
ON A 
NEW SPECIES OF MUSOPHAGA 
By J. GOULD, Esa, F.R.S. 
Prats LXXXI. 
My Dear Sir Witi1am—TI send you for insertion in your 
“ Ornithological Contributions,” the description of a new species of 
Musophaga, which is larger and more beautifal in colouring than 
any other species with which we are acquainted. It has been for 
the last ten years, and is still living in St. Helena, in the possession 
of Lady Ross, widow of the late Sir Patrick Ross, governor of that 
island. Lady Ross, who is at present in England, has placed in my 
hands a drawing of the bird made by Lieutenant J. H. Stack, and 
also a number of the feathers shed from the wings and tail, from an 
examination of which I am satisfied that it is quite distinct from the 
other known members of the genus. Her ladyship informs me, that 
it is nearly the size of a common hen pheasant, and has a long, 
full, graduated blue tail, which colour pervades the neck and the 
whole of the body, and also the wings, except the primaries, which 
are arterial blood red, margined at the tips with a purplish-brown 
colour, similar to that observable in Musophaga violacea ; the bill 
and the large denuded orbits are yellow; the irides are brown; the 
crown of the head is surmounted with a high rounded crest of hair- 
like blood red feathers. 
At the meeting of the Zoological Society of London, held on the 
11th of March, 1851, I brought my knowledge of this bird under 
the notice of the members then present, and proposed for it the 
name of “ Musophaga ross,” in honour of its amiable owner, 
whose return to St. Helena is somewhat uncertain, In the event 
of her ladyship not proceeding thither, she has promised that the 
bird shall be brought to England, where its arrival cannot fail to 
be highly interesting to every lover of ornithological science. Lady 
137 
