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.

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