150 BIRDS OP NEW GUINEA. 



spot ; bill light red, with blackish tip ; legs flesh-coloured ; nails black ; iris 

 whitish yellow. (After Von Rosenberg.) 



The female differs a good deal. The violet-black occipital patch reaches 

 only the beginning of the nape ; the nape itself is red ; the feathers of the 

 rump are green, with dark margins ; but the sides are vivid yellow and the 

 flanks and thighs green, with single yellow- shafted stripes ; the secondaries 

 show a yellow mark on the middle of the inner web ; the outer tail-feathers 

 are narrowly margined with red on the outer web, along the shaft. 



Long. tot. al. caud. rect. ext. culm. alt. rostr. tars. dig. ext. 



in. lin. in. iin. in. lin. lin. lin. lin. lin. 



— 3 8i 3 8i 1 6 5i 4i 4i 5 J (English). 



millim. millim. millim. millim. millim. millim. millim. 



— 94 94 38 12 10 10 12 (French). 



The above measurements are taken from the male. The female is a 

 little smaller ; but the difi^erences are so trifling that we need not notice them. 



For the discovery of this fine and elegant species, science is indebted to 

 Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace, who got a pair during his stay at Havre Dorey, 

 on the north-west coast of New Guinea. The Baron H. von Rosenberg found 

 it at the same place, and says that it was more plentiful than TV. papuensis. 

 Nevertheless he seems not to have collected many specimens, as even the 

 Royal Museum at Leyden did not get one from him. It is still one of the 

 rarest in our collections. Dr. Adolf Bernhard Meyer, so fortunate in his 

 researches in New Guinea, collected specimens at Passim, on the west coast 

 of Geelvinks Bay, at Amberbaki on the north coast, and at Hattam, or 

 Atam, a native village in the Arfak mountains, about 3500 feet above the 

 level of the sea, the same place w^here Signor Luigi Maria d'Albertis also 

 found this rare bird. The species seems therefore confined, in its geogra- 

 phical distribution, to the north coast of New Guinea. 



Nothing is known of its habits ; but we owe thanks to Dr. Meyer for 

 having first made us acquainted with the difference of the two sexes. The 

 type specimen in the British Museum, described by G. R. Gray and in the 



