DREPANORNIS BRUIJNII, Oustuht. 
Bruijo’s Bird of Paradise. 
Drepanornis hrtdjiiU, Oustalet, Bull. Assoc. Sclent, de France, 1880, p. 172. — Salvad, Orn. Papuasia e delle 
Molucclie, ii. p. 558 (1881).— Guillemard, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1885, p. 649. 
It is tnnch to be regretted that we have been unable to procure a fully adult bird for our illustration of the 
present species, for to all apj)earances the specimen wbicb has been lent to us by Dr. Guillemard for the 
purposes of this work is immature. At the same time it is somewhat singular that all the sj)ecimens so far 
procured by Mr. Bruijn’s hunters in North-western New Guinea have been similar to the bird here figured. 
Dr. Guillemard, who obtained two specimens during the cruise of the ‘ Marchesa ’ with Mr. Kettlewell, 
gives the following account of his getting them : — “While iuTernate 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 exam])les of this s])ecies, hut that, though of different sexes, they were all of the same 
sober colouring. Judging from the habits of others of the Pm'adiseidxs, 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, we can safely 
predict that the adult male of this species has yet to be discovered, and that it will probably show a 
development of suhalar plumes closely resembling that of D. albertisiP 
It is no doubt true that when the fully-plumaged male becomes known considerable resemblance to the 
same sex of D. albertlsi will be discovered, and a more accurate comparison of the two species will then be 
possible ; but there can be no doubt that D. bruijmi is a well-marked species, even when founded on the 
immature bird. The size of the bill alone is sufficient to distinguish it, and the distribution of the bare 
patches on the face is also different; but the chief characters will no doubt be discovered when skins of the 
adult male are sent to Europe. 
The following is a description of the s])eciifien kindly lent to us by Dr. Guillemard : — 
General colour above brown, with a slight tinge of olive; wing-coverts like the back, the outer median and 
the greater coverts washed externally with dull fawn-colour; bastard-wing and primary-coverts dusky brown, 
the latter shaded with fawn near the base; quills dusky brown, externally pale olive-brown, the secondaries 
washed with fawn-colour on the outer web ; upper tail-coverts dull fawn-colour, washed with brown in the 
centre ; tail-feathers clear fawn-colour ; crown of head blackish, the feathers being of a velvety texture ; the 
hind neck also shaded with blackish ; sides of face bare ; lores and a line of feathers from the gape along 
the side of the face blackish, the cheeks whity brown, black anteriorly, followed by a broad malar line of black ; 
throat and undersurface of body pale fawn-buff, regularly barred with blackish, the throat and fore neck more 
dusky and the cross bars smaller and more indistinct ; the abdomen clearer buff and the bars wider and more 
distinct ; sides of body and flanks like tbe abdomen ; tbigbs and under tail-coverts also fawn-buff, barred 
with blackish ; under wing-coverts and axillaries paler fawn-buff than the breast and indistinctly barred ; 
quills below dusky, fawn-buff along the inner edge. Total length 12 inches, culmen 2'7, wing 5'6, tail 4*3, 
tarsus T25. 
The figure in the Plate represents the bird of tbe size of life and is taken from Dr. Guillemard’s specimen 
mentioned abovg. 
[R. B. S.] 
