On some new Pai^adise-birds. 237 



called structural characters makes it still more difficult for 

 the student to perceive the true relationship of birds. 



5th. The differentiation of species in consequence of isola- 

 tion^ and the production of subspecific forms in consequence 

 of semi-isolation^ prove the great importance of interbreeding 

 in preventing the indefinite multiplication of species. 



XXIX. — On some new Paradise-birds. 

 By O. FiNscH and A. B. Meyer*. 



(Plate VII.) 



Amongst the collectors who at first founded and aftervpards 

 materially increased our knowledge of the zoology of South- 

 eastern New Guinea^ the principal credit is due to our 

 fellow-countryman, Karl Hunstein^ of Friedberg, in Hesse. 

 A first-rate shot, collector, and observer, it was he wlio, 

 after the failure of the gold-diggers^ expedition (in the ranks 

 of which he first visited New Guinea, seven years ago), in 

 company with the well-known collector, Andrew Goldie, 

 made several excursions into the same district of New 

 Guinea and eastwards to Milne Bay and the d^Entrecasteaux 

 Islands. In all these expeditions, which (although con- 

 siderable collections of natural -history and ethnographical 

 objects were made) had the main object of gold-prospecting, 

 Hunstein, although his name has not hitherto been brought 

 prominently forward, was the real collector fj and to him our 

 thanks are due for the discovery of most of the new birds 

 transmitted by Goldie to Australia and England. 



* [Translated, by permission of the uutliors, fi-om their article in the 

 ' Zeitschrift fii]- die gesammte Ornithologie,' 1885, Heft iv., entitled 

 " Vogel von Neu-Guinea, zumeist aus den Alpenregion am Siidost- 

 abhange des Owen-Stanley Gebirges (Hufeisengebii-ge, 7000-8000 f. 

 hoch), gesammelt von Karl Hunstein," part i.] 



t See Sharpe, Ann. Nat. Hist. (5) yi. p. 231 (1880) ; id. Jouru. Linn. 

 Soc, Zool. xvi. p. 423 (1883) ; Eamsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. viii. 

 p. 15 (1883) et X. p. 242 (1885). Phonygama hmsteim, Sharpe (op. cit. 

 p. 442), and Donacicola hunsteini, Finsch (Ibis, 1886, p. 1, pi. i.), are both 

 named after Hunstein. 



