LOPHORHINA MINOR, Ramsay. 
Lesser Superb Bird of Paradise. 
Lophorhina superba minor, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, x. p. 242 (1885). 
Lophor hina minor, Finsch & Meyer, Zeitschr. ges. Orn. ii. p. 376, pi. xvii. (1885). — lid. Ibis, 1886, p. 244. — 
Meyer, op. cit. iii. p. 181, cum fig. (1886). — D’Hamonv. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1886, pp. 508, 
510. — Sharpe, in Gould’s Birds of New Guinea, i. pi. 19 (1888). — Salvad. Agg. Orn. Papuasia, ii. 
p. 150 (1890).— -Goodwin, Ibis, 1890, p. 152. — Salvad. Agg. Orn. Papuasia, iii. p. 240 (1891). — Sharpe, 
Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xiii (1894). 
Lophorhina superba (nec Penn.), De Vis, Colonial Papers, no. 103, p. 113 (1890). — Id. Annual Report British 
New Guinea, p. 60 (1890). — Id. Ibis, 1891, p. 36. 
This species is a smaller representative of the Superb Bird of Paradise, Lophorhina superha, of North-eastern 
New Guinea, and was discovered by the late Mr. Carl Hunstein in the Astrolabe Range in South-eastern 
New Guinea. 
The form of its neck-shield is, however, quite different, as was discovered by Dr. A. B. Meyer, when he 
had a specimen mounted for the Gallery of the Dresden Museum. Numerous specimens have been sent to 
the British Museum by the late Hon. Hugh Romilly, and by Dr. H. O. Forbes, who procured the species in the 
Sogeri district, Mr. Goodwin, who accompanied the expedition of Sir William Macgregor to the Owen 
Stanley Mountains, writes to me: — “At an altitude of 5000 feet we came across this Superb Bird of 
Paradise, and as it fluttered about on the highest perch it could find it looked no bigger than a butterfly. 
Needless to say, but few specimens were obtained. Its call resembles that of Parotia lawesi, but is not 
so loud.” 
Sir William Macgregor records the species on Mount Owen Stanley at 4350 feet, and again from 
Goodwin Spur, at from 5000 to 7000 feet. It is not noticed in Dr. Meyer’s account of the collections from 
Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land, so that it seems to be entirely a species of the Owen Stanley Mountains, so far as is 
yet known. 
On re-examining the specimen of L. superha figured by Gould, and comparing it with the specimens of 
L. minor in the British Museum, from South-eastern New Guinea, not only is the shape of the cervical 
shield found to be different, as pointed out by Dr. Meyer, but the plumes overhanging the base of the bill 
may also prove to be differently disposed. 
In L. superba the angle of the chin is covered up by velvety plumes, and above the nostrils the feathers 
widen out into a kind of small fan. The arrangement of the feathers of this part of the head is, however, 
one which is directly affected by the process of preparing the skin, and I suspect that there is really no 
difference in life between the two species in respect to the arrangement of the plumes on the nose and on the 
chin. In L. minor the shield is not nearly so dense, the fork in the middle is much more marked, and the 
lateral feathers are rounded on the ends and not so pointed as in L. superha. 
Adult male. General colour velvety black, with reflexions of coppery bronze on the mantle and cervical 
shield, the feathers of these ornamental plumes being edged with oily green at the ends ; back and 
rump duller black, the upper tail-coverts velvety hlack, glossed with purple, the centre feathers with violet- 
hlue ; crown of head metallic steel-green, with a few metallic purple feathers on the nape; sides of face and 
throat velvety black with an oily green shade ; across the fore-neck a brilliant elongated shield of metallic 
bluish green ; rest of under surface of body black. Total length 8‘3 inches, culmen 1, wing 5*3, tail 3'2, 
tarsus T3. 
The adult female is very similar to the male, is much lighter brown and not so chestnut as the female of 
L. superha, and appears to differ also in having a line of white feathers dotted with black from the hinder 
part of the eye above the ear-coverts; the outer aspect of the quills is paler rufous than the dark chestnut 
of the wing in L. superhci, and the tail is olive-brown. The under surface of the body is paler buff, and the 
cross-hars are paler. 
The descriptions have been taken from a pair of birds in the British Museum, and the figures in the Plate 
were drawn from the same birds. 
