DREPANORNIS BRUIJNIJ, Oustalet.

Bruija’s Bird of Paradise.

Drepanornis bruijnii, Oustalet, Bull. Assoc. Scient. de France, 1880, p. 172.—Salvad. Orn. Papuasia e delle
Molucche, ii. p. 553 (1881).—Guillemard, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1885, p. 649.

 

Ir is much to be regretted that we have been unable to procure a fully adult bird for our illustration of the
present species, for to all appearances the specimen which has been lent to us by Dr. Guillemard for the
purposes of this work is immature. At the same time it is somewhat singular that all the specimens so far
procured by Mr. Brujjn’s hunters in North-western New Guinea have been similar to the bird here figured.
Dr, Guillemard, who obtained two specimens during the cruise of the ‘ Marchesa’ with Mr. Kettlewell,
gives the following account of his getting them :—*‘ While in Ternate Mr. Bruijn showed me the skins of two
birds of the genus Drepanornis obtained by his hunters on the north coast of New Guinea a little to the

’

eastward of the mouths of the Amberbaki River. One was marked ‘female,’ the other ‘male’; but both
were destitute of any brilliant colouring whatsoever. .... . Mr. Bruijn informed me that his hunters had
obtained seven or eight examples of this species, but that, though of different sexes, they were all of the same
sober colouring. Judging from the habits of others of the Paradiseide, notably in the case of P. rubra, where
the immature males and females appear to live in districts quite apart from the adult male at certain seasons
of the year, and from the fact that in this group of birds the males are all of brilliant colouring, we can safely
predict that the adalt male of this species has yet to be discovered, and that it will probably show a
development of subalar plumes closely resembling that of D. albertisi.”

It is no doubt true that when the fully-plumaged male becomes known considerable resemblance to the
same sex of D. albertisi will be discovered, and a more accurate comparison of the two species will then be
possible ; but there can be no doubt that D. druijnii is a well-marked species, even when founded on the
immature bird. The size of the bil! alone is sufficient to distinguish it, and the distribution of the bare
patches on the face is also different; but the chief characters will no doubt be discovered when skins of the
adult male are sent to Europe.

The following is a description of the specimen kindly lent to us by Dr. Guillemard :—

General colour above brown, with a slight tinge of olive ; wing-coverts like the back, the outer median and
the greater coverts washed externally with dull fawn-colour; bastard-wing and primary-coverts dusky brown,
the latter shaded with fawn near the base ; quills dusky brown, externally pale olive-brown, the secondaries
washed with fawn-colour on the outer web; upper tail-coverts dull fawn-colour, washed with brown in the
centre ; tail-feathers clear fawn-colour ; crown of head blackish, the feathers being of a velvety texture ; the
hind neck also shaded with blackish ; sides of face bare; lores and a line of feathers from the gape along
the side of the face blackish, the cheeks whity brown, black anteriorly, followed by a broad malar line of black ;
throat and under surface of body pale fawn-buff, regularly barred with blackish, the throat and fore neck more
dusky and the cross bars smaller and more indistinct ; the abdomen clearer buff and the bars wider and more
distinct ; sides of body and flanks like the abdomen; thighs and under tail-coverts also fawn-buff, barred
with blackish ; under wing-coverts and axillaries paler fawn-buff than the breast and indistinctly barred ;
quills below dusky, fawn-buff along the inner edge. Total length 12 inches, culmen 2°7, wing 5°6, tail 4:3,
tarsus 1°20.

The figure in the Plate represents the bird of the size of life and is taken from Dr. Guillemard’s specimen
mentioned above.

[R. B. S.J

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