PTILORIS VICTORIA. 



QUEEN VICTORIA'S RIFLE-BIRD. 



PTILORIS VICTORIA, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1849) p. Ill, pi. 12.— Id. Birds of Austr. Suppl. pi.— Id. Hand-b. Birds Austr. vol. i. p. 593. 

 — Reich. Hand, der spec. Oin. p. 329. 



PTILORNIS VICTORIA, Gray, Hand-1. Birds, pt. i. (1869) p. 105, sp. 1272.— Elliot, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1871) p. 582.— Bon. Consp. Gen. Av. 

 (1850) p. 412. sp. 2.— Von Rosenb. Journ. fur Ornith. (1864) p. 123. 



Hab. Barnard Islands, N. E. coast of Australia (Macgullivray). 



Queen Victoria's Rifle-bird, described by Gould in 1849, very closely resembles tbe P. paradiseus ; but it apparently 

 has a smaller bill, and the breast-markings differ slightly in their arrangement. "This bird," says Mr. Macgilhvray, 

 as quoted by Gould, "was seen by us during the survey of the N.E. coast of Australia on the Barnard Isles, 

 and on the adjacent shores of the mainland at Rockingham Bay, in the immediate vicinity of Kennedy's first 

 camp. On one of the Barnard Isles (No. Ill, in lat. 17° 43' S.), which is covered with dense brush, I found 

 Queen Victoria's Rifle-bird in considerable abundance. Females and young males were common, but rather shy; 

 however, by sitting down and quietly watching in some favourite locality, one or more would soon alight on a 

 limb or branch, run along it with great celerity, stop abruptly every now and then to thrust its beak under 

 the loose bark in search of insects, and then fly off as suddenly as it had arrived. Occasionally I have seen 

 one anxiously watching me from behind a branch, its head and neck only being visible. At this time (June) 

 the young males were very pugnacious; and upon one occasion three of them were so intent upon their quarrel 

 that they allowed me to approach sufficiently near to kill them all with a single charge of dust shot. The 

 adult males were comparatively rare, always solitary and very shy. I never saw them upon the trees, but only 

 in the thick bushes and masses of climbing plants beneath them ; on detecting the vicinity of man they 

 immediately shuffled off among the branches towards the opposite side of the thicket, and flew off for a short 

 distance. I did not observe them to utter any call or cry; this, however, may have arisen from my attention 

 not having been so much directed to them as to the females and young males, which I was more anxious to 

 procure, the very different style of their colouring having led me to believe they were a new species of 

 Pomatorhinus." 



Male. — Smaller m size but very similar m plumage to the P. paradiseus, the principal difference being that 

 the purple on the upper part of the breast is apparently restricted, and forms a band across that portion of 

 the body between the metallic throat and the green of the lower parts. Bill smaller than the P. paradiseus, 

 and, with the legs and feet, black. 



Female.— Closely resembles that of P. paradiseus, but may be distinguished by its smaller size ; upper part 

 of head dark brown, striated with greyish brown ; superciliary stripe arid throat buff; upper parts greyish brown, 

 shaded with olive ; underparts deep buff, the feathers having a brown spot near the tips, and irregularly barred 

 on the flanks with the same. Bill and feet black. 



