LOPHORHINA MINOR, Ramsay, _

Lesser Superb Bird of Paradise.

Lophorhina superba minor, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. §

. Wales, x. p. 242 (1885).
Lophorhina minor, Finsch & Meyer, Zeitschr. ges. Orn. ii

- p. 376, pl. xvii. (1885).—Tid. Ibis, 1886, p. 244,—

Meyer, op. cit. iii. p. 181, cum fig, (1886).—D’Hamonv. Bull.
510.—Sharpe, in Gould’s Birds of New Guinea, i. pl. 19 (1888),
p- 150 (1890).—Goodwin, Ibis, 1890, p. 152.—Salvad. boas, Onin, IP
Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xiii (1894). :

Lophorhina superba (nec Penn.), De Vis, Colonial Papers, no. 103, p-
New Guinea, p. 60 (1890).—Id. Ibis, 1891, Dare Os

Soc. Zool. France, 1886, pp. 508,
—Salvad. Age. Orn. Papuasia, ii.
apuasia, iil. p. 240 (1891).—Sharpe,

113 (1890).—Id. Annual Report British

 

Tuis species is a smaller representative of the Superb Bird of Paradise, Lophorhina superba, of North-eastern
New Guinea, and was discovered by the late Mr. Carl Hunstein in the Astrolabe Range in South-eastern
New Guinea.

The form of its neck-shield is, however, quite different, as was discovered by Dr. A. B. Meyer, when he
had a specimen mounted for the Gallery of the Dresden Museum. Numerous specimens have been sent to
the British Museum by the late Hon. Hugh Romilly, and by Dr. H. O. Forbes, who procured the species in the
Sogeri district, Mr. Goodwin, who accompanied the expedition of Sir William Macgregor to the Owen
Stanley Mountains, writes to me:— At an altitude of 5000 feet we came across this Superb Bird of
Paradise, and as it fluttered about on the highest perch it could find it looked no bigger than a butterfly.
Needless to say, but few specimens were obtained. Its call resembles that of Parotia lawesi, but is not
so loud.”

Sir William Macgregor records the species on Mount Owen Stanley at 4350 feet, and again from
Goodwin Spur, at from 5000 to 7000 feet. It is not noticed in Dr. Meyer’s account of the collections from
Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land, so that it seems to be entirely a species of the Owen Stanley Mountains, so far as is
yet known.

On re-examining the specimen of L. superba figured by Gould, and comparing it with the specimens of
L. minor in the British Museum, from South-eastern New Guinea, not only is the shape of the cervical
shield found to be different, as pointed out by Dr. Meyer, but the plumes overhanging the base of the Dill
may also prove to be differently disposed.

In L. superba the angle of the chin is covered up by velvety plumes, and above the nostrils the feathers
widen out into a kind of small fan. The arrangement of the feathers of this part of the head is, however,
one which is directly affected by the process of preparing the skin, and I suspect that there is really no
difference in life between the two species in respect to the arrangement of the plumes on the nose and on the
chin. In Z. minor the shield is not nearly so dense, the fork in the middle is much more marked, and the
lateral feathers are rounded on the ends and not so pointed as in LZ. superba. ;

Adult male. General colour velvety black, with reflexions of coppery bronze on the mantle and cervical
shield, the feathers of these ornamental plumes being edged with oily green at the ends; packs and
rump duller black, the upper  tail-coverts velvety black, glossed with purple, the centre feathers emu violet-
blue ; crown of head metallic steel-green, with a few metallic purple feathers on the nape ; sides al face and
throat velvety black with an oily green shade; across the fore-neck a brilliant elongated shield of ee
bluish green ; rest of under surface of body black. Total length 8°3 inches, culmen 1, wing 5:3, tail 3°2,
tarsus 1:3.

The adult female is very similar to the male, is much lighter brown and not so chestnut as the female of
L. superba, and appears to differ also in having a line of white feathers dotted vou black from the hinder
part of the eye above the ear-coverts; the outer aspect of the quills is paler ulate han the dark chestnut
of the wing in Z. superba, and the tail is olive-brown. The under surface of the body is paler buff, and the
cross-bars are paler. BCE

The descriptions have been taken from a pair of birds in the British Museum, and the figures in the Plate
were drawn from the same birds.

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