PARADISEA FINSCHI

' 1a) . :
Finsch’s Bird of Paradise.

» Meyer.

Paradisea finsch, Meyer, Zeitschr. f. ges. Orn. ii. p. 383 (1885), iii. p. 36 (1886).—Id. Ibis, 1886, p. 2
j : Z ae ’ oe OC -—1id. SIAC) OMIT) Sea) eet

D’Hamony. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xi. pp. 507, 509 (1886).—Salvad. Aggiunte Orn. P asia, ii
p- 158 (1890), iii. p. 241 (1891).—Meyer, Ibis, 18% a ie

; | ; eyer, 1bis, 1890, p. 420.—Id. Abhandl. k. Mus. Dresd. 1892-93
no. 3, p. 20 (1893).—Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p- xiii (1894), vi
(1897).

Paradisea minor (nec Shaw), Madarasz, Aquila, 1894, p. 90.—Id. Termesz. Fiizetek. xx. p- 27 (1897) —Reiche
Vo tts Qs USOT, 1. Nak i ae

—Rothschild, op. cit. vi. p. xlvi

 

Tus is a race of Paradisea minor, and represents the latter species in German New Guinea. It was first
described by Dr. A. B. Meyer from a native skin procured by Dr. Otto Finsch, who remarks :—“TI obtained
only imperfect skins of this species from the natives of the north-east coast of Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land, at
142° 30' E. long., about 60 miles west of D’Urville Island: on the Admiralty chart ‘ Passir Point’ is
marked here, but no such point exists in reality. Only at this one spot on the north coast did the natives
bring Paradise-bird skins for sale along with ornamental plumes of Dasyptilus. All skins from this
locality were small in dimensions.”

In describing the type specimen of P. finschi, Dr. Meyer writes as follows :—‘ The single native skin which
constitutes the type of this species has the brown of the upper surface not pure chestnut, as in P. minor,
but paler brown, while the under surface is not chestnut-brown with a vinous tinge as in P. minor, but more
of a reddish brown. These variations in colour are very noticeable. P. finschi, moreover, differs from
P. minor in the size and the form of the bill, which is more slender and elongated in the latter ; its length
in P. minor reaches 32-85 millim. in specimens in the Dresden Museum. There seems to be also a
difference in the colour of the upper mandible, which in P. fischi has a light-coloured culmen.”

Since Finsch’s Bird of Paradise was first described, several specimens have been received from Kaiser
Wilhelm’s Land. Near the coast the full-plumaged males have all been shot down (as Dr. Meyer, a true
naturalist, regrets) by the gentlemen who represent the German New Guinea Company, and the skins have
been sold for plumes for women’s hats in Australia and in Europe.

Only the present form of yellow-plumed Bird of Paradise is found in Astrolabe Bay, and Dr. Meyer was
informed by Miklucho-Maclay, the Russian traveller who lived there for eighteen months, that only P. finscha
occurred in the district, and that P. auguste-victorie was not found there. From an examination of the
series in the Tring Museum, I am able to confirm the observation of the Hon. Walter Rothschild, that
Dr. Meyer’s characters for the separation of P. finschi, made from a native skin, are not the most salient
ones for the separation of this race. The real differences have been pointed out by Mr. Rothschild, and
the darker vinous-brown colour of the breast and the crisp texture

they consist of the following, viz.,
while the yellow on

of the feathers of the chest, somewhat approaching the shield of P. auguste-victori@,
the wing-coverts is less distinct.

Mr. Rothschild’s collection contains a good series of
Captains Webster and Cotton, and it is probable that P.
Guinea, but its range is not yet fully known.

It has not been considered necessary to give a separate figure of this r

specimens obtained in German New Guinea by
T
finschi_ extends along the northern coast of New

ace.

 

 

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