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.