LYCOCORAX OBIENSIS, BernsL 
Obi Paradise-Crow. 
Lycocoraw obiensis, Bernst. Journ. fiir Om. 1864, p. 410. — Id. Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk. ii. p. 350 (1865). — Schl. op. 
cit. in. p. 192 (1866). — Id. Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, p. 132 (1867). — Gray, Hand-list of Birds, ii. p. 17, 
no. 6263 (1870).— Sharpe, Cat. Birds in Brit. Mus. iii. p. 185 (1877).— Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov, 
xvi. p. 199 (1880). — Id, Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche, ii. p. 495 (1881). — Guillemard, Proc. Zool. 
Soc. 1885, p. 573. 
This species apjiears to be confined to the Obi group of islands in the Moluccas, where it replaces 
Lycocoraud pyrrhopterus of Batchian and Gilolo, and L. morotensh of Morotai or Morty Island. It is 
distinguished from both by the greenish wash on the upper parts, and it has the quills blacker than in 
L. pijrrhoptems. Count Salvadori and ourselves both regarded the white on the base of the quills as a 
distinctive character of L. morotensh, but Dr. Guillemard, who has recently visited the Obi Islands and 
obtained five specimens of the present species, states that all his series, excepting one bird, had a white mark 
on the primaries. The exception was in the case of a female bird, which was duller in colour than the 
males and had the primaries buff. 
Dr. Bernstein, the discoverer of the species, procured it in Obi Major and Obi Lattoo, but he states that, 
like L. morotensh, it is a difficult bird to procure, as it frequents the thick forest. Its note is described 
by Dr. Bernstein as “ whunk.” 
The following description of an adult bird is coj)ied from the British Museum ‘ Catalogue of Birds,’ 
and is taken from a specimeti in that institution : — 
“General colour above and below of a dull rifle-green, somewhat glistening; tail black, the feathers 
slightly washed with green on the outer web; quills blackish brown, the least wing-coverts edged with dull 
green like the scapidars, the rest of the coverts and secondaries slightly washed with green on the outer 
web, the primaries much paler brown ; bill and feet black. Total length 13'5 inches, culinen 1*95, wing 7*75, 
tail 6'75, tarsus I’9.” 
Dr. Guillemard says that the iris is crimson, but that in the female bird referred to above it was brown. 
The figure in the Plate represents an adult bird of about the size of life, and is drawn from a specimen 
kindly lent to us by Dr. Guillemard. 
[R. B. S.] 
