7Y.Ilarb deb ab liO v.
B R U Ì J N I I 9 Oust.
DREPANORNIS BRUÌJNI I , Oustalet.
Bruijn’s Bird of Paradise.
U B I B B W As%o. à i e j t . I France, 1880, p. 172,-S a lv a d . Orn. Papuasia e delle
Molucche, ii. p. 553 (1881).—Guillemard, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1885, p. 649.
I I much to be regretted tlmt we have been „„able to procure a fully adult bird for our illustrat.on of the
present speeies, for to all — the specimen which has been lent to us by Dr. Gudlemard for die
purposes of this work is immature. At the same time it is somewhat singular that all the B B j I ^
procured by Mr. Bruijn’s hunters in North-western New Guinea have been similar to the bird here figure .
Dr Guillemard, who obtained two specimens during the cruise o f the ' Marches« with Mr. Kettlewell,
gives the f o l l o w i n g account o f his getting them B While iuTeruate Mr.Bruijn showed me the skins o f two
birds of the genus Drepanornk obtained by Ins hunters on the north coast SgNew Guinea a little to the
eastward of the mouths o f the Amberbaki River. One was marked ' female,’ the other I male S but both
were destitute o f any b r i f l i t colouring whatsoever.....................Mr. Bruijn informed me that his hunters had
obtained seven or eight examples o f this sp e c ie s,'g t that, though o f different sexes they were all of the same
sober colouring. Judging from the hab itslio th e r s o f the Paraiueida,, notably in the case o f P . rubra, where
the immature males and females appear to live in districts quite apart from the adult male at certain seasons
o f the year, and from the fact that in this group o f birds die males aregll o f brill.a„i«olourmg, we can safely
p r e d i c a t e the adult male of this species has yet to be discovered, and that it will probably show a
development o f subalar plumes closely resembling that o f D . albertia.'
It is no doubt true, that when the — male becomes known considerable resemblance to ti e
same sex of D . albertisi will be discovered, and a more accurate comparison o f the two spec.es will then be
possible , but there cun be no doubt that 1). bruijmi is a well-marked species, even when founded on the
immature bird. The size o f the bill alone is sufficient to distinguish j and the distribution D O B
patches on the face is also different; hut the chief characters will no doubt be discovered when skins of
adult male are sent to Europe. _
The following is a description of the specimen kindly lent to us by Dr. Guillemard : B
General colour above brown, with a slight tinge o f olive ; wing-coverts like the back, the outer median and
the greater coverts'washed externally with dull fawn-colourI liaslard-wmg and prunary-coverts dusky brown,
the latter shaded with fawn near the base ; ■HMffl 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 he
centre ; tail-feathers clear fawn-colour ; crown of head blackish, the feathers being o f a velvety texture ; the
hind neck also shaded with blackish ; sides of face bare §g>res and a line of feathers from the gape along
the side o f 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 m
sides o f body and flanks like the: abdomen; thighs and under tail-listinct: sides of body and flanks like tiie aoaomen ; migu» gug ugm — —cov -erts also fawn-buff, barred
■ blackish; under wing-coverts and axillaries paler fawn-buff than the breast and md.st.nc ly tarred;
quills below dusky, fawn-buff along the inner edge. Total length 12 niches, culmeu 2 7 , wtng 5 6, tad 4 3,
‘“ The figure in the Plate represents the bird o f the size of life and is taken from Dr. Guillemard’s specimen