PTILOPUS WALLACEL
Wallace’s Fruit-Pigeon.

Ptilonopus wallacei, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, pp. 185, 195, pl. 186.—Id. Cat. B. N
(1859).—Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, p. ee
Nee Nederl. Ind. xxv. p. 248 (1863).—Wallace, Ibis, 1865, p. 380.—Finsch, Neu-Guinea Wa
(1865).—Pelz. Verh. zool.-bot. Gesellsch. Wien, xxii. p. 430 (1872). = =

Philopus wallacei, Rosenb. Reis. naar Zuidostereil, p. 50 (1867).

Piilinopus wallace, Gray, Hand-l. B. ii. p. 227, no. 9154 (1870).

Guinea, pp. 45, 60
437.—Reichenb. Columbariz, ii, p. 178 (1862).—Rosenb.

Piilopus wallacei, Rosenb. Reis. naar Zuidostereil, p. 81 (1867).—Schlegsel, Mus
(1873).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. ix. p. 197 (1876).—El
Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov.

Pays-Bas, Columbe, p. 18
. lot, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, p. 555.—
Xlv. p. 658 (1879).—Id. Orn. Papuasia, ete. iii. p. 30 (1881).

 

Tus beautiful Pigeon was discovered by Mr. A. R. Wallace in the Aru Islands, where it has also been met with
by Dr. Beccari and Baron Von Rosenberg. The last-named naturalist has also observed it on the Ké
Islands, and more recently a fine series has been brought from the Tenimber Islands by Mr. H. O. Forbes.

We have carefully compared Mr. Forbes’s specimens with the typical Aru-Islands bird and cannot find the
slightest difference between them.

This beautiful Pigeon, Mr. Forbes informs us, is very common in the northern portions of the Tenimber
group which he visited, frequenting the fig-trees (Urostigma). Its nature is very tame, and numbers of
specimens could be easily procured. The native name is ‘“‘ Wofoen Ratoe.”

We have described a fine pair of birds collected in the above-named locality by Mr. Forbes.

Adult male. Crown of head, tapering somewhat to a point on the nape, deep crimson, as well as the lores ;
feathers behind the eye and ear-coverts, sides of neck, bind neck, and mantle delicate French grey; upper
back and scapulars mottled, the feathers being delicate French grey, with orange margins ; lesser wing-coverts
dull orange, forming a shoulder-patch; median coverts French grey, with broad edgings of yellowish olive ;
greater series green, inclining to olive-yellow towards the ends and narrowly margined with yellow; bastard
wing, primary-coverts, and quills deep grass-green with a bronzy gloss, the inner webs being blue-black ;
secondaries more olive than the primaries and edged with yellow, the innermost secondaries olive yellowish
with grey centres like the greater wing-coverts ; remainder of back yellowish green, with more or less of an
orange tinge, especially on the upper back, where there is a patch of dull Grange, upper tail-coverts a
tail yellowish green, dark green towards the base, the terminal half pale greenish ashy, edged externally with
the ends of the feathers dusky greenish, broader on the centre

yellow and becoming whitish on the inner web ;
on the throat, the upper part of the

ones; cheeks, throat, and ear-coverts white, with a faint grey shade
French grey like the sides of the neck, and forming a band 3
a rather broad band of white slightly sullied with
ig-coverts French grey 5 lower flanks

becoming dusky

ear-coverts rather dusky ; fore neck and chest pale
breast deep rich orange, separated from the grey chest by
grey; abdomen bright yellow; sides of breast, axillaries, and under era
olive-green ; thighs grey; under tail-coverts yellow, edged broadly with green 5 quills grey, oad
towards their ends ; “bill yellow, but paler on the lower mandible ; legs and feet purple ; iris ce be
ring and outer one of light red ” ak OF Forbes). Total length 9 inches, culmen 0°8, wing : :
tarsus 0°95.

The female is like the male, but a trifle duller in colour. ; so tae We

The figures in the Plate represent a pair of birds, of the size of life; they have

Mr. Forbes’s specimens above described. [R. B. S.J