DREPANORNIS BRUIJNII, Oustalet , 
Bruijn’s Bird of Paradise. 
Drepanornis bruijnii, Oustalet, Bull. Assoc. Sci. France, 1880, p. 172. — Id. Ibis, 1881, p. 164. — Salvad. Orn. 
Papuasia, etc. ii. p. 553 (1881). — Musschenbr. Dagboek, pp. 206, 236 (1883). — Guillem. P. Z. S. 
1885, p. 649. — Meyer, Zeitschr, ges. Orn. 1885, p. 382. — Id. Ibis, 1886, p. 249. — Sharpe, in Gould’s 
B. New Guinea, i. pi. 12 (1886). — D’Hamonv. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1886, pp. 505, 509. — Oustalet, 
Le Naturaliste, 1887, p. 180. — Id. Ibis, 1889, p. 583. — Salvad. Agg. Orn. Papuasia, etc. ii. p. 155 
(1890). — Oustalet, N. Arch. Mus. Paris, (3) v. p. 295, pi. 6 (1893). 
When Count Salvadori wrote his account of the Birds of Paradise in his celebrated work on the Ornithology 
of New Guinea, the present species was only known from Dr. Oustalet’s description of a female bird, and the 
distinctness of the species was somewhat questioned by the Count. The specimen described by Dr. Oustalet 
was in brown plumage, and was collected by Mr. Bruijn’s hunters in the eastern part of the Bay of 
Geelvink in North-western New Guinea. 
Several specimens in brown plumage were subsequently sent to Europe by Mr. Bruijn, some of which were 
acquired by Dr. Meyer for the Dresden Museum, and by the British Museum. During the cruise of the 
‘ Marchesa,’ Dr. Guillemard procured two examples, also in brown plumage, one of which was figured and 
described by me in the late Mr. Gould’s ‘Birds of New 7 Guinea.’ 
Dr. Guillemard gives the following account of his specimens : — “While in Ternate Mr. Bruijn showed me 
the skins of two birds of the genus Drepanornis obtained by his hunters on the north coast of New Guinea 
a little to the eastward of the mouths of the Amberbaki River. One was marked ‘ female,’ the other ‘ male ’ ; 
hut both were destitute of any brilliant colouring whatsoever Mr. Bruijn informed me that his 
hunters had obtained seven or eight examples of this species, but that, though of different sexes, they w’cre 
all of the same sober colouring. Judging from the habits of others of the Paradlseidce, notably in the case 
of P. rubra, where the immature males and females appear to live in districts quite apart from the adult male 
at certain seasons of the year, and from the fact that in this group of birds the males are all of brilliant 
colouring, w 7 e can safely predict that the adult male of this species has yet to be discovered, and that it will 
probably show 7 a development of subalar plumes closely resembling that of D. albertlsi .” 
By a happy decree of fate, Dr. Oustalet, to whom was due the first discrimination of the species, when 
only an example of a female or immature male was at his disposal, has been the first to describe the full 
plumage of the adult male. In 1887 he communicated a description to the French Scientific Association, 
and he has since given a beautiful figure of the male bird in the ‘ Nouvelles Archives ’ of the Paris 
Museum. This figure shows that the characters of the massive bill and the extension of the hare skin of 
the face, which Dr. Oustalet relied on for the distinctive characters of the species, fully justified him in its 
separation from D. albertlsi. The different disposition of the shields of plumes on the sides of the breast 
and flanks also proves that D. oruljnn belongs to a separate genus, for which I have proposed the name of 
Drepananax . 
The first specimen of an adult male was, according to Dr. Oustalet, acquired by the well-known traveller 
M. Leon Laglaize, and was obtained on the north coast of New Guinea opposite the island of Podena, 
between Geelvink Bay and Humboldt Bay, at about 141° E. long. Since then several fully plumaged birds 
have been received in Europe, and the Hon. Walter Rothschild possesses a good series of the species. He 
has kindly lent me an adult male bird, from which I take the following description 
Adult male. General colour above brown, a little more reddish on the lower back, rump, and upper tail- 
coverts ; bastard-wing blackish; primary-coverts and quills also blackish, externally dull reddish brown, the 
innermost secondaries almost entirely of the latter colour; tail dull tawny, dusky brown along the inner web; 
crown of head covered with short velvety plumes of a purplish-bronze colour ; sides of face entirely bare ; 
a line of metallic plumes along the sides of the crown, of a dull steel-green ; cheeks and throat velvety black, 
with a slight gloss of bronze or purplish copper ; a spot of steel-blue on each side of the middle of the 
throat ; fore-neck and lateral prse-pectoral shields of feathers blackish or velvety brown, according to the 
light, with an oily-green gloss in the centre of the fore neck, the fan-like shields having a subterminal row of 
feathers which are tipped with fiery metallic copper, while the terminal row are velvety black, with a narrow 
fringe of metallic steel-blue at the tip ; remainder of under surface of the body from the fore-neck downwards 
