PARADIGALLA CARUNCULATA, Lesson.

Wattled Bird of Paradise.

Paradigalla carunculata, Less. Ois. Parad. p. 242 (1835); id. Rev. Zool. 1840, p. 1; Bp. Consp. 1. p. 414
(1850) ; Sclater, P. Z. S. 1857, p. 6; Wall. P. Z. S. 1862, p. 160; id. Malay Arch. il. p. 257 (1869) ;
Elliot, Monogr. Parad. pl. xvii. (1873); Salvadori, Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. vil. p. 784 (1875) ;
Beccari, ¢. c. p. 711 (1875); Sclater, Ibis, 1876, p. 250; Salvadori, Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov. ix.
p. 190 (1877); Sharpe, Catalogue of Birds, iii. p. 165 (1877).

Astrapia carunculata, Eydoux et Souleyet, Voy. Bonite, p. 83, pl. 4 (1841); Gray, Gen. B. ii. p. 326 (1846) ;
Schlegel, J. f. O. 1861, p. 386; Rosenb. J. f. O. 1864, p. 131; Gray, Handl. B. i. p. 17 (1870).

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Tue extreme rarity of the present species in European collections may be imagined from the fact that Mr,

Elliot, when writing his monograph of the birds of Paradise five years ago, could only cite two specimens as

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existing in the museums of the world. One of these was the original specimen procured by MM. Eydoux and

Souleyet during the voyage of the ‘Bonite,’ and still preserved in the Paris Museum; and the second example

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was contained in the rich collection of the Philadelphia Academy. Since that time, however, perfect

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specimens have been obtained by the European travellers who have visited and explored the Arfak Mountains

in North-western New Guinea.

It appears, indeed, to be somewhat rare even in this part of the great Papuan island; for out of five

hundred and thirty-two specimens of Paradise-birds forwarded to Italy by Dr. Beccari and Mr. Bruijn, only

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fifteen belonged to the present species. The more recent explorers, MM. Laglaize and Raffray, have also

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met with the bird; and I possess in my own collection a fine pair procured by M. Laglaize in the Arfak

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Mountains.

Very little has been recorded concerning the habits of the Wattled Bird of Paradise, as the original

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discoverers did not themselves meet with the species in a living state; and the first person who has given

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us any account of the bird is Dr. Beccari, who has done so much to make us acquainted with the economy of
the Paradiseidee. In his Ornithological Letter, he writes:—‘‘As to Paradigalla carunculata, 1 shot one from
wy hut, whilst it was eating the small fleshy fruits of an Urtica. It likes to sit on the tops of dead and
leafless trees, like the Mino dumonti. The finest ornament of this bird are the wattles, which in the dried
skin lose all their beauty. The upper ones, which are attached one on each side of the forehead, are yellow ;
those at the base of the lower mandible are blue, and have a small patch of orange-red beneath. The
Arfaks call the Paradigalla ‘ Happoa.’”’

As is the case with so many of the Birds of Paradise, the genus Paradigalla contains but one single
species ; and indeed it is impossible to find any one which is nearly allied to it. Its somewhat elongated
tail places it close to Astrapia, which it also resembles in not possessing any of the wiry shafts which adorn
the tail-feathers of most of the forms of Paradiseide. A glance at the Plate of Astrapia nigra will show
how entirely different it is even from that, its nearest ally.

The following description is taken from Mr. Sharpe’s ‘ Catalogue of Birds ’:—

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Adult male. General colour velvety black above and below, a little browner on the under surface ; wings
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and tail black, the inner secondaries with a purplish gloss under certain lights ; head glossed with metallic

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steel-green ; forehead, lores, and base of lower mandible bare; over each nostril a small tuft of black

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feathers; on each side of the base of the bill an erect wattled skin; round the eye a ring of black plumes ;

space below and behind the eye bare ; bill and legs black. Total length 11-2 inches, culmen 0°05, wing 6°15,
tail 4°85, tarsus 1:9.

Adult female. Similar to the male, but smaller.

The figures in the accompanying Plate represent the pair of birds in my own collection, obtained by M.

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Laglaize in the Arfak Mountains. For the opportunity of figuring the wattles as they appear in a state of
nature, I am indebted to my friend Mr. D. G. Elliot, who sent me a sketch of these parts coloured from the
recently killed bird by M. Raffray.

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