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,

 

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