174 ON THE GENUS PTILOPUS. 



Ill his chapter on the Schouten Eilanden, Von Rosenberg says 

 (p. 47) :- 



"To the series of species which this group has in common with Mefoor, 

 belong all species of Pigeons and Parrots which I mentioned as occurring on 

 this island — as Loris cyanonegia*, Ptilopus musschenhroekii and P. speciosus, 

 Lamprotornis magnus, &c." 



The figure of Ptilopus speciosus which Herr von Rosenberg published 

 (' Reistochten naar de Geelvinkbai op Nieuw-Guinea,' plate xv. fig. 1) is one 

 third of the natural siz(3, and does not give a sufficient idea of this extraordinary 

 species ; therefore I have had it figured to correspond with Mr. Sclater's 

 bird from the Arfak mountains, to which it is closely aUied (^Ptilopus hellus, 

 P. Z. S. 1873, plate Ivii.), by the same artist. 



I have specimens of both the male and female of this species now before 

 me. In the male I observe, behind the red on the head, a characteristic dark 

 bluish green tintf , which the plate does not show, and which is not mentioned 

 in the description ; perhaps the specimen I now examine may be in finer 

 plumage. 



I also figure the female of Ptilopus speciosus. The difference of the 

 females of the five closely allied species, P. speciosus, P. hellus, P. rivoli, 

 P. prasinorrhous, and P. miqueli, is small, but not, therefore, less interesting. 

 It is an often repeated circumstance that the females of difl^erent species are 

 much alike, while the males are not : among others, I may mention several 

 Birds of Paradise which show this in a striking manner. The females of 

 the other four species are not yet figured, as far as I know ; and the female 

 of P. hellus is not yet described. I may therefore mention that it is quite 

 green, more or less bronzed on the upper parts ; the head is darker than 



* The author means Eos cyanogenys, Bp. 



t P. miqueli does not present a darker green behind the red cap, as does P. bellus and 

 P. prasinorrhous. 



