TOD OB SIS BONAPARTII, &rc&.
TODOPSI S BONAPARTII, Gray.
Bonaparte’s Todopsis.
Todopsis cyanocephala, Gray, P. Z. S. 1858, p. 177, pi. cxxxiv (nee Quoy et Gaimard).
Todopsis bonapartii, Gray, P. Z. S. 1859, p. 156, 1861, p. 434.—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 168.—Meyer, Sitz.
k. Akad. W ien ,lx ix . pp. 78, 80.—Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc. xiii. pp. 316, 498.
Todopsis, sp., Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov, ix. p. 25.
Tchitrea bonapartii, Gray, Hand-1. B. i. p. 334, no. 5032.
T he present species very closely resembles the preceding one, and was mistaken for it a t first by the late
Mr. George Robert Gray in 1858. In the course o f the following year, however, the receipt of the true
Todopsis cyanocephala from New Guinea showed him that the species from the Aru Islands was a different
o n e ; and he named it thereupon after Prince Bonaparte, the original proposer o f the genus. Since that
date very little information has been added to our knowledge o f the Aru bird, until in 1876 it was
discovered on the mainland o f South-eastern New Guinea by the late Dr. James, who found it there, about
eight miles east o f Yule Islaud, “ inhabiting clumps of trees and shrubs in the midst o f scrub.” This
solitary note is, I believe, all that has ever been published respecting the habits o f any species o f Todopsis.
Signor D Albertis met with it in the same p a rt o f New Guinea, at Naiabui. Count Salvadori, in recording
the latter specimen, thought th at the bird from South-eastern New Guinea might be T. mysoriensis o f Meyer
—a bird which certainly very much resembles T. bonapartii, but differs (so Mr. Sharpe tells me) in having
the upper back black and only the mantle ultramarine, whereas the latter colour is more extended in T.
bonapartii, occupying both the mantle and upper back.
The following descriptions are from Mr. Sharpe’s ‘ Catalogue o f Birds —
Adult male. Crown o f head bright cobalt o f an enamelled texture, running in a narrower line down
the n ap e ; a narrow frontal line, lores, feathers above and below the eye, cheeks, ear-coverts, sides of
neck and hinder neck, the latter washed with purple, mantle, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts purplish
c o b a lt; the greater series o f coverts and the inner secondaries black, externally edged with p u rp le ;
primaries black, with scarcely any purple ed g in g s; back velvety black, glossed with purple, the upper tail-
coverts o f the last-named colour ; tail-feathers purplish black, inclining to duller black on the inner webs ;
entire under surface o f body deep purple, much brighter on the breast and flanks; under wing-coverts
black glossed with purple. Total length 5 ’8 inches, culmen 0 ’65, wing 2*3, tail 2*5, tarsus 0'95.
Adult female. Crown o f head cobalt, extending in a rather broad band down the n ap e ; a narrow frontal
line, lores, sides of face including a narrow eyebrow, and the sides o f the hinder crown and nape purplish
black ; upper surface o f body maroon-chestnut, as also the scapulars and wing-coverts, some of the outermost
coverts o f the thumb spotted with lila c ; quills dark brown, externally edged with rufous like the back, the
secondaries tipped with pale rufous; tail-feathers dull indigo, obscurely waved under certain lights, and
broadly tipped with wh ite; entire throat purplish blue, descending onto the sides o f the c h e st; centre of
o f the fore neck, chest, and middle o f the body white, the sides of the body light maroon-chestnut, including
the thighs and under tail-coverts; the sides o f the upper breast distinctly glossed with lila c ; under wing-
coverts very light rufous, paler on the lower series, a spot on the edge o f the wing cobalt-blue; “ bill
black ; feet dusky olive; iris dark ” ( Wallace, MS.). Total length 5*9 inches, culmen 0*65, wing 2*25,
tail 2-65, tarsus 0 ’9.
In the Plate I have figured a male o f the natural size, with the head o f a male, and in the centre is a bird
which I take to be a young one, all from the Aru Islands. I was a t first inclined to believe that it might be
an old female exhibiting differences from the same sex of T . cyanocephala and w anting the blue throat. As,
however, the British Museum contains blue-throated females o f T. bonapartii from the Aru islands, I believe
now th at it must be only an immature bird, which has not gained the blue throat o f the adult.