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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.