PARADIGALLA CARUNCULATA. 



WATTLED BIRD OF PARADISE. 



ASTRAPIA CARONCULATA, Eydoux et Souleyet, Voy. de la Bonite, p. 83 (1841) ; Atlas, pi. 4. 



PARADIGALLA CARUNCULATA, Bon. Consp. Gen. Av. (1850) p. 414— Gray, List Gen. Birds (1855), p. 65 : Less. 



ASTRAPIA CARUNCULATA, Gray, Hand-1. Birds (1870), pt. ii. p. 17.— Id. Gen. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 326. sp. 2— Schleg. Journ. fur Ornith. 



(1861) p. 386.— Von Rosenb. Journ. fur Ornith. (1864) p. 131. 

 PARADIGALLA CARUNCULATA, Lesson, Ois. Parad. (1835) p. 242— Id. Rev. Zool. (1840) p. 1— Sclat. Proc. Zool. Soc. (1857) p. 6— Wall. 



Proc. Zool. Soc. (1862) p. 160.— Wall. Malay Archip. vol. ii. p. 257. 



Hab. New Guinea (Lesson). 



This curious Bird of Paradise, apparently nearest allied to the magnificent Astrapia nigra, is believed to be an 

 inhabitant of New Guinea, that strange land which contains so many species of this Family, and amid whose 

 inaccessible fastnesses no doubt many more, rivalling in beauty and eccentric plumage any of those already 

 known, are yet to be discovered. The present bird was first obtained by Eydoux and Souleyet during the voyage 

 of the ' Bonite ; ' and all that is known of it is contained in the short extract given below, which I translate 

 from their work upon the animals obtained during the cruise. So rare, however, is this bird, that I am only 

 aware of two specimens at present contained in any museum, one of these being the type in the museum of 

 Paris, and one contained in the equally fine collection belonging to the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia. 



MM. Eydoux and Souleyet state : — " The only Astrapia known, the type in fact, upon which VieiUot established 

 this generic division, is that magnificent species from New Guinea, which Levaillant called ' Paradise-Pie,' 

 Latham Paradisea gularis, and modern ornithologists who have adopted this division (Astrapia with the golden 

 throat) Astrapia gularis. The one which we now publish will be the second known species of this genus. It 

 is distinguished by the compressed wattles, of a triangular form, probably erectile — wattles that recall a little those 

 of the White Plover (Vanellm albicapillus, Vieill.). They are placed at the side of the upper mandible, and are 

 comprised between the opening of the mouth and the nasal fossse, covering the lores and the cheeks ; they adhere 

 to the edges of the frontal bone, and extend on the sides of the forehead, above which they are elevated several 

 miUimetres ; another wattle, much smaller and straighter, includes a large part of the lower mandible, and only 

 presents a slight extension on the side ; these two membranes, by their meeting near the commissure of the jaws, 

 appear to be a continuation of each other. A compact plumage, of a beautiful changeable green, covers the top 

 and sides of the head ; the throat is ornamented with greenish black feathers, having the form of raquets, diverging 

 and overlapping for three or four milhmetres the branches of the lower mandible ; above, the body is a beautiful 

 velvety black, sprinkled with fine lines of a golden green, which only appear in certain lights ; beneath, it is black 

 shaded with a deep brown. The wings (to judge by only two primaries which remain upon one of the individuals 

 which serve for our description) and the tail (of which the feathers are tapering and rounded) are of the same 

 colour as the back above, and of a rich brownish black beneath. The bill is black. We cannot say any thing 

 about the tarsi, which are wanting in the specimen we describe, as is the case with most of those of the Birds 

 of Paradise ; those that we have figured have been imagined or, ordinarily, taken from some allied species. We 

 know nothing of this bird, except its habitat ; it comes from New Guinea, to which the genus Astrapia appears 

 up to the present time to be limited. 



" It would be difficult to give the exact measurements of this species ; for of the two individuals from which 

 we have taken our description, one is entirely without the tail, and that of the other is in process of development 

 after moulting. At the same time the new feathers, which present a shaft provided at the base with disordered 

 beards, show that the tail of Astrapia carunculata, almost entirely developed in our specimen, will be longer 

 than that of the Calybee, which is from ten to twenty millimetres only ; so that this bird will be nearly 36-37 

 centimetres." 



