PTILORIS MAGNIFICUS. 



MAGNIFICENT RIFLE-BIRD. 



L'EPIMAQUE PROMEFIL, Cuv. Regn. Anim. (1817) p. 408. 



FALCINELLUS MAGNIFICUS, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. (1819) torn, xxviii. p. 167, pi. G. 80, No. 3.— Id. Encycl. Meth. t. ii. p. 579. 

 LE PROMEFIL, Levaill. Ois. de Parad. p. 36, pi. 16— Less. Mus. Zool. pi. 29. 



EPIMACHUS MAGNIFICUS, Cuv. Regn. Anim. (1819) p. 440.— Wagl. Syst. Av. (1827) sp. 10.— Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1859) p. 155. sp. 



18.— Less. Trait. Ornith. (1831) p. 321. sp. 2.— Id. Cent. Zool. (1830) pi. 4, p. 22 (?), pi. 5 (<?).— Bon. Consp. Gen. Av. (1850) p. 412. 

 sp. 3— Schleg. Mus. Pays-Bas (1867), p. 96.— Id. Journ. fur Ornith. (1861) p. 386 — Less. Ois. Parad. (1835), Syn. p. 27; Hist. Nat. 

 p. 218, pis. 32, 33, & 34. 



EPIMACHUS PARADISEUS, Gray, Gen. of Birds (1845), vol. i. pi. xxxii. 

 EPIMACHUS SPLENDIDUS, Steph. Shaw's Gen. Zool. vol. xiv. p. 77 (1826). 



CRASPEDOPHORA MAGNIFICA, Gray, List Gen. of Birds, 2nd ed. p. 15.— Wall. Proc. Zool. Soc. (1862) p. 160— Von Rosenb. Journ. fur 



Ornith. (1864) p. 128. 

 PTILORNIS MAGNIFICUS, Gray, Hand-1. Birds, pt. i. p. 105. sp. 1273. 

 PTILORIS MAGNIFICUS, Elliot, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1871) p. 583. 



Hab. New Guinea. 



I have already pointed out and cleared up the confusion which has always existed between this and the 

 Ptiloris Alberti in my paper on this genus, published in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society ' for 1871, 

 and there indicated the differences existing between them. The present species is much the larger of the two ; 

 and the females are very distinct in their coloration, that of the P. magnificus being rich rufous-brown on the 

 back, and closely barred with black beneath, while the female P. Alberti is pale brown on the back, and 

 rather faintly barred beneath with black. The Magnificent Rifle-bird is a native of New Guinea. It was 

 procured by Lesson at Dorey, who states that " during our sojourn at New Guinea with the corvette ' La 

 Coquille ' we only obtained two mutilated skins ; and M. Dumont-d'Urville, Commander of the Expedition of 

 the Astrolabe, secured only a single skin deprived of its wings and feet, the manner in which they are usually 

 prepared by the natives. It is in the dense and vast forests which surround the harbour of Dorey in New 

 Guinea that this fine species resides." I am not aware that this bird has ever been found away from the 

 mainland of New Guinea, the one mentioned by Gould and others as magnificus being the P. Alberti, abundant 

 in certain portions of Australia. It is only very lately that perfect specimens of the present species have been 

 procured; but I now have beautiful examples in my private collection of both sexes in various stages of 

 plumage. The late Mr. G. R. Gray, in a paper published in the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History 

 for November 1871, upon the Rifle-birds, states that it is even yet doubtful if this and the Australian bird are 

 distinct. He must have forgotten the series of both in all stages of plumage I showed him ; for it would be 

 impossible to find among New-Guinea examples any female with the coloration of the one represented in my 

 Plate, which is the usual style of those that are brought from that great island. Some birds exhibit their specific 

 differences in one sex, some in another. In this form of the genus Ptiloris it is the females which 

 present the greatest amount of variation ; while those of the genera of Parotia and Lophorina so closely resemble 

 each other that if the other sex were unknown they might be deemed, without any grave fault being committed, to 

 be races of the same species ; and yet the males are so entirely different in every particular that the proper course 

 appears to be to place them in different genera. I am not in favour of the undue multipHcation of 

 species ; but in the present instance, with ample materials in my possession upon which to form an opinion, 

 I cannot look upon these birds as other than distinct species, although, as is very probably the case, they 

 originally sprang from the same stock, assuming their present distinctive characters after the point of land 

 called Cape York ceased to be a part of the great island now known as New Guinea. 



Male. — Top of head and occiput, centre of throat, and entire upper part of breast shining bluish green, purple 

 in certain lights ; entire upper parts deep velvety-black, with rich dark purple reflections ; primaries black, with 

 green reflections ; a narrow fine of green, red in some lights, beneath the metallic of the breast ; flanks and abdomen 

 purple ; side plumes also purple, basal half and filamentary ends black ; two central tail-feathers shining green, 

 remainder velvety-black, with green reflections on their outer webs ; bill, legs, and feet stout, black. 



Female. — Entire upper parts, wings, and tail rich brownish red; superciliary stripe white, the feathers tipped 

 with blackish brown ; cheeks, and a line from the base of the lower mandible running back upon the side of 

 the throat, blackish brown ; entire underparts narrowly barred with black ; bill and feet black. 



The Plate represents male, female, and young male of the species, of the size of life. 



