BMHI P H O r i Y G A M i j P B K P U J R .E O - -V IO J L A . e E A - , M W r.
Mirderm Bros. imp.
PHONYGAMA PURPUREOVIOLACEA, Meyer.
Purple-and-Violet Manucode.
Phonygamapurpureoviolacea, Meyer, in Madardsz, Zeitsch. ges. Orn. ii. p. 375, taf. xv. (1885).
T h e species o f Phonygama from South-eastern New Guinea are difficult to determine, as the changes
to which the metallic colours are subject under the influences o f abrasion or wearing o f the feathers
are at present indistinctly understood. The species from North-western. New Guinea is Phonygama
keraudreni, and we have ourselves described from Southern New Guinea two species o f the genus,
P . hunsteini and P . jamesii. With these we have compared a series o f P . ’purpureoviolacea procured
by Mr. H. O. Forbes in the Astrolabe Mountains, as well as an example obtained by Mr. Hunstein
himself in the Horseshoe range.
P . hunsteini is much larger than any o f the Astrolabe specimens; its colour is a dull purple with
scarcely auy gloss, and the colour o f the head and crest-feathers is metallic oily green, o f diminished
lustre. It will probably be found that P . hunsteini is an inhabitant of one of the islands off the coast,
and not o f New Guinea itself. No information, beyond that it had come, like other birds in the
collection, from East Cape in South-eastern New Guinea, was given with the type specimen o f P . hunsteini;
but it is quite possible that the real habitat is Normanby Island, where Mr. Hunstein also collected.
x4t any rate the species appears distinct from P . jamesii and P . purpureoviolacea, o f which it could
only be a worn and bleached individual, and even then the larger size is not accounted for.
The series before us at the present moment leaves very little doubt that the Phonygama recently
described by Dr. Meyer, and figured by us in the accompanying Plate, is distinct from P . keraudreni
and P . hunsteini; but it is apparently the same as Phonygama jamesii, a species described by us in
1877 from Aleya, in South-eastern New Guinea. The chief difference between these two species
is, that P . purpureoviolacea is more purple ahove and steel-blue below, and P . jamesii is metallic
green above and steel-green below. But between these extremes o f colour every transition is found in the
series now before us; and it should be noted that the type specimen of P . jamesii is moulting, and that
the old feathers of the wing are very dull purple, while the new ones are bright purplish blue externally.
In fiue, without asserting dogmatically that P . jamesii and P . pupureoviolacea are the same, we have very
little doubt in our own minds that they are, and that the steel-blue and green shades become gradually
faded into purple or purplish blue.
The figures in the Plate represent an adult bird in two positions, drawn from a specimen procured by
Mr. Hunstein in the Horseshoe range, and now in the British Museum.
[R. B. S.]