s of steel-blue
ed steel-blue,
le, the latter

3, wing 6°35,
it Savadori, is

fuseum.

PHONYGAMA JAMESI, Sharpe.

Jamess Manucode.

Manucodia keraudreni, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genov. ix. p. 40 (1876, nec Less.).

Phonyyama jamesi, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. iii. p. 181 (1877).—Id. Journ. Linn. Soe. xiii. p. 500 (1877). —
Elliot, Ibis, 1878, p. 56.

Manucodia keraudreni, Salvad. Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche, ii. p. 510 (1881, pt.).—Id. op. cit. il.
p- 551 (1882).

Phonygama keraudreni (nec Less.), Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc. xvi. p. 442 (1882).

 

I riesr described this species from a specimen procured at Aleya by the unfortunate Dr. James, who was
murdered by the natives of South-eastern New Guinea.

Mr. D. G. Elliot, in 1878, expressed his opinion that P. james could not be specifically separated
from P. keraudreni, and Count Salvadori united it to the latter species. In deference to the opinion of these
two excellent authorities on the Paradiseide, 1 myself acquiesced in the suppression of P. jamesi as a
species, but not without a protest that I believed it to be really distinct. After a careful re-examination of
the specimens in the British Museum and the Rothschild collection, I have come to the conclusion
that P. jamesi is really distinct from P. keraudrent; and in this determination I am upheld by the
Hon. Walter Rothschild, who has made a special study of the Paradiseide.

P. jamesi, though closely allied to P. keraudreni, is of a bright steel-green colour below, and has the throat,
the sides of the head, the neck, and crest-plumes green instead of steel-blue as in P. keraudrent, which also
shows a sheen of purplish on these portions of the body.

The typical specimen of P. jamesi was procured by Dr. James at Aleya, on the mainland of South-eastern
New Guinea, near Yule Island. A second specimen was procured by Mr. A. Goldie on the Laloke River,
and the late Carl Hunstein also met with the species near East Cape. Both these specimens were recorded
by me in the ‘ Journal of the Linnean Society’ (WZ. cc.), but they were not retained by the British Museum,
which, however, possesses a second example, in addition to the type, from Mr. Broadbent’s collection made
in the interior of S.E. New Guinea, inland from Port Moresby.

The following description of the type specimen is taken from my third volume of the ‘ Catalogue of
Birds ’:—

General colour above burnished green, with a slight shade of purplish blue here and there on the back ;
under surface of body burnished green like the upper, with a subterminal lustre of purplish blue on some of
the feathers ; head and neck all round of a burnished oily green, the plumes of the crown close-set and velvety,
those of the neck and throat narrowly lanceolate ; from the occiput two long tufts of green feathers ; wings
and tail purple, the wing-coverts burnished green like the back, the quills and tail-feathers black on their
inner webs, except the innermost secondaries, which are entirely purple: bill and legs black. Total length
12:3 inches, culmen 1:3, wing 6-2, tail 4:9, tarsus 1-45.

The species is so closely allied to P. keraudrent that a separate figure has not been considered necessary.

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