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PRELIMINARY DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME NEW BIRDS 

 FROM CENTRAL NEW GUINEA. 



By the Hon. WALTER ROTHSCHILD, Ph.D., and Dr. E. HARTERT. 



MR. ALBERT 8. MEEK, whose name is so well kuowii to the readers of 

 Novitates Zoologicae, has been able to accompany a Dutch Exploring 

 Expedition up the Eilanden River, a river the month of which lies about a hundred 

 miles east of the Letekwa (or Oetakwa) River and has a general trend to north-east, 

 and to Mt. Goliath, where he collected up to elevations of above 500(1 ft. 



Besides the discover}' of some new forms the collection is of the greatest 

 importance from the fact that it determines the exact locality of a number of birds 

 hitherto only known from Papuan trade-skins. Thus, for example, Pteridnphora 

 alberti, Loboparadisea sen'cea, and Parotia carolae carolae have been collected. 

 We hope to give a full report on the collections later on. 



1. Paradig^alla brevicauda sp. nov. 



This extraordinary new bird is in colonr almost exactly like Paradigalla 

 carunculata, being velvet)' black, with the head, nape, and foreneck dark metallic 

 green, almost olive-green. In the male the whole back and scapulars are glossed 

 with oily green ; this is not seen in most skins of P. cnriinculata, but in one in 

 the Tring Museum it is about as much developed as in most P. brevicauda. The 

 median and greater upper wing-coverts are glossed with green, and the secondaries 

 have sharply defined outer edges of a dark golden green, which colour is also to be 

 seen on the distal portion of the inner webs, while the primaries are of a glossless 

 black. These green outer edges to the secondaries are mostly duller and sometimes 

 I)nrplish in our skins of P. carunculata, but not much importance is to be attached 

 to this difference, as the skins of P. brevicauda are quite fresh and properly skinned, 

 while those of P. carunculata are old and remade skins. 



The great and very striking difference of this new species is the short and 

 straight, slightly emarginated tail, the central reotrices being slightly shorter, 

 whereas in P. carunculata the tail is long and cuneiform, the middle tail-feathers 

 exceeding the lateral ones by about 60 to (55 mm. A very peculiar fact, showing 

 evidently the line of evolution, is, that the young birds have the tail longer than 

 the adult birds, i.e. from 35 to 40 mm. longer ! 



The first two primaries are less sharply pointed and less attenuated, and the 

 third is comparatively longer than in P. carunculata. 



Wing 154 5 — 160, tail 51 — 54 (against ITO — 180 in P. carunculata), bill from 

 end of nasal tnfts (the base of the bill on the forehead being difficult to reach, on 

 account of the wattles) 25 — 26, metatarsus about 47 mm. 



The adult female resembles the male, only the crown of the head is not quite 

 so strongly glossed, and the back has hardly any greenish gloss. Young birds are 

 like the female, only the plumage is duller, more brownish, the tail longer, and 

 the wattles shorter. 



"Iris dark brown, feet dark Vandyke brown, bill black. The lappets on the 



