PARADISEA DECOR A, Salvin & Godman.

Grey-chested Bird of Paradise.

Paradisea decora, Salvin & Godman, Ibis, 1883, pp. 131, 202, pl. viii—Sharpe, in Gould’s Birds of New Guinea
1. pl. 27 (1885 ).—D’Hamonv. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1886, pp. 507, 509.—Tristram, Ibis, 1889 Dp: 553.
—Salvad. Aggiunte Orn. Papuasia, ii. p. 160 (1890).—De Vis, Ann. Rep. Brit. New eae p. 61
(1890).—Id. Colonial Papers, no. 103, p. 113 (1890).—Id. Ibis, 1891, p. 37,—Salvad. ae Mus.
Civic. Genov. (2) x. p. 833 (1891).—Id. Aggiunte Orn. Papuasia, iii. p. 243 (1891).—Sharpe, Bull.
Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xiii (1894).—Hartert, Novit. Zool. ii. p- 61 (1895).—Rothschild, Novit. Zool.
iii. p. 235 (1896).

Paradisea susanné, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, viii. p. 21 (1883).—Salvad. Ibis, 1884, p. 354.

 

Tuts beautiful species is an inhabitant of Fergusson Island, one of the D’Entrecasteaux group, where it
was discovered by Mr. A. Goldie, a well-known botanical collector, who also obtained many fine species of
birds on the mountains of South-eastern New Guinea, This Bird of Paradise, however, is the most splendid
of his discoveries. It is found, he says, “in the mountains, at a considerable elevation above the sea, the
first specimen obtained having been secured at the lowest point. The plumed males and the younger
individuals were generally seen three or four together. Once heard, their call was unmistakable, being
very like that of P. raggiana; but the plumed and wired birds, after giving their call a few times, added
to it a peculiar shrill whistle. Their motions whilst calling were identical with those of P. raggiana ;
but, so far as we were able to observe, they had no particular tree for dancing in. The females were
found alone.

«We neither saw nor heard P. raggiana on these islands ; and the new bird is not found on the mainland.
On showing it to the natives of Chad’s Bay and China Straits along with a specimen of P. raggiana, they, in
both cases, made us to understand that the latter is found in their country, whilst P. decora is not ; but two
or three of them in China Straits who had traded to the D’Entrecasteaux Islands made signs that the
new bird was to be found there.”

Since the species was discovered in Fergusson Island by Mr. Goldie it has been met with by several other
collectors who have visited the locality. Mr. Basil Thomson obtained it on Mount Maybole in the north
of the island, and believed that it was confined to that part only; but Mr. Albert Meek, who collected in
Fergusson Island for tbe Hon. Walter Rothschild, found the species “not rare, but by no means very
numerous on the hills of South Fergusson, from about 1500 feet upwards.”

P. decora has red ornamental plumes like P. raggiana, but it is easily distinguished by the straw-coloured
back, the absence of a yellow collar on the throat, the grey chest, and the patch of black plumes on each side
of the abdomen.

The following is a description of the type specimens of P. decora in the British Museum :—

Adult male. Geveral colour above golden straw-colour, a little deeper and more orange on the head and
ear-coverts ; wing-coverts light drab-brown, edged with golden straw-colour, ue lessen and median coverts
being entirely of the latter colour ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills light sedate brown, externally
drab or ashy brown, the inner secondaries washed externally with straw-yellow ; tail-feathers pale reddish
brown, = ached with ashy, the two long centre feathers consisting of a black barbless shaft; lores and
base of forehead, cheeks, and throat metallic gre :
ack under certain lights ; fore-neck and breast lilac-grey, shading off into
econ ere the long flank-plumes rich crimson, the feathers
on each side of the base of the long

en, the upper throat, lores, and fore part of cheeks

and throat appearing velvety bl
vinaceous grey on the abdomen and under tai i
with very few barbs or barbules at the ends, these being hoary whitish ; oo
plumes a patch of slightly recurved black feathers with red Pa under oe a ae
grey; quills ashy below, the quill-lining ruddy vinous: “ iris yellow” (4. Meek). Total length 13 inches,
culmen 1:35, wing 7, tail 59, tarsus 7

Adult female. Wants the ornamental plume
with dull straw-yellow ; the lores, cheeks, and throat, ne a
the female ; the rest of the under surface of the body vinous brown, with dusky vermiculations or cross-bars

s of the male and has a greyer back, with the feathers edged
which are green in the male, are blackish brown in