Mulgrave and Russell call this bird ‘ Wargandilla.’ So far it is unknown south of the Tully or north of the Barron. During the expedition we obtained seven males in perfect plumage and several females. This is one of the three handsomest birds in Australia, the other two being the Rifle-bird and Regent-bird—Ptilorhis victorie and Sericulus melinus. In habits and peculiarities it is one of the most eccentric birds in the world. The lowest descent was 1500 feet, between the summit of Barnard’s Spur and the Whelanian Pools. Usually it is found from 4000 feet to 5000 feet. The note of the female—a bird of common grey plumage—is that of the ordinary green Cat-bird, in a sharper and shriller key. The male appears to possess the marvellous imitative powers of the Australian Lyre-bird. First you Thee him croaking like a Tree-Frog, and this note is followed by a low, soft, musical, pathetic whistle, succeeded in a rapid succession by an astonishing imitation of apparently all the birds in the scrub. ‘The bower varies in size and shape, but in all cases differs from that of the other Australian Bower-birds. Both Broadbent and myself have seen bowers up to a height of 8 feet. Asa rule, they are made between two small trees about 4 feet or 5 feet apart. Short dead sticks and twigs are piled up against each tree in a gently contracting pyramid, and across from base to base extends an arch-shaped causeway, occasionally spanned by a connecting vine, decorated with green mosses and tufts of tiny ferns. In and out and over and under and around this erratic structure both male and female birds disport themselves in frequent playful festivities, like the Lyre- bird, Regent-bird, and Satin- and other Bower-birds remarkable for similar customs and proclivities. So far only one nest has been discovered—the one found by me on the summit of the Little Mulgrave Range. It was a round cup-shaped nest, decorated outwardly with the mosses and ferns used in ornamenting the bowers. It contained only one egg, quite fresh ; so we have yet to learn if the bird lays one or more.” The following descriptions are taken from a pair of birds in the British Museum, collected by Mr, Kendal Broadbent on the Bellenden-Ker mountains :-— Adult male, General colour above golden-olive, slightly brighter on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; wing- coverts and quills golden-olive, the inner webs dingy brown, with a broad margin of pale yellow on the inner web; the innermost secondaries dusky olive on the inner web ; the centre tail-feathers olive-brown, with a golden wash, the extreme base of the feathers bright yellow; the next two feathers bright yellow, with a broad tip of olive-brown ; the succeeding feather with a narrower tip of olive-brown, and the three outer tail- feathers entirely bright yellow; crown of head olive-brown with a golden wash, the entire sides of the face of this same colour; the crown with a broad median crest of golden-yellow ; the nape and hind neck also golden-yellow, this colour overspreading the upper mantle ; hele andchin olive-brown like the ear-coverts ; the whole of the remainder of the under surface bright golden-yellow, with a slight wash of golden-olive on ie Hanks . thigh-feathers ashy, tipped with yellow; under tail-coverts deep golden-yellow like the under surface of ‘es tail; axillaries and under Wwing-coverts golden-yellow ; quill-lining also yellow, as well as the shafts of the ao underneath. Total length 9:5 inches, culmen 0:9, wing 4:85, tail 4-2, tarsus 1°2. Adult female. Different from the male. Entirely olive-brown above, with ashy shaft-streaks to the feathers or is head and neck ; wing-coverts like the back ; the bastard-wing, greater coverts, and outer aspect of as a little browner than the back ; tail-feathers brown, washed slightly with olive near the base of the outer webs; lores ashy grey ; ear-coverts and cheeks ashy grey, washed with olive-brown ; under surface of Pei mee ae tones 20d under tail-coverts, the feathers on the lower throat yellowish ; the quills dusky Brown ee val ee fee oe a) eee ihe oe a ee oe 9 inches, culmen 0°85 a. ae aio me along the basal two-thirds of the inner web. Total length , § 4’0, tail 3°35, tarsus 1-2. ml < d . ra “n rhe Plate represents the male and body pale ashy | temale of the size of life ; the figures being drawn from the pair of birds described above. : : a & S wy i) rry PS ae b 1 Ia) 9 DAlbert. & oy ee = 4 a SS f4 = joj Es iS A eI A on 2 3 S == iff | Es =— — = i — A a es \ =F F ao Rn | a | TY; FY) Fey JOO OTIS IIIS II IIIS OI OI SIRI IIIT. XANTHOMELUS ARDENS, pu. § Salvad. Southern Golden Bird of Paradise. Sericulus aureus (pt.), D’Alb. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. vii. p. 798 (1875).—Id. op. cit. x, pp. 14, 20 (1877), Xanthomelus aureus ?, D’ Alb. & Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. xiv. p. 113 (1879).—D’Alb. 388, 493, 588 (1880). Xanthomelus ardens, D’Alb. & Salvad, Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. xiv.p. 113 (1879).—Salvad. Orn, Papuasia, ete. ii. p- 663 (1881).—Id. Aggiunte Orn. Papuasia, etc. ii. p. 165 (1890).—Sharpe, Bull. B. O. C. iy. p. xiv (1894). Oriolus ardens, Musschenbr. Dagboek, pp. 210, 237 (1883).—Rosenb. Mitth. orn, Ver. Wien, 1885, p. 54. Nuova Guinea, pp. 211, Tuts species, which is a southern representative of X. awreus, was discovered by Signor D’Albertis on the Fly River, where he procured a native skin of a male and also a perfect skin of a young bird. He says that the plumes of this bird are worn by the natives of the Fly River as ornaments. No one appears A have met with the species since the visit of D’Albertis to this part of New Guinea. Adult male. Similar to X. aureus, but of a much more brilliant and fiery red on the head, neck, and mantle. Young male. Above brown, washed with ashy grey on the edges of the feathers of the scapulars and mantle, all of which have yellow shafts ; quills brown, externally yellowish brown or golden olive, some of the wing-coverts and scapulars washed externally with the latter colour; tail-feathers washed with ashy along the outer webs; head and neck lighter brown than the back, the feathers on the sides of the neck longer and forming a frill; sides of face and ear-coverts light brown, the latter rufescent; chin isabelline, fading off into the yellow of the throat, which is pale and forms a narrow band shut in by the frilled sides of the neck; all the rest of the under surface of the body bright golden yellow, paler on the thighs; sides of upper breast slightly washed with light brown ; under wing-coverts, axillaries, and quill-liming also bright golden yellow : ‘bill reddish brown, yellow at base of lower mandible; feet olivaceous leaden grey ; irides yellow” (D’ dlbertis). Total length 10 inches, culmen 1+1, wing 5:4, tail 2°8, tarsus 1°75. The figures and descriptions given are taken fror the type specimens kindly lent me by the Marquis Doria. JOO OU OK —— oO one oC > est ar ieee ey — E> = aaa oS .. = and a eee, ler, ea amd Oe em mi eet cs) ay ee aS eS 42) eS a HH 5S & OS nee 35 et IS) es GS EO) a SS aS =—= SDS CST he se we Se SS unp. Bros Minter HS S Sy Z, ~- es 5 ITT 4 ym om 4} HANUULIN G Cyt UU QUI YOON OTT DI IE VIVE JUVUIV III: SERICULUS MELINUS (Lath Regent Bird. ). Yellow-bellied Thrush, Lath. Gen. Syn. Suppl. ii. p- 187 (1801). Turdus melinus, Lath. Ind. Orn. Suppl. ii. p. xliv (1801).—Vieill Id. Enc. Méth. ii. p. 647 (1822), Meliphaga chrysocephala, Lewin, Birds of New Holland, p. 10, pl. 6 (1808 Turdus mellinus, Steph. in Shaw’s Gen. Zool. x. p. 240 (1817). Golden-crowned Honey-eater, Lath. Gen. Hist. iv. p. 184 (1822): Oriolus regens, Quoy et Gaim. Voy. Uranie, p. 105 xii QZ Wagl. Syst. Av., Oriolus, © 2 a. Ae a ae Sericulus chrysocephalus, Swains. Zool. Journ. i. p. 478 (1825).—Vig. & Horsf. Tr 1 (1826).—Steph. in Shaw’s Gen, Zool. xiv. p. 266 Gero eetan & ath vee a ee ee (1827).—Less. Traité d’Orn. p. 340 (1831).—Swains. Classif. B. ih ee a ae iv. pl. 12 (1847). . p. 237 (1837),.—Gould, B. Austr. Sericulus regens, Less. Voy. Coquille, Zool. i. p. 640, pl. 20 (1826).—Id. Man. Orn. i 25 i Parad., Syn. p. 21.—Id. Hist. Ois. Parad. pls. 26, 27 (1835). é ae Sericulus magnirostris, Gould, P. Z. S. 1837, p. 145. Sericulus mellinus, Gray, Gen. B. 1. p. 233 (1845).—Bp. Consp. Av. i. p. 349 (1850) Sericulis melinus, Gould, Nandb. B. Austr. i. p. 456 (1865).—Ramsay, Ibis 1866 pp. 325, 330.—Schl Pays-Bas, Coraces, p. 99 (1867 ).—Ramsay, Ibis, 1867, pp. 415, 456.—Gray Gdn ) os ee (1869).—Elhot, Monogr. Parad. pl. xxxii, (1873).—Ramsay, Proc. Tine a N S a Be Geo) mharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. vi. (1881).—Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soe N s W 7 (2) oe pl. xix. fig. 4 (1887).—North, t.c. pp. 1160, 1173.—Ramsay, Tab. List Nea B 11 Ges) North, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. $. W. (2) iii. p. 1780 (1889).—-Id. Nests & Eggs oe B. a 181 ane Id. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. (2) v. p. 507 (1891).—Campbell, Proeue! Soc. Victoria, new sen ¢ p. 128 (1893).—Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xiv (1894). a N. Dict. d’Hist. Nat. xx. p. 243 (1818).— Tus splendid ppomer-bird is one of the best known of the whole family, as it is one of the finest and most conspicuous species. It appears to be strictly confined to Eastern Australia, where Dr. Ramsay gives its range as New South Wales, and the Wide Ray, Richmond, and Clarence river districts. Mr. Cnnldee eiperience oF the distribution of the species was as follows:—‘‘It is occasionally seen in the neighbourhood ot Sydney, mich appears to be the extent of its range to the southward and westward. I met with it in the brushes at Maitland in company with, and feeding on the same trees as, the Satin- and Cat-Birds, as well as the Green Oriole (Mimeta viridis). It is still more abundant on the Manning, at Fort Macquarrie, and at Moreton Bay. I sought for and made every inquiry for it at Illawarra, but did not meet with it, and was informed that it was never seen there ; yet the district is precisely similar in character to those in which it is abundant, about two degrees to the eastward. While encamped on Mosquito Island, near the mouth of the River Hunter, I shot several, and observed it to be numerous on the neighbouring islands, particularly Baker’s Island, where there is a fine garden, and where it commits serious injury to the fruit-crops.” Mr. A. J. Campbell has recorded a specimen from Duaringa, near the Fitzroy River, and he believes this to be the most northern range of the species. males in full plumage are much more shy and difficult to Everywhere it appears to be the case that the are very much more plentiful. procure, while the females and young males are not only much tamer, but Mr. Gould never succeeded in obtaining a nest of the Regent Bird; but the nest was found at Moreton Bay by Mr. F. Strange, who described it as ‘ rudely constructed of sticks, no other material bemg employed, not nla few roots as a lining.” Dr. E. P. Ramsay found a nest at Taranya Creek, in the Richmond River district, built in a cluster of “ Lawyer Vines” (Calamus australis). In shape the nest was like that of Collyriocincla harmonica, and composed of twigs, mosses, leaves, &c., about five inches The bower was first described by Mr. C. Coxen, who received the details from Mr. While shooting in a scrub on the b jumping wp and down, puffing out its as he had never seen th small shrubs, and across by three deep. Waller, of Brisbane, a well-known Australian naturalist and collector. anks of the Brisbane River, Mr. Waller saw a male Regent Bird “ playing on the ground, r, which occasioned much surprise, fei ; aac : athers, and rolling about in a very odd manne as thickly covered wi the bir Bi, fs : : e bird on the ground before. The spot where it was playing w WM CAM (oN) PN ENG VININANA i C0) /\ pk IO ae JX CaN f) eS aN : pS SS) — AY, 1 i H fi AB , \/ ey, : OWA DY A ) Ma hid Vf \y i) 4 on & P i { Ss H 5 -— . J ao .) ie ® > @ TAN? od RiAB'AE (| Ri Ag eat Poe 2 Vi bb. not wishing to lose the opportunity of procuring a specimen he fired, but only succeeded in wounding it ; and on searching the spot, he found a bower, formed between, and supported by, two small bras Dae and surrounded by small shrubs, so much so, that he had to creep on his Pus to get to it. Ma hile doing so, the female bird came down from a lofty tree, uttered her peculiar fhe and lit on a branch rmmeeratey over the bower, apparently with the intention of alighting in front of it, but was scared away by seeing She continued flitting over the place and calling for her mate so long as he Mr. Waller so close to her. The ground around the bower was clear of leaves for some twelve or was in the neighbourhood. ..... ; =e : soe eighteen inches, and had the appearance of having been swept, the only objects in ie immediate vicinity being a small species of Helix. The structure was alike at both ends, but the part designated as the front was more easy of approach, and had the principal decoratious, the approach to the back being more closed by scrub.” Dr. E. P. Ramsay has given the following account of his discovery of a bower of the Regent Bird :— “On the 2nd of October, 1866, when returning to our camp, some twenty miles from the township, I stopped to look for an Africhia, which three days before I had heard calling at a certain log; and while standing, gun in hand, ready to fire as soon as the bird—which was at that moment in a remarkably mocking humour—should show itself, 1 was somewhat surprised at seeing a male Regent Bird fly down and sit within a yard of me. Between the two I hardly knew which choice to take—the Aérichia, which was singing close in front of me, or the chance of finding the long-wished-for bower. I decided on the former, and remained motionless for full five minutes, while the Regent Bird hopped round me, and finally on to the ground at my feet, when, looking down I saw the bower scarcely a yard from where I was standing ; had I stepped down off the log J must have crushed it. ‘The bird, after hopping about and rearranging some of the shells (//edices) and berries, with which its centre was filled, took its departure, much to my relief, for I was beginning to feel uncomfortable with standing so long in the same position. Further research was not very successful; we met with only one other bower. Wishing to obtain a living specimen of so beautiful a bird as the adult male of this species, I determined to leave the structure until the last thing on my final return to Lismore, which was on the 3rd of November following. We then stopped on our way, and setting eight snares round the bower, anxiously awaited the result. It was not long before we heard a harsh scolding cry of the old bird, and knew that he had ‘put his foot into it.’ Having taken him out and transferred him to a temporary cage, we carefully pushed a board, brought for the purpose, underneath the bower, and removed it without injury. It is now before me, and is placed upon and supported by, a platform of sticks, which, crossing each other in various directions, form a solid foundation, into which the upright twigs are stuck. This platform is about fourteen inches long by ten broad, the upright twigs are some ten or twelve inches high, and the entrances four inches wide. The middle measures four inches across, and is filled with land-shells of five or six species, and several kinds of berries of various colours, blue, red, and black, which gave it when fresh a very pretty appearance, Besides these there were several newly-picked leaves and young shoots of a pinkish tint, the whole showing a decided ‘ taste for the beautiful’ on the part of this species.” The egg was unknown to Mr. Gould, but a specimen taken from the oviduct of a female is thus described by Mr. North :—* The only ege known of this species at present, which was taken from the oviduct, is in the Museum collection, and is of a long oval, slightly swollen at one end, the ground-colour being of a pale lavender ; upon the larger end and beneath the surface of the shell is a zone of nearly round and oval-shaped spots of a uniform pale lilac colour, which in some places are confluent; on the outer surface, all over the larger end to the lower edge of the zone, are irregularly shaped but well-defined linear markings of sienna, assuming strange shapes; two prominent markings being a double loop and a scroll, others less conspicuous are in the shape of the letter Z and the figure 6, while several of the markings stand at right angles to one another ; from the lower edge of the zone, and dispersed over the rest of the surface, are a few bold dashes of the same colour, several lines being straight, but marked obliquely across the egg, others are like the letter V, with one side lengthened at a right angle, and the figure 7, while upon the lower apex is a single mark in the shape of the letter M. The peculiarity of the markings of this egg is that the spots appear to be on the wader surface, and the linear markings on the owéer surface of the shell. Length 1:39 inch x 0:9 inch.” I am indebted to Mr, A. J. Campbell, of Victoria, for the following account of the eggs and bower of the present species. He writes :— “Tha ye oh Be AS) : ‘ : : Phe Regent Bird, especially the adult male with glorious black and yellow plumage, as Gould has well said, 67. is one of the finest species of the Australian fauna. Last November I unde rtook an excursion to the Ric ; ae es: ae a chmond River district, N. S. Wales, with a ey of obtaining, amongst other items, the eggs of the Regent Bird, | found the luxuriant scrubs abounding with the birds ; ntiful there as dng Wattle-birds re as c bir anksia groves of our southern coast. ; i about the Banksia g coast no difficulty in procuring our few almy day and recline under a Canthium tre S, came to regale themselves on the bunches of d by a hardy companion, I prosecuted a vigorous and and thorny brakes of prodigal growth, where the underneath, I returned without the an experience akin to seeking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. and otherwise it appeared that November was too early for the in fact they were as ple We experienced specimen skins. All that was necessary was to select a b e, wl , where the birds, males in various stages of plumage and female hard yellow berries. Nevertheless, although well aide toilsome search through dense labyrinths of hot scrub thick foliage of the trees caused a perpetual twilight eges. It was From evidence gained by dissection majority of the birds. However, just prior a stick, and after much laborious work we succeeded in tracing her through an entanglement of wild raspberries and stinging trees, and were satisfied that she was building in a certain bushy Buoyong (Tarvietia) tree, as we saw her return the time with a twig in her bill. Marking the tree we pointed it out to two young to leaving on the 19th we detected a female carrying re several times, each farmers, directing them to stating they were unable to climb scrub-paddock I had scoured, followed up my instructions, and found therein a Regent Bird’s nest containing a pair of fresh e send the eggs after us. Some weeks afterwards I received a doleful letter the tree. However, the next month another farmer, whose ges, which I now have pleasure in describing. “Specimen A. A beautiful well-shaped specimen, with a fine texture of shell of a light yellowish stone colour, with a faint greenish tinge, and marked with blotches and spots of sienna, but principally with hair-like markings of the same colour in fanciful shapes and figures, as if a person had painted them on with a fine brush. Intermingled are a few greyish streaks, dull, as if under the shell’s surface. All the markings are fairly distributed, but are more abundant around the upper quarter of the egg. The dimensions are 4 cm. long by a breadth of 2°8 cm., somewhat large compared with the size of the parent. The markings much resemble those of the ege of its close ally the Spotted Bower-bird (Chlamydodera maculata), which I found near Wentworth, River Darling, October 1887, with the difference that the ground-colour of the Regent is more yellowish and not of the greenish shade of the Bower-bird. “ Syecimen B. Similar to the other specimen, but markings less pronounced and finer in character, with a greater proportion of the dull greyish hair-like streaks ; also a little smaller—length 3:95 cm. by breadth 2°75 cm. “The nest was discovered during the last week in December, was placed about 15 feet from the ground, and was observed by the bird sitting on it. The structure was of such a loose nature—merely a few twigs forming a flat shelf about five inches across—that it fell to pieces on removal from the tree. Ms was accounted remarkable how the eges could retain their position in it, The description of the nest verifies the statement found in Gould that ‘it is rudely constructed of sticks, no other material being Se aes even a few roots as a lining,’ but is at variance with Mr. North’s statement, which precedes his description of the ege taken from the oviduct of a bird by Mr. Cockerell, the collector, the only other egg at present known.” - Adult male. Head, neck, and upper mantle of a velvety texture, and of a_ brilliant ea deepening on the crown into reddish orange; remainder of mantle ant entire back, as well ae Z , black ; wing-coverts black, as also the primary-coverts ; first mae primaries black ; ee ° ae primaries orange-yellow, except along the outer webs and at the tip, encroaching on Me oe secondaries orange-yellow, tipped with black, excepting the innermost: lores, eyebrow, a Ze an neck, as well as the entire under surface of the body and under ee black ; under ne black, the greater series golden yellow, like the lining of the quills : * bill yellows Tees ae ne eo au rs ‘15. wing 5:1, tail 4°75, tarsus 1:40. Iris pale yellow” (J. Gould). Total length 9-5 inches, culmen 1:15, wing 01, sa san ae Aault female. Different from the male. General colour above brown, mottled with ; Ee eat ills plain brown, the latter the feathers, edged with black; scapulars like the back ; wing-coverts ee ‘oc with an irregular white spot at the tip; upper dusky brown on the inner webs, the innermost secondaries with an ee f . : ce yhitish ;_ tail-fea tail-coverts brown, the longer ones with a mesial streak of whitish 5 i feathers; hinder crown and : : . : sky tips to the feathers 5 on the inner web; forehead light brown, mottled with minute dusky t] : sky edees to the feathers ; ; : SeaTac, ttled with dusky edges occiput black ; sides of head, eyebrow, and nape reddish brown, mo thers brown, more dusky hae hind-neck whitish with dusky margins, followed by a patch of black across the lower hind-neck ; lores and base of forehead buffy whitish; cheeks reddish brown, like the sides of the face; chin and sides of throat light reddish, with the centre and lower part of throat black ; remainder of under surface of body whity brown, uniform on the abdomen; the breast and sides of the body spotted with blackish-brown margins to the feathers; the thighs and under tail-coverts reddish brown ; under wing-coverts and axillaries like the breast, and barred across with dusky brown ; quills brown below, light reddish along the inner web: “ bill and feet black; iris brown” (J. Gould), Total length 10°5 inches, culmen 1°15, wing 5°36, tail 4:5, tarsus 1°5. The figures in the Plate represent an adult male and female of the size of life, from specimens in the British Museum. The descriptions are taken from the same birds. i Nr SA WOVEN bY y (2% em a “—<" — er) BOW OY WSIT, IVITEIINA ISjIRID)- f | (NK From a photograph sent by A. J. Campbell, Esq ‘aA eee wad AAA} (NENG { { \ABIA Pi LEE SE o y/ : AB'S VOVONO i v RUA RAB! CJ hid fi to: AAR AR ABA p,' i) % 42 7) ae eee Se. oe eee es a, aw «(AF es me —a os ee ees SCS es mi x Ss : Sree OS) i es) on) ee et oe es ae) a EO On ich ies co te es = & 5 « sc} 5 3 ~S D = ~ SS % ri /{ YW) i es sS c SS ra AS be Z4 VE ATA @ £ I TIN CULz \ CERY MA MYD ODER, AT AL of | D C4 II 5 W.Hurt del et lith nym i] 3 2 joa INTIAL Oo OC aww j Ei FIO IVOUWU K CHLAMYDODERA CERVINIVEN Fawn-breasted Bower-bird. - RIS, Gould. Chlamydera cerviniventris, Gould, P. Z.S. 1850, p. 201.—Macgill. Voy. Rattlesnake. ii 0. 357 (1859 : P. Z. S. 1858, p. 194.—Id. Cat. B. New Guinea, p. 59 (1859).—Gould, Se ie ae ' Bee Gray, Hand-l. B. i. p. 294, no. 4342 (1869).—Digeles, Orn. Austr, i, p. 52 or os coe hel Chlamydodera cerviniventris, Gould, Handb. B. Austr. i. p. 454 (1865).—Elliot, ee Pp (1873).—Salvad. & D’Albertis, Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. vii. p- 828 (1875 aa (i570). op. cit. ix. p. 193 (1876).—Sharpe, Journ. Linn, Soc. xiii, p, 82 (1876) —Ramsay, Proc Livi, Soe, IN|, S Ww. 1. p. 393 (1876).—Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc. xiv. p. 495 (1877) aa ae a p. 687 (1879).—Ramsay; Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. il p. 188 (1878).—Id. op. cit, na pp “102 “968 (1879).—D’Albertis, Nuova Guinea, Pp. 237, 584 (1880).—Salvad. Orn. P ahcee (1881).—Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. vi. p. 393 (1881).—Musschenbr. D Vog. der Siidsee, p. 27 (1884).—North, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. (2) i. p. 1160 (1887).—Ramsay, Tab. List Austr. B. p. 11 (1888).—North, Deser. Cat. Nests & Eggs B. Austr. p- 180, pl. xi. fie. 4 (1889).—Salvad. Aggiunte Orn. Papuasia, ete. ii. p. 165 (1890).—Id. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. Om p- 585 (1890).—De Vis, Ann. Queensland Mus. no. 2, p. 9 (1892).—Crowley, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, i. p. xvi (1892).—Madardsz, Aquila, 1894, p. 92.—Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Om. Club, iv. p. xiv (1894).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. (2) xvi. p. 113 (1896).—Madardsz, Term. Fiiz. 1897, p. 28.—Reichenow, J. f. O. 1897, p. 214. Ptilorhynchus cerviniventris, Giebel, Thes. Orn. i. p- 567 (1872). Ptilonorhynchus cerviniventris, Rosenb. Mitth. orn. Ver. Wien, 1885, p. 54. arad. pl. xxxil. Op. cit. vill. p. 39 apuasia, etc. ii. p. 664 agboek, p. 214 (1883 ).—Finsch, Tus species, which is easily recognized by its fawn-coloured under surface and by the absence of any nuchal frill or ornament in the male, was discovered in the Cape York Peninsula by the late John Macgillivray, during the voyage of the ‘ Rattlesnake.’ It also occurs in South-eastern New Guinea and appears not to be rare in the Port Moresby district, whence I have seen a number of specimens collected by Goldie, Broadbeut, and other well-known naturalists. D’Albertis procured it in Hall Bay and at Naiabui, and Dr. Loria has sent a large series from Kapa Kapa to the east of Port Moresby. The species likewise occurs in German New Guinea on the Finisterre and Bismarck Mountains. It should be noticed that Gray gives the islands of Torres Straits as another locality for the species, but, like Count Salvadori, I have not been able to find any authority for the statement. Mr. De Vis, however, records a specimen from Sudest Island, in the Louisiade Archipelago, obtained by Sir William MacGregor on the 30th of June, 1891. Dr. E. P. Ramsay observes that this Bower-bird appears to be one of the most common birds about Port Moresby, but it is confined to the coast and is not met with inland. Mr. Masters obtained a bower among the mangroves on the margin of a scrub within the influence of the spring-tides. Mr. Goldie also obtained bowers during his first expedition ; they were made of fine twigs placed in an upright or slightly slanting position, and gently arched over in the middle; the inside and sides of the bower, and sometimes the tops of the twigs, were ornamented with berries. The Fawn-breasted Bower-bird is usually found in small troops of six to ten in number, and feeds on fruits and berries. Gould, in describing the bower found by Macgillivray at Cape York, says :—‘‘ It differs from those of the other species ; its walls, which are very thick, being nearly upright, or but little inclining towards each other at the top, so that the passage through is very narrow ; it is formed of fine twigs, is placed on a very thick platform of thicker twigs, is nearly 4 feet in length and almost as much in breadth, and has here and there a small snail-shell or berry dropped in as a decoration.” The following is Macgillivray’s account of his discovery of the species ; ete eee “Two days before we left Cape York, I was told that some Bower-birds had been seen in a ee : patch of low scrub, half a mile from the beach; and after along search I found a eee bower, 4 feet long and 18 inches high, with some fresh berries lying upon It. The bower o a the border of the thicket, the bushes composing which were seldom more than 10 feet high, growing smooth sandy soil without grass. : er ‘Next morning I was landed before daylight, and proceeded to the place in copay ee os I had great difficulty im inducing my Paida, taking mths a large Boamdron which to carry off the bower as a specimen. SNTZINT ZANT RN OM 2 (.) Uiv.eiy. 4, — A esc, ‘> os & x JOO J Yi + APIA R's >) 5 —— nove K > rn? a) AN TANGA R7. oWo Ss aWaso Veo © Re. WOVOVRYOVE D J? friend to accompany me, as he was afraid of ae = — ic ee Daa ever F se yrotect him, an ‘ that they were coming to fight the Evans Bay people. However, I promised to protec , and loaded with ball, which gave him increased confidence ; still he insisted upon carrying a large bundle of a war party of Gomokudins, which tribe had lately given notice one barrel spears and a throwing-stick. sae ; een do . : aes A go3 alt sac 2 wingd (its native name) as 1€ dartec “ While watching in the scrub, I caught several glimpses of the Tewinga ( ) é through the bushes in the neighbourhood of the bower, announcing Its presence by an J Se.sU0nE. loud ating the notes of various other birds, especially the Zropidorhynchus. YT unever before met churr-r-r, and imit and, for a long time, it euticed me to follow it to a short distance, then flying off with a more wary bird ; : ; and alighting on the bower it would deposit a berry or two, run through and be off again before I could reach the spot. All this time it was impossible to get a shot. At length, just as my patience was becoming exhausted, I saw the bird enter the bower and disappear, when I fired at random through the twigs, fortunately with effect. So closely had we concealed ourselves latterly, and so silent had we been, that a kangaroo, while feeding, actually hopped up within fifteen yards, unconscious of our presence Bua fired at.” Eggs of the present species are in the Australian Museum and in the collection of Mr. Philip Crowley. The latter were taken by Mr. A. Goldie in Milne Bay, S.E. New Guinea. Mr. A. J. North (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, (2) i. p. 1160) says that the egg is very like that of C. maculata in colour, with the same peculiar linear markings crossing and recrossing each other all round, but confined more to the larger end of the egg than is usually the case with C. maculata. A specimen in the Australian Museum collection, taken at Cape York, measures 1-4 inch in length by 1:03 inch in breadth. The nest is an open one, cup-shaped, and built near the ground; it is composed of twigs, pieces of bark and moss, and is lined inside with grass &c.” The following description of the species is copied from my sixth volume of the ‘ Catalogue of Birds’ :— Adult. Above brown, all the feathers edged with ashy, giving a greyish shade to the upper parts, nearly uniform on the hind-neck; crown of head, feathers above the eyes, and lores thickly but minutely dotted with triangular spots of buffy white; the whole of the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts distinctly streaked down the shaft with buffy white, dilating into a triangular spot at the tip, all the apical markings much larger and whiter on the wing-coverts, the primary-coverts edged with whitish near the tip; quills brown, externally washed with greyish, the secondaries tipped with white, forming a large spot at the tip of the innermost; rump and upper tail-coverts streaked like the back, but slightly more tinged with fulvous ; tail- feathers brown, washed with greyish along the edge of the outer webs and tipped with white; entire sides of face and throat ashy brown, thickly streaked everywhere with light fawn-buff, all the feathers being mesially streaked with this colour; chest fawn-buff, mottled with ashy brown, with which colour the feathers are edged and slightly barred; all the rest of the under surface of the body clear fawn-colour, the flanks indistinctly mottled with indications of ashy-brown bars; sides of the upper breast brown, broadly streaked down the centre with fulvous; under wing-coverts fawn, like the underparts, the outermost of the greater series ashy brown, with pale fulvous bases, the lower surface of the quills light brown, edged with pale fulvous along the inner web: “bill black; feet grey; iris black” (J. Macgillivray) : “feet greenish; iris dark maroon” (Z. Loria). Total length 11:3 inches, culmen 1-1, wing 5°65, tail 4-91, tarsus 1:7. The upper figure in the accompanying Plate represents an adult male of this species from Cape York, of the size of life. has meat top o and t I was whic or bo Smal] like ¢] built decor: by exp are Tp Which MYON BIS: aves che, cea BE — CHLAMYDODERA MACULATA (Gould). . Spotted Bower-bird. Calodera maculata, Gould, P. Z. S. 1836, p. 106.—Id. Syn. B. Austr. part i. (1837) Chlamydera maculata, Gould, B. Austr. part i. (1837, cancelled).—Id. op. cit. iv. nla Cau e=cr . p. 225 (1846).—Bp. Consp. Av. i. p. 370 (1850).—Digeles, Orn. Austr = : Me Gen. Bee | —Gray, Hand-l. B. i. p. 294, no. 4340 (1869). per 2 BP lo2e Comisaray Chlamydodera macujata, Cab. Mus. Hein. Th. i, p. 212 (Oct. 1851).—Gould, H meg mucays Ubis; 1866, p.329.— Elliot, Monogr. Parad. jal, SSR, (1873).—Ramsay ee aSeleyZ 5 Id. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. 8. W. ii. p. 188 (1878).—Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. ea : cna | eee umn, Soe N.S. W. vil. p. 409, pl. ii, fig. 2 (1s83),—North, op. cit Q) i ie 1165 (1887).—Ramsay, Tab. List Austr. B. p- 11 (1888).—North, Deser. Cat, Nee a aa ee ee Px! fe. 5 (1889) —Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn, Club, iv. p. xiv Co Ptilorhynchus maculatus, Schl. Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, p. 119 (1867) andb. B. Austr. i. p. 450 (1865). Tus Spotted Bower-bird is distinguished by the reddish spots or bars at the tips of the feathers of the upper | surface, which give the bird a strongly mottled appearance, as well as by the dusky spots and bars on the flanks and throat. The head is rufous brown, varied with blackish edgings and spots the male has a lilac band on the nape. Mr, E. P. Ramsay, in his ‘Tabular List of Australian Birds,’ gives the range of the species as from Cape York and Rockingham Bay to Port Denison, the Dawson River, and the Wide Bay district, as well as New South Wales, the interior of Australia to Victoria, and South Australia. Mr. A. G. North also adds | the Clarence River district as a habitat of the species, so that its range is complete from Cape York to New South Wales and thence west to Victoria and South Australia. In his ‘ Descriptive Catalogue of the Nests and Eggs of Birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania,’ Mr. North writes :—** Our knowledge of the range of this species has recently been extended to Cape York. Previously Rockingham Bay was considered its northern limit on the coast, and the Murray district in Victoria and South Australia its most southern range. The interior provinces are the stronghold of this species, where it is found plentifully dispersed all over the Lachlan and Darling River districts. It also occurs inland eighty miles west from Rockhampton.” On the feathers, and Gould has given the following account of the species in his ‘ Handbook to the Birds of Australia’ :— ‘During my journey into the interior of New South Wales, I observed this bird to be tolerably abundant at Brezi on the river Mokai to the northward of the Liverpool Plains: it is also equally numerous in all the low scrubby ranges in the neighbourhood of the Namoi, as well as in the open brushes which intersect the plains on its borders ; and collections from Moreton Bay generally contain examples ; still from the extreme shyness of its disposition, the bird is seldom seen by ordinary travellers, and it must be under very peculiar circumstances that it can be approached sufficiently close to observe its colours. The Spotted Bower-bird has a harsh, grating, scolding note, which is generally uttered when its haunts are intruded on, and by this means its presence is detected when it would otherwise escape observation. When disturbed it takes to the topmost branches of the loftiest trees, and frequently flies off to another neighbourhood. “In many of its actions and in the greater part of its economy much similarity exists between this species and the Satin Bower-bird, particularly in the curious habit of constructing an artificial bower oF playing-place. I was so far fortunate as to discover several of these bowers during my journey in the interior, the finest of which I succeeded in bringing to England ; it is now in the British Museum. ‘The SE of these runs or bowers are much varied: I found them both on the plains studded with Myalls (Acacia pendula) and other smnall trees, and in the brushes clothing the lower hills. They are considerably longer and more avenue- like than those of the Satin Bower-bird, being in many instances three feet in length. They are outwardly built of twigs, and beautifully lined with tall grasses, so disposed that their heads nearly meet ; me decorations are very profuse, and consist of bivalve shells, crania of small ae and os On by exposure to the rays of the sun or from the camp-fires of the natives. Byte: eee of hig HS are manifest throughout the bower and decorations formed by this species, particularly in a ae which the stones are placed within the bower, apparently to keep the grasses with which it is Jined fix NY V7 ty A 2 AS t FN PN 4 4 \ ovowo teweso a MONEE ae aN Fe . CPS ‘AL Nt f eves o P- firmly in their places: these stones diverge from the tion of decorative materials are placed in In some of the larger bowers, which had evidently mouth of the run on each side so as to form little paths, hile the immense collec a heap before the entrance of the while the imme . at both ends. avenue, the arrangement being the same a bushel of bones, shells, &c., at each of the entrances. | sorted to for many years, I have seen half s at a considerable distance from the rivers, from the borders of which they Ils aud small round pebbly stones ; their collection aud transportation been re frequently found these structure could alone have procured the she must therefore be a task of great labour. Bower-bird, formed the rendezvous of many individuals ; them, I killed two males which I had previously seen running through the avenue.” t « this Bower-bird thrives well in confinement, and its powers of mimicry I fully ascertained that these runs, like those of the Satin for, after secreting myself for a short space of time near one of Mr. North tells me (¢z epist.) tha rival those of Menura.” Dr. Ramsay writes (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. vii. p. 409) :— “T have received this species of Bower-bird from almost every part of the interior of Queensland, New South Wales, and South Australia, and eggs from the Dawson River in Queensland, the Barkoo, the Clarence River, and from the Cobar district in New South Wales. They differ very little in the tints of the markings, varying in shades of umber, sienna, and olive-brown. ‘Those at present under consideration were taken by Mr. James Ramsay in the Cobar district; they are of a pale greenish white with numerous thick lines of umber wound round the whole surface, irregular, wavy, crossing and recrossing here and there, forming loops and knots, and occasionally crossed by a line of black or an obsolete line of olive or slaty brown. ‘The nest is an open structure of sticks and grasses, round, about five inches inside diameter, by three deep, and four inches high; it is placed between the thick upright forks of a tree. The eggs are two to three in number for a sitting, length 1°53 inch x 1-07 inch in diameter.” Mr. North, in his ‘Catalogue,’ observes :—‘* The nest is an open structure, usually placed in a low tree, and is saucer- or bowl-shaped, composed of sticks and lined with grass, about five inches inside diameter by three inches deep, and four inches high. It is very rarely indeed that C. maculata is found near the coast, although on one occasion Dr. Ramsay procured an egg on Ash Island, near Hexham, on the Hunter River, about ten miles from the sea-coast. This was in 1861, and probably the first time that the egg had been found, though this fact appears to have escaped Dr. Ramsay’s memory, since he described another egg of the same species thirteen years afterwards (P.Z.S. 1874, p. 605), when Mr. J. B. White was credited with having obtained the first specimen. “Tn 1875 Mr. James Ramsay procured several specimens of both birds and eggs near Tyndarie ; and others were received from the Clarence River district. Since then the eggs have become less rare in collections, and are to be found in most of those formed in the interior. The eggs of C. maculata vary considerably in the extent of their markings, and sometimes in the tints of colouring. One I have from the Dawson River district is slightly smaller than usual, and has the ground-colour of a faint greenish-grey, covered all over with a fine network of light brownish linear markings, closer together near the thickest end; others have their markings confined altogether to the larger end of the egg. A set taken by Mr. Johu Macgillivray at Grafton on the Clarence River, on the 7th of September, 1864, measures :—Length 1:47—1°5 inch X 1-09 inch.” Mr. North has kindly sent me a photograph of two eggs taken by Mr. James Ramsay at Tyndarie, and describes them as follows:—‘They are of a greenish-grey colour, which is almost obscured by numerous linear markings, short streaks, and fine hair-lines of umber-brown. One specimen has two black linear streaks on the larger end and a few indistinct clouded blotches of pale violet-grey appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell. Length 1-47-1-5 inch X 1:09 inch.” In a letter recently received from Mr. North he writes:— A correspondent of mine, whose accuracy in these matters I can vouch for, informed me that he saw a most remarkable bower of C. maculata near Cobar in N.S. Wales. It was formed of curved twigs as usual, which met near the top and, recurving again, formed a second bower above, much smaller than the one underneath. The lower bower measured about two feet, the one on the top (which was in the centre) one foot. It had the usual complement of bones, also a few of Eley’s cartridge-cases.” Mr. North sent me a rough oe oe the bower, from which Mr. H. Gronwold has drawn a little picture (see opposite page). The following descriptions are taken from my sixth volume of the ‘ Catalogue of Birds’ :— Adult male. General colour above dark brown, spotted all over with tawny buff near the end of each bei lig tar’ Mu feather, these spots paling into whitish near the apex ; C ’ the hind-neck plain umbe ne-spot from the mantle; head tawny buff, mottled and, nape-s : oe feathers; a few of the feathers of the crown with beautiful lilac plumes, somewhat elongated laterally ; r-brown, separating the as it were, striped with dark brown edges silvery-whitish tips; on the nape a band of wing-coverts like the buff at the tips; the quills brown, edged with whity brown : ie ; hi solete on the secondaries, these spots being somewhat obsolete on the back, and spotted with tawny and having pale spots at the end of the tips of the blackish brown, having in addition to the fulvous bar at the end, buff; tail-feathers brown, edged with pale brown along both primaries ; upper tail-coverts a second sub-terminal bar of tawny webs, and tipped with pale tawny buff; awny buff, like the head, and striped in the same manner, with dusky brown edges to the feathers ; cheeks buffy whitish, the feathers ed throat fulvescent, shading off into whity brown on the chest, the bre lores and ear-coverts, as well as the sides of the neck, t ged with brown ; ast and abdomen being uniform the flanks and thighs; the throat and tail-coverts pale tawny buff, with a few remains of dusky brown bars; axillaries buffy whitish ; under wing-coverts uy buff, with a few quills ashy brown below, pale yellow along the inner web: “bill creamy buff; the sides of the body whitish, barred with dusky on > fore-neck spotted with small bars of dusky; under dusky brown bars ; and feet dusky brown; bare skin at the corner of the mouth thick, fleshy, prominent, ao ofa re peo iris dark brown ” (Gould). Total length 11-5 inches, culmen 1-1, wing 5:75, ‘eal 4°25, rel Ite | a Adult female. Very similar to the male, but without the lilac-coloured band on ae S being of the same colour as the head, and eed from the “mantle by the ree : : i lighter and more umber-brown than the back. Total length 11-5 inches, culmen 1-1, wing 0°7, tai : tarsus 1:6. atter The figure in the Plate represents a male of this species drawn from a specimen in the British Museum. - D. BOWER OF THE SPOTTED BOWER-BIR From a sketch by Mr. North. ~ a mee Oe Sa Cas tie pee en ee ee eee ~~ ~ ~ — poe ma eae uo w — oc a ~ fe ee = aa ome ee eo) ae ee ee ee Wi, ey ee So r ' be peat (ccd 7 = = se if ee a eo Os oS OS ee, faa) I ~ o = apa a = = a a Iam © = x Sa = a 6S 5 Ss ~~, mm o~& im e VU) j \ ea = rx = \ a — 4 SS ~~ H . f 2 | S =n > S = H a IT a. 3 om 4 WALA TAIN oe & ©, ry ao ad eee, eo." cy is 4 f\ jppe tree i ’ r . ata IX EX AW aa aN AY =) 1 t JIC q OG ; H OK opme ROMO ROMS INININI Fhe ied ed) CHLAMYDODERA OCCIPITALIS, Large-frilled Bower-bird, Gould. eee ONION wwe JY, f3) Chlamydodera occipitalis, Gould, Annals & Mag. Nat. Hist. 4th series, xvi. p. 429 (1878).—Id. B. New Guin. i. pl. 45 (1879).—Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. ii. p- 188 (1878). Chlamydodera maculata (pt.), Sharpe, Cat. Birds in Brit. Mus. vi. p. 389 (1881).—Ramsay, Tab. List Austr. B. p. 11 (1888). 1 wa @. i a nGlie-€, Tuts species was described by the late Mr. Gould in 1875, froma specimen procured at Port Albany, Northern Australia. He separated it from C. maculata on account of its ‘somewhat larger size and the extreme beauty of its occipital patch, which is nearly twice as large as in the species mentioned, and is even of a more brilliant lilac-colour, particularly if the frill be turned up and seen from beneath.” Dr. E. P. Ramsay examined the type of this species when he was last in England, and came to the conclusion that it was nothing more than a very fine male specimen of the ordinary C. maculata, and when I wrote the sixth volume of the ‘ Catalogue of Birds ’ I came to the same conclusion, after an examination of the type, which had by that time become the property of the British Museum. As, however, the bird is certainly much finer than any other specimen I have seen, and as its habitat 1s considerably removed from that of C. maculata, 1 have considered it worth re-figuring in the present Monograph under the name bestowed upon it by Mr. Gould, trusting to the zeal of Australian naturalists to discover more specimens and decide the differences, if there are any, between the two Spotted Bower-birds. Mr. Gould never accepted my opinion about his C. occipitalis, and affirmed its specific distinctness up to the day of his death. I think, therefore, that it would have been wrong to have omitted a figure of the bird in the present work. The Plate represents the adult male, and is a reproduction of the one published by Mr. Gould in ate ‘Birds of New Guinea.” He addst—‘ The decorative bower forming part of the illustration is taken from a photograph of some unknown species sent to me by the late Mr. Coxen, of Brisbane; it may or may not be that of the present bird.” aos 5 to xa tt AS ri . ) WEVEY : WA NY, 3 aa AL EA Wy « CHLAMYDODERA GUTTATA, com Large-spotted Bower-bird. Chlamydera guttata, Gould, P.Z.S. 1862, p. 162.—Id. B. " p, 294, no. 4340 (1869). Chlamydodera guttata, Gould, Handb. B. Austr. i. p-. 452 (1865).—Elliot, Monogr. Parad mtn o Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. ii. p. 188 (1878).—Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit ae a - 22 (1873).— North, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. (2) i. p. 1159 (1887).—Ramsay, Tab. List ae Cs Stirling & Zietz, Trans. R. Soc. S. Austr. xvi. p. 157 (1893).—Sharpe, Bull. Brit oe ee oe (1894).—North, Rep. Horn Sci. Exped. Centr. Austr. part ul. Zool. Aves, p- 90 cn a Austr. Suppl. pl. 35 (1867).—Gray, Hand-l. B. j Tus species differs from C. maculata in having the crown of the head silvery brown, slicht] tineodl adil ; i ’ » Sightly tinged with rufous bars, the bases to the feathers being black. Mr. North, describing the two males pene ick b a jal- ve 7 ne Reta, cae aa . 5 UY) the Horn Expedition to Central Australia, says :—*Two examples of this distinct ‘ 2 and well-marked species were obtained at Glen Edith. Both are males and apparently not quite 7 adult, or in the moult, for one are but slieht ; ; in the other specimen. This species is readily distineuished fr i ee oe Mithe otlier spe : S S| adily distinguished from its near ally, C. maculata of Eastern and Southern Australia, by the feathers of the upper surface being blackish brown instead of dark brown C) WIS IX me) has only a faint indication of the beautiful lilac nuchal plumes, and they rendering the spots, which are paler, more conspicuous—and by the absence of the earthy-brown band between the nuchal plumes and the mantle. The head and neck, too, are much darker, nl the tips of the wing-coverts and secondaries are pale yellowish buff, instead of tawny buff.” The following is the note on the species made by Mr. Keartland, the naturalist to the Horn Expedition :— “Wherever the ‘native fig” trees existed, these birds were found. They were generally very shy, and only two specimens were obtained. Several bowers seen bore a close resemblance to those of Ce neuen At Owen Springs we were informed that in dry weather these birds come to the water-buckets under the veranda to drink, and become quite fearless of the presence of persons sitting close Dau The species was first met with by Mr. Stuart during his journey across the Australian continent from Adelaide to the Victoria River, and the head of an adult male obtained by him is in the Gould collection in the British Museum, in which institution is a perfect skin of a female collected somewhere in North-western Australia. It is doubtless this species, as Gould has pointed out, which is referred to in his ‘ Travels’ (vol. i. pp. 196, 245) by Sir George Grey, who met with it at the summit of one of the sandstone-ranges forming the watershed of the streams flowing into the Glenelg and Prince Regent’s rivers. He writes :—*‘ We fell in with a very remarkable nest, or what appeared to me to be such. We had previously seen several of them, and they had always afforded us food for conjecture as to the agent and purpose of such singular structures. This very curious sort of nest, which was frequently found by myself and other individuals of the party, not only along the sea-shore, but in some instances at a distance of six or seven miles from it, I once conceived must have belonged to a kangaroo, until I was informed that it was the run or playing-place of a species of Chlamydodera. These structures were formed of dead grass and parts of bushes, sunk a slight depth into two parallel furrows of sandy soil, and then nicely arched above. But the most remarkable fact connected with them was that they were always full of broken sea-shells, large heaps of which protruded from each extremity. In one instance, in a bower the most remote from the sea that we discovered, one wl the men of the party found and brought to me the stone of some fruit which had evidently been rolled in the sea ; these stones he found lying in a heap in the nest, and they are now in my possession.” The following is the description of the species given by me in my sixth volume of the ‘ Catalogue of Birds’ :— “Very similar to C. maculata, but altogether darker above, anc as the back, with smaller tawny buff spots; the under surface of the body is also darker. 12 inches, culmen 1-05, wing 5:6, tail 4:25, tarsus 1°6. “The head of the male, collected by Mr. Stuart during bis tr of 4 3 : 5 ee a The lilac band is much richer in tint, ar ; as in C. maculata. The that the species has no 1 having the neck of the same dark brown Total length avels into the interior of Australia, likewise 1 the head points to the species being distinct from C, maculata. shows the whole of the feathers with silvery tips, instead of only a few thus marked feathers of the hind-neck resemble those of the female, and seem to Oe band of earthy brown between the nape and the mantle as in its near ally.’ | so The species so closely resembles C. maculata that a separate figure has been considered unnecessary. W Har eer ag “t delet lth CHLAMY DODERA NUCHAL, VT { A S (Sard. & Selby). Mintern Bros. imp. CHI Ptilonor! Calodera Chlamya Chlamyd Chlamyd Ptilorhyn Tals specie more unifo! at the ends It was fi the origina Expedition, distribution the Gulf of Gould wr ‘TIlustratior in the collec particulars 1 an inbabitan visited, ] Messrs, By; economy, “The fol all that has | ‘T foun Which was st Was 2> feet | thought this 10 go and see at the Victor; alternately fr The follow Adult male brown, these latter having dark brown, €condaries « the tip ; band of Whitish ; he; bea hind CHLAMYDODERA NUCHALIg (Jard, & Selby), Western Lilac-naped Bower-bird. Ptilonorhynchus nuchalis, Jard. & Selby, Ilustr. Orn. ii. pl. 102 (1820). Calodera nuchalis, Gould, Syn. B. Austr. pt. i. (1837). Chlamydera nuchahs, Gould, B. Austr. pt. i. (cancelled).—Id. Op. cit. iv. pl. ix Austr. ii. p. 97 (1846).—Gray, Gen. B. ii, Pp: 235 2 (1846 -—Bonap. (1850).—Jacq. et Pucher. Voy. Péle Sud, texte, iii. ) ap. Consp. Ay, apart, p. 64 (1853).—Gr; ae : no. 4339 (1869). )—Gray, Hand-l. B. i p, 294, Chlamydere a nuque ornée, Hombr. et Jacq. Voy. Péle Sud, Atlas, pl. vii. fig, 2 (1849-53), Chiamydodera nuchalis, Cab. Mus. Hein. Th. i. p. 212 (1851).—Gould, (1865).—Elliot, Monogr. Parad. pl. xxxi. (1873).—Masters, p. 273 (1878).—Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. vi. p. 391 N.S. W. (2) ii. p. 169 (1888).—Id. Tab. List Austr. Club, iv. p. xiv (1894), Ptilorhynchus nuchalis, Schl. Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, p. 119 (1867). Handb. B. Austr. i. p. 448 coca kininase IN, SW resell (1888).—Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Tuis species and its eastern ally are distinguished from Chlamydodera maculata and its more uniform upper surface, the feathers being margined with ashy-whitish or h at the ends, the throat and sides of the body being perfectly uniform. It was first described by Jardine and Selby, and Dr. Ramsay (Tab. List Austr. B. p- 10) believes that the original specimen must have been found ‘in North-western Australia, probably during Leichardt’s Expedition, probably by Gilbert or Elsey, near Port Essington.” In the same book Dr. Ramsay gives the distribution of C. nuchalis as the Derby district in N.W. Australia, Port Darling and Port Essington, and the Gulf of Carpentaria. aving white tips or bars Gould writes in 1865, in his ‘ Handbook’ :—This fine species was first described and figured in the ‘Illustrations of Ornithology,’ by Sir William Jardine and Mr. Selby, from the then unique specimens in the collection of the Linnean Society; but neither the part of Australia of which it is a native nor any particulars relative to its habits were known to those gentlemen. It is now clearly ascertained that it is an inhabitant of the north-west coast, a portion of the Australian continent that has, as yet, been little visited. J am indebted for individuals of both sexes to two of the officers of H.MS. ‘Beagle,’ Messrs. Bynoe and Dring; but neither of these gentlemen furnished me with any account of its economy. “The following passage from Captain Stokes’s ‘ Discoveries in Australia’ (vol. ii. p. 97) comprises all that has been recorded respecting the curious bower constructed by this bird :-— “<1 found matter for conjecture in noticing a number of twigs with their ends stuck in the ground, which was strewed over with shells, and their tops brought together so as to form a small bower; this was 22 feet long, 14 foot wide at either end. It was not until my next visit to Port Essington that I thought this anything but some Australian mother’s toy to amuse her child; upon being ee one day, to go and see the ‘ birds’ playhouse,’ J immediately recognized the same kind of construction I had seen at the Victoria River, and found the bird amusing itself by flying backwards and forwards, taking a shell alternately from each side, and carrying it through the archway in its mouth.’ ” ee The following descriptions are copied from my sixth volume of the ‘ Catalogue of Birds ’:— Adult male. General colour above ashy brown, the feathers being dark brown edged with ashy brown, these margins being very Bistinet and broad on the rump and ee Oa ue latter having indications of a sub-terminal whitish spot as well as the light tip; wing-coverts dark brown, margined with ashy, and tipped with a whitish spot, which 1s ae “he weet secondaries; __tail-feathers brown, margined with ashy on both webs, and barre = ae the tip; head brown, each feather having a minute spot of ashy at the tip; om I . ee athers, tipped with silvery band of beautiful lilac feathers, fringed with some stiffened brown feathers, ee i ee whitish ; the nuchal band from the mantle; Ss broader on the hind neck uniform ashy brown, separating (1841).—Stokes, Discov. ii. (1881).—Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soe. allies by their ena eae NS, EN ef Bin 9e:5 i¥¥ J\\2 24 CP iy aR JIE JS OF e2Re ae Dae Fe ese = @ iy, de) INININI) f ry C] i wy ds edd ooo ieee ? An 2S 0, — y gee = ©, WI Ty x oy” Ooo oo OC Se Ser Ore ¥0. face of body light ashy brown, becoming paler on the abdomen, where it flanks and thighs having faint indications of dusky bars, under tail-coverts, which are whitish of face, and under sur inclines to creamy white, the lower these becoming zigzag and distinct in character on the under wing-coverts and axillaries pale ashy brown, with a few indications of like the abdomen; bill, legs, and irides dusky bars; quills ashy brown below, pale yellowish along the inner web: brownish ” (Gould). Total length 14:5 inches, culmen 1-4, wing 6°75, tail 5°5, tarsus 1°9. Adult female. Differs from the male in wanting the lilac band on the nape, and in having the under surface faintly barred with dusky. Total length 13 inches, culmen 14, wing 6:75, tail 5:5, tarsus 1-9. The figures in the Plate are drawn from specimens in the British Museum. . _—_— a — 86«éohe ~~ —~ I) Ss oi - = ie a — = — ae - ; = — ae | ag = = ine a oon fine = Lt se = oo wae ss ; Se - © 8M gem t —s- om : = 3 4 =~ &e t I. J = e f. S aa tL 4 I — eS - fo 5s . = a = a d ‘ Ss & YL s = a oe pe Be ~ DO Fy oH - 2 2 5) — 7 oo) ee a oom — SS [> > ne L f2 3 oo et 3 =I Ad “— = ow So = S =a = ee Be ee Me e Be iy ee et a 4 Z so | a no 5 he @ a> = 4 a5 = ; = c et — 5} =B) C = - 7 y = io = ame ak 3 S gol Ree wees = 6) =] z : — = iw n “S 7 oN yl Tut dun ‘woug aap" ae ag PTD “STIVINGARTO VustdO CLAIATY THO > : fis 2 ie = ‘ | =| =§ Oo A Mentors Bros. arg. CHLAMYD ODERA ORLENTALIS, Gould. J. Gould, & W. Hart del.et ith. CHLAMYDODERA ORIENTALIS, Gowza Queensland Lilac-naped Bower-bird. Chlamydera nuchalis (nec J ard. & Selby), Ramsay, Ibis, 1865, p. 85. Chlamydodera nuchalis (nec Jard. & Selby), Ramsay, Ibis, 1866, p. 329.—Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, p. 385.—Id. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, ii. p. 188 (1878). Chlamydodera orientalis, Gould, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (5) iv. p. 74 (1879).—Id. Birds of New Guinea, i. pl. 44 (1880).—Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. vi. p. 392 (1881).—Ramsay, Tab. List Austr. B. p. 11 (1888). Tuts is the eastern representative of the Lilac-naped Bower-bird of North-western Australia. It is found only in Queensland and the districts of Port Denison and Rockingham Bay. The differences between the present species and the true Ch/amydodera nuchalis were first pointed out by Mr. Gould in 1879, and have since been admitted by myself in the ‘ Catalogue of Birds’ and by Dr. E. P. Ramsay in his ‘Tabular List of Australian Birds,’ where will be found a note on the differences between the eastern and western forms. Dr. Ramsay states that he has received several specimens from Port Denison, where it is by no means rare. His correspondent, Mr. Rainbird, sent him a living example, which he bad in confinement for five months, Dr. Ramsay says :—‘‘ It fed freely on bread soaked in water, and on almost anything in the shape of fruit. It was a great mimic, and imitated many of our native birds with much precision, accompanied by the most varied and pleasing actions.” Adult male. Similar to C. nuchalis, but much more mottled on the upper surface, with whitish tips to the feathers, these markings being very apparent on the head, which is not so uniform as in C. nuchalis. Total length 13:5 inches, culmen 1-5, wing 7:0, tail 5°5, tarsus 1:9. Adult female. Similar to the male, but wanting the lilac nuchal spot ; smaller and less pronounced. Total length 12°5 inches, culmen 1°30, W Young male. Similar to the adult female at first, and acquiring the nuchal p specimens in the British Museum. the whitish spots on the back also ing 67, tail 5:2, tarsus 1°7. atch by a moult. The descriptions and figures are taken from the typical ke i 4 JUIN FRIIS INNZ ASS EALZA A\ > Te? Cyt? Tye) JU a a 4 R o LIK és emeoae JX. 1} as +¥ eo 2 J AS — SD <= JIT UN fis a i9ey c did \ Cyt) oN o Ze. IOI OUR —— JR ey, = aw * . 2 > ogo ~ Nd az¥. att i hi - g AS > (..) = i eo es wiz a i g oN /\ — 4 ; Cee a FRICILILY ar — o= @, ya a AX Ree & ©, Fes — aS Ss i A, Leyer. Meyer’s Bow er-bird. Chlamydodera recondita, Meyer Abhandl. k. z0ol. Mus. Dresden 1894-9 ar) Se . 5, no. 10, p. 2 (1895). rt) > ee = ; 5 o roe Aw A a (yt? te i IA Dr. A. B. Meyer has described and fiured the eow of; nn —.. - on 5 egg ofa species of Chlamydodera from Constantine Harbour in Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land in German New Guinea : , Where it was taken by Herr A, Grubauer a Se 5 F; rt) fl aa A aX. CS INI IN ==> (2) Se CHLAMYDODERA LAUTERBACHL, premier Lauterbach’s Bower-bird. J ° c o be & Chlamydodera lauterbachi, Reichenow, Orn. Monatsb. vy, p- 24 (1897).—Id. J. f. O. 1897, p. 215, pl. vi. Tus fine species, which I have not seen myself, but which Mr, Hartert informs me is a true Ch lamydodera, was discovered by Lauterbach on the Jagei Rive r, a tributary of the Ramu River in German New Guinea, It has been figured by Dr. Reichenow (Z. ¢.), and is evidently quite distinct from all the other species of the genus. Whether the egg on which Dr. Meyer founded his C. recondita will ultimately be discovered to belong to C. lauterbachi is a problem with which we need not trouble ourselves at present. The following is a translation of Dr. Reichenow’s original description :— Adult male. — ew iy viy NF A a CS Ry Uk Crown of head and cheeks golden-orange; nape yellowish olive-brown; feathers of the upper part of the body, upper tail-coverts, aud lesser wing-coverts olive-brown, with yellowish edgings ° & le s a maiettpe median and greater coverts olive-brown with a whitish fringe at their tips; fore-neck pale Wales ctrated with brown, each feather having a pale yellow sbaft-stripe and brown margins; centre of the throat nearly uniform pale yellow ; under surface of body and under tail-coverts pale wae Memes handed across with pale brown; under wing-coverts pale yellow, the longer ones with pale brownish tips; tail-feathers dark olive-brown, with yellowish outer margins and broad whiter inner margins Sey gulls dark brown, with narrow pale yellowish outer margins; the shafts pelo below ; the secondaries with whitish tips: bill black; feet grey; iris brown. Length 285 millim., wing 130, fanleealis bill 22, tarsus 40. in | There is no specimen of C. dauterbachi in England, the type being unique in the Berlin Museum, so I have been unable to give a figure of the species. VP aN aN Ww oxo AM A VAN Aid fi : T Q —| U. 1d 47 S67 ne 1979 L0.- C | Q \T 4 / 87: Tus is the largest of the Dr, Wallace during his e: Rosenberg, Mr, Hoedt, an and Makor; D’Albertis al ove of the many species in southern portion of the ere Of the habits of this Ge i tha te stomacl) the same seed i Count Salvadori states { ithe lower parts less deci aud showy less of a green ies met with. al ds follows —_- Bi one pea Ot parts Ati male ( E I spec Ail nl (3p Migcoverts and primaries Mite; quills dull | Outer leathers all ack, the feathers rown ¢ the feath being mos . | the hinder neck ; i RM « sU (I l ea bare natal E € patch Car-covert US The 7 on of black : the fi “Smith Dlack ot: ay aaa SIVINg a ye oY toclining a I¢ iis 0 fawn-by 088 lines of blac] te Ol} the {| ink £, _ Hlank-feathers » Many of 4) mn / i the abdom} On t de lower of. . fa. Cl SUrtace of ¢ "fe hale, Sin ) : : ae , 4dr fo | mi ler oy 4EJLORCEDUS MELAN OTIS (Gray), W. Hart delet Lith Vintarn Bres. unp. HANHLVN ALA UL T}ATpTaeyreeayT TT pT a M 7 a a ALUREDUS MELANOTIS @q) * Black-cheeked Cat-bird. Ptilonorhynchus melanotis, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, ‘i ee a - , > : €w Guin. DS Oe AC (1859).—Id. P. Z. 8, 1861, p. 486; Rosenb. Nat. Tijdschr. Nederl. Ind. XXYV. p. 236 cn ee J. f. O. 1864, p. 122 (pt.).—Finsch. Neu-Guinea, Bae las (iSGa) Roe a ee 0. 186: eo ; eee) 9. Reis naar Zuidoosterei] p. 47 (1867).—Gray, Hand-l. B. i. Pp. 294, no. 4338 (1869).—p elz. Verh. k.-k, 1872, p. 428.—Musschenbr. Dagboek, pp. 212, 241 (1883),— p. 54. Des S04 ia Cat. B. N sen ZOOI.-bot, Gesellsch, Rosenb. Mitth, orn. Ver. Wien, 1885, Ptilorhynchus melanotis, Schl. Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, Re (raz, pt.). Ailuredus melanotis, Meyer, Sitzb. k. Akad. d. Wissensch. ] % pl. 39 (1875). Ailuredus melanotis, Elliot, Monogr. Parad. pl. 35 (1873).—Id. Introd. Monogr. a Ibis, 1874, p. 416.—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Gen. ix, Dato Se sion ead D’Alb. & Salvad. Ann. Mus. Gen. xiv. p. 114 (1879).—D’Alb, Nuova Guin. p. 588 (1880).—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, ii. p. 671 (1 881).—Id. Voy. ‘ Challenger,’ Birds, p. 82 (1881).—Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. vi p. 383 (1881).—Meyer, Zeitschr. ges. Orn. i. p. 293 (1884) —Salvad. Age. Orn, Papuasia, ii Deteo (1890). 118 (1867) —Iq. Neder, Tijdschr. Dierk. Iv. p. 51 eiKe pp. 82, 83 Gis7ay) = Gould » B. New Guinea, ad. p. xxii (1873, pt.).—Scel. - Proc. Zool. Soc. 13785 ps 99 Se Tus is the largest of the Cat-birds with white tips to the tail. Dr. Wallace during his expedition to the Malay Archipelago, and Rosenberg, Mr. Hoedt, and Dr. Beccari in most of the islands of the It was discovered in the Aru Islands by bas since been discovered by Baron von Aru group—such as Wokan, Trangan, and Maikor ; D’Albertis also collected several specimens on the Fly River, in May and June. It is therefore one of the many species in Southern New Guinea which prove the relationship between the avifauna of the | southern portion of the great Papuan Island and that of the Aru Archipelago. Of the habits of this Cat-bird we know nothing. D’Albertis states that it feeds on fruit, and he found in the stomach the same seeds as those devoured by Paradisea nove-ouinee, Ptilorhis itercedens, and Cicinnurus regius. Count Salvadori states that the females are a little smaller than the males and have the ochreous colour of the lower parts less decided, while the margins of the feathers of the upper part of the breast are duller and show less of a green shade. The reddish colour on the feathers of the head and neck, which is sometimes met with, appears to Salvadori to bea sign of youth. D/’Albertis describes the colour of the soft parts as follows :—* Bill ashy whitish; feet ashy ; iris chestnut or coppery red.” Adult male (type of species). General colour above bright grass-green, slightly shaded with oe on OE wing-coverts and primaries; the median and greater wing-coverts and the secondanies tipped with py gates quills dull brown on the inner webs; tail dull grass-green, blackish on the inner webs of ie Outer feathers, all the feathers rather broadly tipped with white; head and neck fulvous, unottled with black, the feathers being mostly of the latter colour, with a large oval spot of fulvons nee the tip, Heny much larger on the hinder neck ; lores and a line of feathers above and below the eye buffy me behind a eye a bare patch; ear-coverts black ; rest of the sides of the face buffy white, barred with narrow ee cross lines of flack = the fore-neck and chest yellowish white, all the feathers dark - base 4 Se edged with black, giving a very strongly mottled appearance ; rest of mngee a ie ee a slightly inclining to fawn-buff, the feathers with narrow whitish shavi-tines, the breast nae ae - terminal cross lines of blackish ; sides of body washed with green, _ rather TS ae white on the flank-feathers ; under wing-coverts yellowish buff, tinged with green ae oe ee ae wing, many of the abdominal plumes, when lifted, exhibiting a bluish shade i Seen on the lower surface of the tail. Total length 12°5 inches, culmen 1-6, wing 6 - ee en Adult female. Similar to the male, but more distinctly greenish underneath ; og a a oe a Spot of brighter green, the lower flanks washed with bluish green ; ee . ee feathers. “Total distinct; mantle varied with arrow-shaped central markings of yellowish buff to a ) length 13-3 inches, culmen 1:45, wing 6-1, The figures in the Plate are taken from specimens in the Gould colle 71.6 a tee 8 tail 5:2, tarsus 1°8. | - : | | ction, now in the British Museum. \ a ee ee . s ALURGDUS JOBIENSIs Jobi-Island Cat-bird. » Rothsch. Miluredus jobiensis, Rothschild, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xxvi (1895), i Tus species has been described by the Hon. Walter Rothschild from Island of Jobi by the late Mr. Bruijn’s hunters. museum, and at first sight it looks a specimen collected in the type-specimen in Mr. Rothschild’s and has the hinder neck much I have examined the very distinct from arfakianus, mottled with buff, with the blackish shade ove tspreading the throat ; the Rothschild museum which appear to me to be intermediate. The following is Mr. Rothschild’s description :—* This Ramsay, from British New Guinea, but shows is black, uniformly spotted with buffish yellow, occiput so conspicuous in 7. melanocephalus. Ear-coverts consistin but there are other specimens in species is nearest to AZ melanocephalus of sufficient differences to justify its separation. The head band on the sides of the Upper neck and back brownish buff, with black margins. in its three nearest allies ; but this y marked area of pale feathers surrounding and does not show the black g of the large patch of bristly feathers found patch passes straight into the black of the throat, without an it, as in ZZ. melanotis, AZ. melanocephalus, and Al. arfakianus Coverts not very distinct and of a dusky buff colour. black, with a small central buff spot in each and 4, melanoc phalus these feathers - The pale spots on the tips of the wing- Throat, breast, and uppermost part of abdomen feather, while in 42. melanotis (from the Aru Islands) are buff or whitish, with narrow black borders. The breast is much greener in 4. arfakianus from Mt. Arfak. dusky margins, shaded here and there with green. but the feathers on the sides of the neck nearly lost their dark margins. Lower abdomen and under tail-coverts buff with In all other respects most similar to Z£. melanocephalus, just behind the ear-coverts are almost uniform buff, having Culmen 1°5 inch, wing 6°5, tail 5-4, tarsus 1:65.” I have not considered it necessary to give a figure of this species. Ue ate Yuh ape as 8. b tS Sa ae O23 é a f ; “ oO or ‘FAX ANZA ‘ yy 7 a IAS AS So i ure —, iFe JN. A. 4S 6 % a Se rere we we JIRIVIE WH Cy Jj (i> (3) } } } } Y } e - | y ° i oon y ) éBLURGEDUS ARFAKIANU S, Meyer. Mintern Bros. ump. W. Hart delet ith. PINETUTI ALU OATpmrnrearom ty “ 7 mi " WN ws a ae i Z)\ J K Aj LURQGEDUS ARFAKIANUS, Arfak Mountain Cat-bird. M eyer. { IN i Ui a Y yy ? Ptilonorhynchus melanotis (nec Gray), Rosenb. Nat. Tijdschr. Neder] Salvadori).—Id. J. f. O. 1864, p- 122 (t.). | Ptilorhynchus melanotis, pt. (nec Gray), Schlegel, Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk. iy, p- 51 (1871), Ailuredus melanotis (nec Gray), Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1873, Pp. 697.—Hlliot, Monoor, Parad., Intr (1873, pt.).—Sclater, Ibis, 1874, p. 416. : Ailuredus arfakianus, Meyer, Sitz. k. Akad. Wissensch. Wien, Ixix. p. 82 (1874).—Sclater, Ibis, Gould, B. New Guinea, i. pl. 40 (1875).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. p. 151 (1877).—Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, p- 99.—D’Al Ptilorhynchus arfakianus, Giebel, Thes. Orn. iii. p-. 370 (1877). Ptilonorhynchus arfakianus, Rosenb. Malay. Arch. p. 554 (1879).—Musschenb (1883).—Rosenb. Mitth. orn. Ver, Wien, 1885, p. 54. Atluredus arfakianus, Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, p. 673 (1881).—Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus . Vi. p. 384 (1881).— D’Hamony. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1886, p. 511.—Salvad. Agg. Orn. Papuasia, ii. p: 166 (1890). so - Ind. xxv, p. 236 (1863, pt.: teste II, | 41.) Pp. Xxii VIX 1874, p. 416.— ixe p: 193 (1876), x. bert. Nuova Guinea, p. 581 (1880), ) Y ) } } } } } } } \ ue ie tr. Dagboek, pp. 212, 241 Tuts is a small form of 2. melanotis of Gray, which inhabits the Aru Islands and the Fly River in South- eastern New Guinea. The Arfak Cat-bird is, however, a slightly smaller bird than 4. medanotis, with a somewhat blacker head and a black band on the nape. The throat also appears blacker than in the Aru bird, by reason of the broader black margins to the feathers. All the specimens at present known have come from the Arfak Mountains, where they have been found by D’Albertis, Beccari, and the hunters employed by Dr. A. B. Meyer and the late Mr. Bruijn. Count Salvadori had eight specimens before him when he wrote his ‘Ornitologia della Papuasia,’ and he considers the species to be quite distinct from the Black-cheeked Cat-bird from Aru. Some of the females had the fore-neck less black than in the males, and in all his series the fulvous spots on the crown varied considerably In size, but in one female bird they were especially small and of a reddish-buff colour. A very young female had all the feathers on the lower parts of a soft texture and a brown colour, the upper parts, wings, and tail being of the same colour as in the adult birds. : All references to 42. melanotis from New Guinea, excepting from the Fly River district, doubtless refer to AE. arfakianus, ; Professor Schlegel mentions some specimens of a Cat-bird, collected by Hoedt in the Island of ne: and refers them to Z. melanotis, but Gount Salvadori considers that they are more likely to belong to 4: arfakianus or to an undescribed species. ‘che gaeNene The Plate represents the specimen procured by D’Albertis in the Arfak MoS It is the same _ which he lent to the late Mr. Gould for illustration in the ‘Birds of New Guinea.’ 9 o ANZA. To Ly. AX Te 3 O UVR: AN ANS ASZAS —— Se ee Pa << 2 dis CIOSE and 1 he ce, and Il C ¢ the ¢ € S| Ss Ol ¢ aeepe O¢ ( J } On the 7-coverts ] os 1 ceseribed U T between Dr. Me } ; ECT ] ) ] he British Mu Ut | Z | S pf } S Cesceriper re eX +} I ne } | {| ] : ( e me primar ( he ue ( S ' 1 i Ne ¢ r ONS: Cron of I Ls Deng a, & Sur d | Of bufk-snote ; ‘| ef ( } for . 1UT@ Par ] t Of cheeks “ges to the f; ” ‘ { Clg } : oes OD the fe he ‘ IS ™ t \ i Inet whit s| ; freenjsh nnd a : ~ > UNdeY eae IMed wit] se PPed with whit STeen : Iris haze] : The ¢ je + . "* Dgure In t] Dr. HO, p ( Orbe S AOD YONA 46 LURGDUS MELAN 0 CEPHALUS , Ramsay. WA arercelitet (ithe Mintern Bros. tmp. 0 fm gm G!. ALURGDUS MELANOCEPHALys Black-naped Cat-bird. Ramsay, Aluredus melanocephalus, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. viii. p. 25 (1883) —Sal eae Finsch u. Meyer, Zeitschr. ges. Orn. ii. p. 394 (1885).—Tid. Ibis, 1886, p- 258 Hane Bull Si Zool. France, 1886, p. 511.—Sharpe, in Gould’s Birds of New Guinea, i. pl. 49 sss) cn ee Or. Papuasia, ii. p. 166 (1890).—Sharpe, Bull. Brit, Orn. Club, iv. p. xiv (1894),—Salvad. Any. Mus. Civ. Genov. (2) xvi. p. 114 (1896). vad. Ibis, 189. =e EE Tuis is the representative of Lluredus melanotis in South-eastern New Guinea, whe re it inbabits the Owen anley Mountains. It has occurred in Mr. Goldie’s collections from the A tanley [ strolabe Range, and the ] Carl Hunstein procured specimens in the Horse-shoe Range, while Dr. H. O. Forbe Sogeri District, and Dr. Loria at Moroka. Ai. melanocephalus belongs to the same section of t] ate S met with it in the le genus Aluredus as AE, melanotis and 42. arfakiarus, and.is very closely allied to the former, from which it differs in the greate the face, and in the chin, lores, and the fore part of cheeks being black. The crown of the head is blacker, and the ovate spots of buff are fewer in number and consequently much more distinct. The breast and abdomen are of a deeper ochre colour, and the dusky margins to the feathers are much less pronounced. The light spots on the wing-coverts are apparently variable in extent, and are sometimes absent altogether. Thus Dr. Meyer described the wing-coverts as uniform, and Count Salvadori has drawn attention to this apparent discrepaney between Dr. Meyer’s statement and the bird figured by me in Gould’s ‘Birds of New Guinea.’ He has, however, recently found the same differences in specimens sent by Dr. Loria, and in the two examples in the British Museum the size of the spots on the wing-coverts varies considerably. The fact that my description and figure given in the above-mentioned work did not entirely correspond, as Count Salvadori has pointed out, is due to the fact that the specimen figured (from Dr. Forbes’s collection) is not the one described in the text, which is from Hunstein’s collection. Adult male. General colour above grass-green, the upper tail-coverts slightly washed with lighter green ; the upper mantle varied with ovate spots of ochreous buff in the centre of the feathers ; wing-coverts like the back, the median and greater coverts and the bastard-wing faintly tipped with ashy ochreous buff; primary-coverts and quills externally green like the back, the primaries washed with bluish on the outer ue the secondaries tipped with ochreous white, less distinct on the primaries; tail-feathers dark green on the outer web, black internally, all the feathers tipped with white, increasing in extent towards the outer ones; crown of head black, aah ovate spots of ochreous buff, smaller on the ee and nape, _ an being almost entirely black; hind-neck ochreous buff, the feathers margined with mee = surmounted by a line of ochreous-buff-spotted feathers ; feathers od aie ao ear-coverts - : F : ae of buff-spotted feathers below the eye; behind the ear-coverts a line of whitish down i fe a black fore part of cheeks black, as well as the chin ; throat and sides of oe ochreous buff, a — oe edges to the feathers; fore-neck and remainder of under surface body ee ae ae edges on the feathers of the chest; the breast and abdomen more uniform ; all the i ce i | a ie distinct. white shaft-lines ; sides of body and flanks like the breast, and washed with a a a greenish ; under tail-coverts like the abdomen, with white shaft-lines ; a ee ee ne ed tipped with whitish ; quills below dusky, ashy along the inner one ae ne 7. green; iris hazel ” (L. Loria). Total length 11-5 inches, culmen on ae es i as cae collected by The figure in the Plate represents an adult male of the natural size, drawn from a §] rer O, Forbes, r amount of black on the sides of AQ LIRGEIDITS WA oe 4 UIRGEDUS MACUL OSUS, Ramsay. W. Hart del et lith. Mintern Bros. anp. IML 4 | 5 cm UULAUCA LALA ATTGTUTTN | i "| 2 7" = ALURGEDUS MACULOSUs R » hamsay, Queensland Cat-bird. Aluredus maculosus, Ramsay, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1874, p- 601.—Sharpe, Cat, Birds Bann oe Cairn & Grant, Rec. Austr. Mus. i. P- 31 (1892).—North. ¢. ep. 119 (1899) Popa Ailuredus maculosus, Gould, Birds of New Guinea, i. pr 38 (1875).— Ramsay a p. 187 (1878).—Id. Tab. List Austr. B. p. 11 Ess) Nor p peiaG (1587 ).—Id. op. cit. iii. p. 147 (1889).—Id. Nests & Keo 85 (1881),— Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W il » Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W. (2) j 8 Austr. B. p. 177 839) ee Ture snecies ao rees wi y) 7 sane Y. artalrs vo ino Tuts species agrees with 42. melanotis and AZ. arfakianus in having the crown of the head mottled, the ’ colour in this case being black spotted with olive-brown, while there is also a black patch on the ear-coverts and another on the chin. Mr. A. J. North has given the following good account of this species in ‘Nests and Eoos of ae Birds’ :— “This bird is a native of the dense scrubs that are to be found jn the neighbourhood of R Australian ockingham Bay, and the Johnstone, Russell, and Mulgrave Rivers in Propical Queensland. They congregate in sinall flocks on the palms and fig-trees, from which they obtain their food. During a recent excursion to the Ballenden- Ker Ranges, Messrs. E. J. Cairn and Robert Grant, collecting on behalf of the Trustees of the Australian Museum, succeeded in obtaining, amongst others, a fine series of these birds in different stages of plumage ; = S 5 and, besides finding several nests with young birds, they were fortunate in obtaining, although very late in the season, a nest containing eggs. The nest and eggs in question were found on December 2nd, 1887, in the fork of a sapling about seven feet from the ground, on the Herberton road, at a distance of thirty-two miles from Cairns. The nest is a neat bowl-shaped structure, composed of long twigs and leaves of a Tristania, lined inside with twigs and the dried wiry stems of a climbing plant; on the outside several nearly perfect leaves of the Zristania are worked in, and partially obscure one side of the nest. Exterior diameter seven inches, by four inches and a half in depth; interior diameter four inches and three-quarters, by two inches and a half in depth. Eggs two in number for a sitting, nearly true ovals in form, tapering but slightly at one end, of a uniform creamy-white ; the shell is thin, the surface being smooth and slightly glossy. (A) 1:67X1-11; (B) 1631-1 inch. Both parent birds were procured at the time of taking the eggs, which were in a very advanced state of incubation.” Adult. General colour above green; the wing-coverts like the back, with obscure yellowish spots at the ends of the median and greater coverts ; quills dusky blackish, externally green like the back ; the primaries bluish on their outer webs, the innermost secondaries tipped with a spot of yellowish white; tail-feathers green, dusky blackish on the inner web, all but the two centre ones barred along the tip with white; head ochreous brown, mottled all over with blackish edges to the feathers; the feathers of the lind-neck ae mantle greenish, mottled with a spot of pale ochreous or yellowish white; lores bluish white tinged with Yellow ; feathers above and below the eve whitish, the former having blackish tips to some the feathers ; far-coverts black, with a streak of whity brown tinged with green along the upper edge ; chin and a spot at the base of the cheeks black - remainder of cheeks yellowish white, the feathers mottled with dusky-brown > tips; sides of neck ashy, tinged with green and mottled with brown edges ; behind the ear covers a the lower neck a whitish shade, forming an indistinct patch ; throat ashy, mottled with eee to the feathers ; remainder of under surface spotted, the feathers having a large ovate mark of white in the smite, and being broadly edged with greenish brown, these margins less distinct on the Se ene § y edg 5 : : under wing-coverts which is : : : . -ub-terminal bar of yellow ; Cousequently whiter ; thighs ashy, washed with green, with a sub-terminal pe hb lee of wing ( : 2 ' is : OS ee ae 1p ish tips; edge 5 dusky, upped with yellowish white forming a faint bar; axillaries green, with he ul ie es : ee ee aire to inches, ¢ D yellow ; quills dusky below, whitish towards the base of the inner web. Total length : ming 9°9, tail 4-1, tarsus 1°85. The | a Ee ° - i é ‘e ee | M zs um € description is taken from a specimen 10 the British Muse an adalt bird, together with the nest. For the opportunity of figuring this and the Plate represents two figures of >’ : I am indebted to the kindness Bir, A. J. North, who sent me an enlarged photograph of it. H i H 7 H 4 ( 1 } IVT UL UU OTTTary OTA LT 4 7 5 i" W. Hart delet lith. 4 LURCEDUS VIRIDIS, (Lath, Matern Bros.imp. { In N I { 1 e ( e ( tly C i ~ per ed AXE LURGEDUS VIRIDIS Cat-bird. (Latham) Green Grakle, Lath. Gen. Syn. Suppl. ii. p. 129 (1801). Gracula viridis, Lath. Ind. Orn. Suppl. ii. P- XXvill (1801).—Shaw. Gen. Zool. yi; Ti Lanius crassirostris, Paykull, Nova Acta Akad. Upsal. vii. py 282) Taf 10 ao Bee Kitta virescens, Temm. PI. Col. ii. pl. 396 (1826).—Wagler, Syst. Ay., ee ~ ch ‘ Ptilonorhynchus smithii, Vig. & Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xy. p. 264 (1827 ae ee Ce. ee Goa 3B Ane Mega. > €x Latham MSS.).—Gray, Gen, Beat Ptilorhynchus smithii, Bp. Consp. i. p. 370 (1850).—Schl. Mus, P Ailuredus smithiit, Cab. Mus. Hein. Th. i. P- 213 (1850).—Goul ae ays-Bas, Coraces. j. pel (1867) 7 ’ & Ailuredus crassirostris, Sclater, Ibis, 1868, p. 601.—Elliot, a eae 2 bs ae 4 mmnmeoc. N.S. W. ii. p. 187 (1878). : oe = Ptilonorhynchus erassirostris, Gray, Hand-l. B. i. p- 294, no. 4336 (1869). Aluredus viridis, Sharpe, Cat. Birds in Brit. Mus. vi. P- 385 (1881).—Ramsay, Tab. L \ 3 North, Nests & Eggs Austr. B. p. 176 (1889).—ITd. Rec. Austr. ie + ae an a —Ramsay, Proe. SSS Jy nearly every country in the world there seems to be some bird which has the name of “ Cat-bird ” C C a ) sat- Ge bestowed upon it. In North America it is a Mocking-bird, Galeoscoptes carolinensis, which hears the ( ENSIS, ars > Hame, and in Australia the present species is known to the colonists by the same title on account of the t ' : > strange : | general appearance the bird is allied to the Bower-birds, but it has never been known to build a “ bower.” Mr. Gould says:—“ While in resemblance of its note to that of a cat. Structurally and in : : i... : ie district in which this bird is found, my attention was directed t isitl : inf i as 0 the acquis : informatic obtai a : y a. : acquisition of all the information I could obtain especting its habits, as I considered it very probable that it might construct a bower similar to that of the Satin-bird ; but I could not satisfy myself that j s . i a Eo: po not satisfy myself that it does, nor could I discover its nest or the situation in which it breeds ; it is doubtless, however, among the branches of the trees of the forest in which it lives.” As will be seen below, the nest and eggs are now known, but Mr. North also stated in 1891 that he had a ee : ioe 39 aS : . . . s never heard of any “ bower being built by the Australian Cat-birds. lhe range of the Cat-bird is given by Mr. North as the coastal ranges of New South Wales and Southern Queensland. He writes :—<« It is particularly plentiful at Cambewarra and the Kangaroo valley, in the Ilawarra district, and is found in favourable localities all through the southern portions of the coast ranges, becoming scarcer, however, as the boundary of the colony is approached. The rich bushes in the neighbour- ‘ ; ‘ : , 2 : 3 e 5 5 S 6 P 5 g 3 3 2 D hood of the Clarence, Richmond, and Tweed rivers are also strongholds of this species, and it is also found, oO @) tJ ft not & freely dispersed, in the extreme south of Queensland.” Mr. Gould observes :—‘ So far as our knowledge extends, this species is only found in New South Wales, where it inhabits the luxuriant forests that extend along the eastern coast between the mountain ranges and the sea ; those of Illawarra, the Hunter, the Macleay, and the Clarence, and the cedar-brushes of the Liverpool Range, being, among many others, localities in which it may be found : situations suitable to the Regent- and Satin-birds are equally adapted to the habits of the Cat-bird, and I have not unfrequently seen them all three feeding together on the same tree.” It should be meted that Dr. Ramsay included Victoria and South Australia among the habitats of the present species; but I presume that these countries were inserted by mistake in the ‘Table’ of Australian birds, as Mr. North does not include them in his more recently-given range of the species. Mr. Gould gives the following account of the habits of the Cat-bird :—* The wild fig and the native cherry, when in season, afford an abundant supply. So rarely does it take insects that I do not recollect ever iis MT air the stomachs of those inca I dissected. In its disposition it is neither a shy nor a wary bird, little caution being required to approach it, either when feeding or while quietly perched Ce the lofty branches of the trees. It is at such times that its loud, harsh, and extraordinary note is heard; a note which differs so much from that of all other birds that, having been once heard, it can never be mistaken, In comparing it to the nightly concerts of the domestic cat, I conceive that I am one my readers a more perfect idea of the note of this species than could be given by pages of description. | a concert is performed either by a pair or by several individuals, and nothing more 1s required than for the on on CO , SFA ae oOo al at — cy “yf ) 4 hearer to shut his eyes to the neighbouring foliage, to fancy himself surrounded by London Grimalkins of house-top celebrity.” In 1877 Dr. Ramsay described a nest and eggs supposed to belong to the Cat-bird, but he entertained some doubt as to their authenticity, and Mr. North, who reproduced the description in his ‘ Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds,’ evidently shared the misgivings of Dr. Ramsay. Mr. North writes:—‘For an opportunity of examining an authentic nest and egg of the New South Wales Cat-bird, Vuredus viridis, J am indebted to Mr. W. J. Grime, a most enthusiastic and persevering oologist, who recently procured two nests of this species on the Tweed River, and sent the following notes relative to the taking of them :— “©On the 4th of October, 1890, I was ont looking for nests, accompanied by a boy. I left him for a little while to go further in the scrub, and on my return he informed me he had found a Cat-bird’s nest with two eggs, one of which he showed me, the other one he broke when descending from the tree. I went with him to the nest and found the old birds very savage, flying at us, and fluttering along the ground. The nest was built in a three-pronged fork of a tree, about fourteen feet from the ground. The tree was only four inches in diameter, and was in a jungle or light scrub, about fifty yards from the edge of the open country. I felled the tree and secured the nest, of the authenticity of which there is no doubt, as the old birds strongly objected to my taking it. The eggs had been sat on for a few days and were partially incubated.’ “In a subsequent letter dated November the 8th, Mr. Grime writes :—‘ To-day I found another Cat-bird’s nest and drove the parent bird off it myself. I thought I had more eggs, as the Cat-bird would not leave the nest until fairly shaken out, but when I examined the nest I found two young birds in if, apparently just hatched a couple of days.’ «The nest of Aluredus viridis is a beautiful structure, being bowl-shaped and composed exteriorly of long twigs, entwined around the large broad leaves of Péarietia argyrodendron and other broad-leaved trees, some of the leaves measuring eleven inches in length by four inches in breadth. The leaves appear to have been picked when green, so beautifully do they fit the rounded form of the nest, one side of which is almost hidden by them. The interior of the nest is lined entirely with fine twigs. The nest of Aluredus viridis is similar to that of A. maculosus, but larger, and both of them can be readily distinguished from those of any other Australian bird by the peculiarity of having large broad leaves used in the construction of the exterior portion of the nest. “The eggs of 4. viridis are two in number for a sitting, oval in form, being but slightly compressed at the smaller end, of a uniform creamy-white, very faintly tinged with green, the shell being comparatively smooth and slightly glossy. Length 1°66 inch x 1:2 inch.” Adult. Above bright grass-green, with a greyish-white patch on the side of the lower neck ; primaries slightly shaded externally with bluish, the inner webs of the quills greyish brown; median and greater wing-coverts, as well as the secondaries, tipped with yellowish white; tail-feathers bright grass-green, inclining to greyish black on the inner web, and tipped with white, more largely on the inner web; head and neck green, rather more yellowish than the back, the feathers bluish underneath when lifted, the hind neck and sides of the neck, as well as the mantle, slightly streaked with minute shaft-lines of buffy white ; sides of face dull olive-greenish, including the ear-coverts, which have a dull sort of silvery lustre ; round the eye a ring of whitish feathers; fore part of cheeks, feathers below the eyes and on the malar line, slightly spotted with black; throat dull greyish, slightly washed with olive-green and minutely spotted with white ; rest of under surface of body dull olive-greenish, all the feathers mesially streaked with a distinct lanceolate spot of white; centre of the belly, vent, and under tail-coverts uniform yellowish ; under wing-coverts whitish, barred across with ashy grey and slightly washed with green, especially on the edge of the wing: bill light horn-colour ; feet whitish; iris brownish red ” (J. Gould). ‘Total length 12 inches, culmen 1-235, wing 6°35, tail 5, tarsus 1-95. The description is taken from the British Museum ‘ Catalogue of Birds,’ and the figures in the Plate represent a pair of adult birds, drawn from specimens in the British Museum. Q q as R s Ss ~ ~ = iy ~ = ~S ES — of) WA eo as) Lo eS { ee) i iS f A f a WA r , ie j i (=) i N\-) i ee 4 t 1 g | ee) { W. Hart del. et Lith. UAGUUUIJAUN LT] UCOApTTE TTT yOTTY TTT TS DOW TIL ALURCEDUS BUCCOIDES (Temm.). Barbet-like Cat-bird. Kitta buccoides, Temm. Pl. Col. ii. pl. 575 (1835).—Id. Tabl. Méth. Pl. Cole a pe 10 (1840).—Rosenb. Nat. Tijdschr. Nederl. Ind. xxv. p. 236 (1863).—Id. J. f. O. 1864, p. 122, Cissa buccoides, Gray, Gen. B. iii., App. p- 14 (1849), Ptilorhynchus buccoides, Bp. Consp. Av. i. p- 370 (1850).—Wallace, Proc. Zool. Soe. 1862 ee & Mag. N. H. (3) xi. p. 57 (1863).—Schl. Mus. P Tijdschr. Dierk. iv. p. 49 (1871) Ptilonorhynchus buccoides, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lose 9 4 ee (6 Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 173 (1865).—Gray, andele ean Archip. p. 554 (1879).—Musschenbr. Dagboek Wien, 1885, p. 54. Ailuredus buccoides, Gould, B. New Guinea, i. pl. 41 (1875).—Sal » p. 165.—Id. Ann. ays-Bas, Coraces, p. 118 (1867).—Id. Nederl. at. B. New Guin. pp. 37, 59 (1859).— p. 294, no. 4337 (1869 ).—Rosenb. Malay. » pp. 211, 240 (1883).—Rosenb. Mitth. orn. Ver. vad. Ann. Mus. Genov. vii. p- 780 (1875). Aluredus buccoides, Elliot, Monogr. Parad. pl. 36 (1873).—Scl. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1873, p. 697.—Salvad. Ann, Mus. Genov. ix. p. 193 (1876), x. p- 152 (1880).—D’Alb. et Salvad. op. cit. xiv. p. 114 Cs) — D’Alb. Nuova Guin. pp. 581, 588 (1880).—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia, il, De Ovo (1881).—Sharpe, CEE. B. Brit. Mus. vi. p. 386 (1881).—Nehrk. J. f.0. 1885, p. 34.—Guillem. Proc. Zool. Soc, 1885, p. 657.— Salvad. Agg. Orn. Papuasia, ii. p. 167 (1891).—Madarasz, Aquila, i. p. 91 (1894), Tuts is one of the smaller species of Cat-bird, and is further distinguished by the strongly marked spotting of the breast and the very distinct white streaking on the nape, and by the absence of white tips to the tail-feathers, The first specimen was procured by Solomon Muller at Lobo, in Triton Bay in New Guinea, and it seems to be somewhat widely distributed in that great island, for Count Salvadori gives thie following localities from which he has examined specimens—Sorong, Dorey » Mansinam, Andai, and Warbusi. was obtained in these places by Dr. Beccari, Signor D’Albertis, and by the hunt Mr. Bruijn. D’Albertis also met with this Cat-bird on the Fly | procured a specimen during his expedition to the The species ers emploved by the late tiver, and the late Mr. Fenichel likewise Finisterre Mountains, in German New Guinea, ata place called Kulikumana, on the 29th of August, 18922 Dr. von Madardsz Was so kind specimen for examination. — It seemed to differ slightly in the of 42. buccoides in the British Museum; but af as to send me this colour of the head from our series of skins ter the remarks of Count Salvadori on the variation in the colour of the crown in the present species » I could not regard it as belonging Certainly it was not ZZ. geislerorum, of which specimens were also sent by Fenichel. Besides the above-mentioned places in New Guinea, examples of JZ. buccoides are in the Leiden Museum from the islands of Salawati, Waigiou, and Batanta, where they Dr. Bernstein, Von tosenberg’s Statement that it is as already pointed out by Count Salvadori. Nothing has yet been recorded conce found it feeding on fruits. to anything else. Were procured by the late also found in the Aru Islands must be erroneous, rning the habits of this Cat-bird, beyond the fact that D’Albertis The following description Birds? == Adult. is a copy of that given by me in the sixth volume of the ‘Catalogue of Above bright Srass-green, the wings bright green, the secondaries slightly shaded tipped with yellowish buff; tail duller feathers; crown of head olive-brown, with yellowisl uniform with the back ; primaries blackish, externally with bluish on the outer web, the innermost minutely green, narrowly tipped with white on the inner web of the outer the hinder neck, as well as the sides of the latter, black, streaked 1 buff, this colour occupying the basal part of the feather, the black confined to sub-terminal spot; the mantle also slightly mottled with yellowish also tipped with black; a large buff, with which many of the feathers lores scantily feathered with brown plumelets ; a bare space; sides of face buff, everywhere mottled with black spots, part of the ear-coverts e are barred, some few being eyering buf; behind the eye the hinder ntirely black, the cheeks also somewhat spotted with white; throat bufly white, throat spotted with black rest of under surface nght tana fai spotted with ovate black markings, these spots less on the abdomen and absent tie chin) and) lower every where largely Cy yi Py JOU TOU OX eee ere. re om a7 fis OL ah i JOU UK whe ¢ C) e CJ o) on the under wing- and tail-coverts, which are uniform; the breast, flanks, and thighs obscurely washed with green, some of the spots on the lower flanks being green also. Total length 10 inches, culmen 1, wing 4°85, tail 3:5, tarsus 1°35. Count Salvadori states that the females are smaller than the males. The crown of the head is uniform brownish olive, but in some individuals it inclines more or less to olive or to brown. Young birds have the head of an olive-brown colour, more or less clear in tint. The figure represents a specimen formerly in the Gould collection, and now in the British Museum. It is of about the natural size. OYOAL AL ALOE LY LY OY CG (rk J ‘ t a, Vai Tus Cat-bird wa German New Gi ‘if specimens were pl August, December which is one of 1 Bubui River. Oth in Huon Gulf in Hungarian travelle specimens of Geish the range of Aly w7i The species 1S paler and more of a Little has been re itis called by the 1 parts of the country The male suddenly lisWering and repea incli Ing CO olive Cow White at the eXtreme COVerts wl ite — | I O neck entirely blac! Minder neck pale vell | lider Surface of b dl | +} On the flanks t] Aa COVver . rts White » x11] > CATAL Wing Qo Culmen 1:05. Dr Meyer Ment, The Php tf dle p . epresy nts ls f 4WILCIRGEDUS GEISIIERORUM,.M ever. Mintern Bros. tmp. W.Hart del et lth. UYUUULJANNU ULL] ATOpOnU TT OTT lt "a 7 yr "i AZ LURQGEDUS GEISLERORUM, Meyer. Geisler’s Cat-bird. Ailuredus geislerorum, Meyer, Abhandl. k. zool. Mus. Dresden, 1890-91, no. 4, p. 12.—Id. J. £. O. 1892, p. 202.— Id. Abhandl. k. zool. Mus, Dresden, 1892-93, no, 3, p. 23 (1893).—Madarasz, Aquila, i. p. 91 (1894).—Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xiv (1894). Tus Cat-bird was described by Dr. A. B. Meyer from specimens obtained in Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land in German New Guinea by the brothers Geisler, after whom the species has been named. specimens were procured in Astrolabe Bay, at Lolebu August, December, and January, and the spe The original and Bussum, to the north of Huon Gulf, in July, cies was also obtained by the Geislers at a place called Butarieng, which is one of the stations of the German New Guinea Company, and is situated near the mouth of the Bubui River. Other localities in which the species was met with are—Finsch Harbour in March, Bukawasip in Huon Gulf in April, Memming in June, and again at Butarieng in August and October. The brave Hungarian traveller, Fenichel, who lost his hife in exploring this portion of New Guinea, also obtained specimens of Geisler’s Cat-bird at Bonga in November. And this apparently is all that is the range of Aluredus geislerorum. The species is allied to luredus buccoides, but has a very differently coloured head, this being much paler and more of a tawny-olive shade, while the Spots on the breast Little has been recorded of its habits. it is called by the natives ‘Kubuas.’ parts of the country visited by them, known respecting are much larger and more pronounced. Fenichel says that its note reseinbles the sound ‘ Aach-aach,’ and The Geislers state that the species is generally distributed in the but could not be considered common. It is always found in pairs. The male suddenly utters his note of warning, a long-drawn, hoarse-sounding ‘ tschaa,’ answering and repeating the call, In this way the easy to kill, though it require the female quickly to the collector, and js amongst the surrounding foliage. a specimen collected by the late Mr. bird is continually in evidence Sa practised eye to detect the bird The following is the description of Fenichel :— » with the wings of the same colour as the b bs ; bastard-wing, inclining to olive towards the end of the primaries ; white at the extreme tips ; crown of head t General colour above grass-green ack, the inner secondaries with a whitish tip to their outer we primary-coverts, and quills blackish, externally green, tail-feathers blackish, externally green awny olive or ochreous brown coverts white ; chin and cheeks spotted with black, forming of neck entirely black, forming al ; inclining to ashy ; lores and sides of face and ear- a broad moustachial band : arge patch behind the ear-coverts hinder neck pale yellowish, washed with under surface of body, from the lower throat downward, pale ochre on the flanks, the breast and sides of the body smaller on the lower part of the throat white; sides aad crossing the nape in a black band ; green, and having large triangular spots of black; remainder of ous yellow, thickly marked with | abdomen and disappearing entire coverts white ; axillaries ochreous buff: bill pale yellowish white ; culmen 1:05, wing 5:2, tail 3°65, tarsus 1°45. Dre Meyer mentions that two spe with a slight tinge of greenish arge triangular spots of black, becoming ly on the under tail-coverts ; under Wwing- iris carmine. Total length 10:5 inches, cimens collected by the brothers Geisle rat Bukawasip had the iris brown. an adult bird in two positions The Plate represents ,» and is drawn from the specimen above described. ew = . s a Se 5 OP ey: a ree; i ) , Fae 4 JU eee Gr: LI) JUIN Ooo: CPR J UU. ps 2 OM IK OO OO C.J AN ee ICICI J YONA A NN LYEYENLY GD TG eT W. Hart delet lith.. C > 1 ) TONTI , Sharpe. Aluredus stonit, § Soc. xil della P; vol. vi. ] p. 391 ( Ailuredus stonii, R e ; Ptilonorhynel Tue present speci eastern portion of a smaller bird thar dlive-brown, and in It was first met) River, and its home Mr. Goldie found 1 berries, He aftery Mr. Forbes likewis¢ shoe lange. and Sir at 4000 feet. Mr, Goldie I white, orwar and entirely ( identification Was not The follow; Adult. back. the lg IS t] General eo] Inner webs the latter colours taj] ; head dar] {0 the feathers. ley tiny s white < bro those pots of bl ic] Sirlace of body Ochrac * few tiny Spots of With green, 1 The Ph, t ‘otal lens 'e represents aL Nia y ml f VEXL 6) ——_ — ip a és o v4 OOF) ‘on o IVIU' UU f Ok ALURGDUS STONTI, Sharpe. Stone’s Cat-bird. Ailuredus stonii, Sharpe, Nature, xiy. 1876, p. 339.—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Gen. ix. p. 193 (1876).—Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soe. xiii. p. 495 (1877 -—Ramsay, Proce. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. lil. p. 268 (1879) ; iv. p. 97.—Salvad. Orn. Cy OU, > della Papuasia, ii. P. 678 (1881).—Gould, B. New Guinea, i. pl. 37 (1881).—Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. be Gi } vol. vi. p. 387 (1881).—Id. Journ. Linn, Soc. xvi. p. 445 (1883).—Finsch u. Meyer, Zeitschr. ges. Orn. ii. S A = y’ Pp. 391 (1885).—Tid. Ibis, 1886, p. 258.—D’ Hamonv. Bull. Soe. Zool. France, xi. p. 511 (1886).—Salvad. en \ : | Age. Orn. Papuasia, ii, Pp. 167 (1890).—De Vis, Rep. Brit. New Guinea, 1890, pe ie ee \ t 4 Ailureedus stonii, Ramsay, Proc. Linn, Soe. N.S.W. \ 1R/ ll. p. 268 (1879).—Id. Op. cit. iv. p. 97 (1880). \ AB Ptilonorhynchus stonii, Van Musschenbr. Dagboek, pp. 212, 241 (1883).—Rosenb. Mitth. orn. Ver. Wien, 1885, p. 54. ae ae =) eZ Py my eee Tue present species is one of the smallest of the Cat-birds, and seems to be entir eastern portion of New Guinea, where it replaces Aluredus buccoides of a smaller bird than the latter, and further differs in h olive-brown, and in having the spots on the throat ely confined to the south- North-western New Guinea. It is aving the crown of the head blackish brown instead of and under surface of the body ve It was first met with in South-eastern New Guinea by Mr. O River, and its home, so far as is known ry much smaller, ctavius Stone, who found it on the Laloki at present, appears to be the interior of the P Mr. Goldie found the species about fifteen miles inland berries. He afterwards procured it in the Mr. Forbes likewise met with it in Sogeri. ort Moresby district. , inhabiting the dense scrub and feeding on fruits and Sogeri district, where it was called by the natives « Yarit The late Karl Hunstein pro shoe Range, and Sir William Macgregor also obtained specime at 4000 feet. Mr. Goldie forwarded two eggs supposed to be those >? agga, cured the species on the Horse- ns on Mount Belford, in the Astrolabe Range, of Aluredus stonii from Sogeri, white, and entirely different from those of the ordinary Cat-birds, it is identification was not correct. but as they were reasonable to suppose that the The following is the description of the type specimen given by me in the « Catalogue of Birds’ :— Adult. General colour above bright green, some of the feathers tinged with blue ; Wings green like the d with yellow, the secondaries tipped with ackish on the inner webs of the outermost rectrices, which are tipped with white; head dark brown, slightly washed with olive; hind neck yellowish buff, mottled with black centres to the feathers, those adjoining the mantle spotted with green ; sides of face and throat pure white, with a . few tiny spots of black on the far-coverts, and with larger spots on the side . surface of body ochraceous buff, the fore neck back, the inner webs dusky brown, the primaries externally washe the latter colour ; tail green, bl S of the neck; rest of under and chest minutely Spotted with gree a few tiny Spots of the latter colour; under wing-coverts yellowish buff, the e with green. Total length 9:3 inches, culmen haley wing 5:05, tail 3°5, t | The Plate represents an adult bird of the natural size, n, the flanks also with dge of the wing washed arsus 1°55, rip Ss PS RS Ss R S iS 5 » a 5 P a) ~ = te ~ ~ feos — nN ROSTRI INT DE oI RNIS c } ( PA () W a TH i 5 4 mu my J. Gould & W. Hart deb.et lith. 3 qq JOR on ™ TV: ane eae, aps ey 5 r TECTONORNIS DENTIROSTRIS, Tooth-billed Bower-bird. Ramsay. Scenopeus dentirostris, Ramsay, P. Z. S. 1875, ll. p. 188 (1878).—Gould, 7 B. New Guinea, i. pl. 43 (1880).—Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. vi. p. 394 (1881).—North, Prog. Linn. : Soc. N.S. W. (2) i. p- 1162(1 887).—Ramsay, Tab. List Austr. B. p. 11 (1888).—De Vis, Rep. Exped. Bellenden-Ker Range, p. 86 (1889). i SS P- 591.—Id. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. §. W. re an ay SSS oo x Se Tus curious Bower-bird was first described by Dr. E. Pierson R Johnstone near Cardwell in Queensland. Unfortunately they we somewhat damaged, but were sufficiently intact to allow sent by Mr. Coxen to the late Mr. Gould, The late Mr. Australia, and — amsay from specimens shot by re killed with a rifle of their correct description ; who figured it in his « Birds of New Guinea.’ Bowyer Bower obtained several Specimens during his first ex a pair were presented by him to the British Museum. With the first discovery of the species came but little informa Johnstone stated that, although he did not discover a ‘ bower, it cleared a large space under part with tufts and little heaps of tinted leaves and young “* Gardener ” Bower-birds, is ¢ Inspector and the skins were and one of them was FY x TY. VF fA IX } iA. a) iv Fi CJ Py pedition to North-eastern tion regarding its habits, but Inspector > he found that, like the Cat-birds (Aur adus), n feet in diameter and orn amented the cleared shoots. This characteristic hab} onfirmed by that exce the brushwood some nine or te t, which places Tectonornis among the llent observer, Mr. A. J. North, who writes ;— 5 2 “This remarkable bird is quite unlike any other genus of the family, and is found only in the de brushes of the Bellenden-Ker Range, situated on the north-east coast of Queensland ; extend further north than the scrubs near Cooktown, nor has it been found further River. As far as at present known, this species does not build a bower; but in lieu thereof clears a space in the scrub about 10 feet in diameter, and ornaments it with little heaps of bright berries and gaily coloured leaves and flowers, &c. Nothing is known of its nidification Mr. Broadbent, who also met w at present.” ith the species in the Bellenden-Ker Range, s bird and was procured at 4000 feet : The name of Scenopeus being alre: it was not found in low scrubs, ady preoccupied among the Dipte for the present species. Adult male. General c nse its range does not south than the Herbert JOR JOU ays that it is a true mountain or at least very seldom. ra, I have proposed that of Zectonornis oS 0gko xe PA ie pA JL co. ro, 7% bi \ eM oy PA Nw olour above dark olive-brown, wings a little more ruddy brown than the back, quills dusky on the inner web; tail olive-brown like the back; ear-coverts dusky brown, streaked w shaft-lines of reddish brown, the cheeks and sides of the neck similarly streaked with under surface of body fulvous, the feathers with broad m appearance, less strongly marked on the abdomen ; tawny shade, slightly mottled with a few dusky edging along the edge of the inner web. Total length : pi: Adult female. Similar to the male in colour. 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