CRASPEDOPHORA ALBERTI, eum. 
Prince Albert’s Rifle-bird. 
Ptilorhis magnificus (nee Vieill.), Gould, Birds of Australia, Suppl. pi. 51 (1851). 
Pi i lor his magnified, pt., Sclater, Journ. Proc. Linn. Soc. ii. p. 164 (1858). 
Craspedophora magnified (nec Vieill.), Gould, Haudb. B. Austr. i. p. 595 (1865). — Gray, IIand-1. B. i. p. 105, 
no. 1273 (1869, pt.). 
Ptilorhis alberti, Wall. Malay Arch. ii. pp. 417, 420 (1869 : descript, nulla). — Elliot, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, 
p. 583 (ex Gray, MSS.).— Gray, Ann. Nat. Hist. (4) viii. p. 365 (1871).— Elliot, Monogr. Parad. pi. xxxiv. 
(1873). — Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. iii. p. 156 (1877). — Finsch, Yog. der Siidsee, p. 37 (1884). 
Craspedophora alberti, Masters, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. i. p. 37 (1877).— Ramsay, op. cit. ii. p. 191 (1878, 
pt.). — Salvad. Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche, ii. p. 558, note (1881). — Ramsay, Tab. List Austr. B. 
p. 11 (1888). 
This species is an inhabitant of the Cape York Peninsula in Northern Australia, and for many years it was 
considered to be identical with Craspedophora magnified of New Guinea, though Ur. Sclater noticed certain 
differences between the two forms as long ago as 1858, and Gray had affixed the MS. name of Ptilorhis 
alberti to the specimens in the British Museum. Dr. A. R. Wallace first mentioned this name in his ‘ Malay 
Archipelago,’ and Mr. D. G. Elliot gave a description of the species in 1871. 
C. alberti is a smaller bird than C. magnified, and is distinguished by the olivaceous tint which appears on 
the breast below the golden-green pectoral collar. In the New Guinea species the reddish-purple colour 
begins directly below the pectoral collar. The females of the two birds are also very distinct. 
Macgillivray gives the following account of the species : — “This fine Rifle-bird inhabits the densest of 
the brushes in the neighbourhood of Cape York. The natives are familiar with it under the name of 
‘ Yagoonya.’ Its cry is very striking ; upon being imitated by man, which may be easily done, the male 
bird will answer. It consists of a loud whistle resembling wheeoo repeated three times and ending abruptly 
in a note like who-o-o , Both sexes utter the same note, hut that of the male is much the loudest. The old 
males are generally seen about the tops of the higher trees, where, if undisturbed, they remain long 
enough to utter their loud cry two or three times at intervals of from two to five minutes. If a female 
be near, the male perches on a conspicuous dead twig in a crouching attitude, rapidly opening and 
closing his wings, the feathers of which, by their peculiar form and texture, produce a loud rustling noise, 
which, in the comparative stillness of these solitudes, may be beard at the distance of a hundred yards, and 
may be faintly imitated by moving the feathers of a dried skin. The full-plumaged males are much more 
shy than the females or immature birds, 
“ From the shyness of this Rifle-bird, it is difficult to catch more than a passing glimpse of it in the dense 
brushes which it inhabits. I once, however, saw a female running up the trunk of a tree like a Creeper, and 
its stomach was afterwards found to he filled with insects only, chiefly ants ; while the stomach of a male 
shot about the same time contained merely a few small round berries, the fruit of a tall tree, the botanical 
name of which is unknown to me.” 
Dr. Otto Finsch, when in the Cape York Peninsula, procured specimens in the neighbourhood of Somerset, 
where he says that its peculiar cry was one of the characteristic sounds of the jungle. It was not rare, but 
excessively shy and difficult to collect. Dr. Finsch procured a bird in nestling plumage, and remarks that 
the males gain their adult plumage by a gradual change of colour in the feather without any moult, and 
that they breed in this half-and-half plumage, showing that it takes some time for the male to assume 
his full livery. 
The following descriptions are copied from my third volume of the ‘ Catalogue of Birds : 
Adult male. General colour velvety black, appearing purple when held away from the light, with some- 
what of a bluish-purple gloss on some of the feathers, this latter shade being especially distinct on the outer 
wing-coverts, which are otherwise like the back ; quills blue-black, of a velvety texture, the inner secondaries 
glossed with purplish blue ; tail velvety black, the two centre feathers metallic steel-green, the next one on 
each side also glossed with steel-green towards the base; crown of head and nape metallic steel-green with a 
