TNSESSORES. 593 



glossed on the upper surface with brownish lilac ; under sur- 

 face similar to the upper, but all the feathers of the abdomen 

 and flanks broadly margined with rich olive-green ; feathers 

 of the head and throat small, scale-like and of a shining me- 

 tallic blue-green ; two centre tail-feathers rich shining metallic 

 green, the remainder deep black ; bill and feet black. 



The female has the whole of the upper surface greyish 

 brown ; the wings and tail edged with ferruginous ; the 

 feathers of the head with a narrow line of white down the 

 centre ; line passing down the side of the head from behind 

 the eye, chin, and throat bufFy white ; all the under surface 

 deep buff, each feather with a black arrow-shaped mark near 

 the tip. 



Sp. 364. PTILORHIS VICTORItE, Gould. 

 Queen Victoria's Rifle-Bird. 



Ptiloris victoria, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, 1849, p. Ill, Aves, 



pi. 12. 

 Ptilorhis victoria, Reich. Handb. der Spec. Orn,, p. 329. 



Ptiloris victoriae, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., Supplement, pi. 



This Rifle-Bird is smaller in all its admeasurements than the 

 Ptilorhis 2)aradiseus, and may be distinguished by the purple 

 of the breast presenting the appearance of a broad pectoral 

 band, bounded above by the scale-like feathers of the throat, 

 and below by the abdominal band of deep oil-green, and by 

 the broad and much more lengthened flank feathers which 

 show very conspicuously. 



" This bird," says Mr. Macgillivray, " was seen by us during 

 the survey of the N.E. coast of Australia on the Barnard Isles, 

 and on the adjacent shores of the mainland at Rockingham Bay, 

 in the immediate vicinity of Kennedy's first camp. On one 

 of the Barnard Isles (No. III. in hit. 17° 43' S.), which is 

 covered with dense brush, I found Queen Victoria's Rifle Bird 

 in considerable abundance. Females and young males were 



2 a 



