PARADISEA NOV A-GUINEA, D'attertis & Satvad.
Fly-River Bird of Paradise.

Paradisea apoda (nec Linn.), D’Albert. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genoy. x. pp. 14-20 (1877).—Id. Nuova Guinea,
pp. 872, 374, 490, 517, 518 (1880).—Rosenb. MT. orn. Ver. Wien, 1885, D> 1 Cott.)),

Paradisea apoda, var. nove-guinee, D’Albert. & Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. xiv. p. 96 (1879).—Musschenbr.
Dagboek, pp. 182, 220 (1883).

Paradisea nove-guinee, D’Albert. & Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genoy. xiv. p. 147 (1879).—Salvad. Orn.
della Papuasia, etc. i. p. 609 (1881).—Id. Aggiunte Orn. Papuasia, ii. p. 159 (1890).— Sharpe, Bull.
Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xiii (1894).

 

Tuts species represents on the mainland of New Guinea the true Paradisea apoda of the Aru Islands ; but
Count Salvadori points out that it is a distinctly smaller bird, the chestnut colour of the male being brighter
and more vinaceous, the breast darker blackish brown, the median and greater wing-coverts often more
or less golden, though this colour is obsolete in some individuals.

So far Paradisea nove-guinee has only been found on the Fly and Alice Rivers in Southern New Guinea,
Here D’Albertis obtained a large series, and Count Salvadori points out that in the lower districts of the Fly
River the species is absent and is replaced by Paradisea raggiana. It appears not to be found at Hall Bay,
and it is probable that the species has a somewhat limited range in Southern New Guinea.

Many specimens from the Fly River and the Alice are recorded by Count Salvadori in his ‘ Ornitologia
della Papuasia’ as undoubted hybrids between Paradisea raggiana and P. nove-guinee. Besides the
possession of characters which are intermediate between the two forms, the Count records a variation in
the colour of the flank-plumes in these hybrids ranging from yellow to orange and bright orange-red.

I have not considered it necessary to give a figure of this species, as the characters for its separation
from P. apoda are very slight, and the smaller size of the New Guinea bird seems to be the best mark of

difference.

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