1873.] DR. O. FINSCH ON LAMPROLIA VICTORIA. 733 



2. On Lamprolia victoria, a most remarkable new Passerine 

 Bird from the Feejee Islands. By Otto Finsch, Ph.D., 

 C.M.Z.S., Curator to the Bremen Museum. 



[Eeceived September 25, 1873.] 



(Plate LXII.) 



For the pleasure of introducing this curious and interesting little 

 bird to science I am indebted to Mr. T. Klinesmith, of Levuka, 

 Ovalou, Feejee Islands, who forwarded to me a pair, along with the 

 beautiful and most extraordinary Chryscena victor*, Gould, through 

 the kindness of Mr. Michelsen, of Hamburg. At first sight the 

 bird immediately proves to be new — not only as a species but also 

 as a type of new genus, which I propose to call 



LAMPROLiAf, nov. gen. 



Diagn. gen. Bill and feet as in Saxicola, but the nostrils covered 

 partly by the frontal feathers ; wings long and rounded, with very 

 short projecting point of primaries, as in Thamnobia ; tail short, 

 rounded ; mode of coloration Paradiseine. 



Bill (fig. 1) moderate, straight, slender, at base broader than high ; 

 culmen subcarinated, slightly curved, and the sides gradually com- 

 pressed to the tip, which is slightly emarginated ; the gape furnished 

 with a few short bristles. 



Nostrils basal, lateral ; the opening oblong, without membrane, 

 and partly covered by the brush-like erectile frontal feathers. 



Wings (fig. 3) long, rounded, reaching beyond the middle of the 

 tail ; first primary moderately short, a little longer than half of the 



* I beg leave to remark that Dr. Graffe (as already stated, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 643) 

 was the first who mentioned the existence of this conspicuously coloured Dove, 

 saying (Journ. fur Ornith. 1870, p. 418): "In Lanthalu, einer Insel nahe bei 

 Taviuni, kommt eine hochst eigenthiimliche Chryso?na-Art mit gang mennige- 

 rothem Gefieder vor, von welcher ich ein Exemplar, in einem Kafig gehalten, 

 in Levuka sah, aber leider nicht erhalten konnte, da es der Liebling einer 

 englischen Dame war." Dr. Graffe's "Lanthalu" seems to be synonymous 

 with the small island east of Oamea named "Laucala" on Stieler's 'Hand- 

 Atlas' (No. 51), and very close to the isle of Vuna, or Taviuni, from which my 

 specimens were obtained. These were labelled, in the collector's handwriting, 

 *' Waup Doves ; top of mountains, Taviuni : feed on berries." 



As regards the generic position of this singular Dove I may add that it is 

 undoubtedly a member of the genus Chrysoma, which, as we (Pinsch & Hartl. 

 Ornith. Central-Poly n. p. 134, note) have already shown, is distinguishable 

 from Ptilinopus, not merely by the peculiar and unique structure of the 

 feathers in Chr. lideovirens, but chiefly in having no shortened and narrowly 

 pointed first quill, which is so characteristic of the genus Ptilinopus. Chr. victor, 

 as well as the Chr. luteovirens, has the first primary long, without emargination, 

 and equal to the seventh, a shcrt tail which is covered by the elongated tail- 

 coverts ; and the tarsi are not feathered to the toes as in Ptilinopus, but only at 

 its base. Although Chr. victor does show the extraordinary structure of fea- 

 thers seen in Chr. luteovirens, its plumage exhibits also a singular structure 

 in respect of the length and Laxity of the radii, which resemble mostly those in 

 the genus Coryllis (Loriculus). 



t From \ct/i.irpds, splendidus, and XeZos, Icevis. 



