TODOPSIS BONAPARTII, Gray. 
Bonaparte’s Todopsis, 
Todopsis cyanocephala, Gray, P. Z. S. 1858, p. 177, pi. cxxxiv (nee Quoy et Gaimard). 
Todopsis bonapartii, Gray, P. Z. S. 1859, p. 156, 1861, p. 434. — Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 168. — Meyer, Sitz. 
k. Akad. Wien, lxix. pp. 78, 80. — Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc. xiii. pp. 316, 498. 
Todopsis , sp., Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov, ix. p. 25. 
Tchitrea bonapartii, Gray, Hand-1. B. i. p. 334, no. 5032. 
The present species very closely resembles the preceding one, and was mistaken for it at first by the late 
Mr. George Robert Gray in 1858. In the course of the following year, however, the receipt of the true 
Todopsis cyanocephala from New Guinea showed him that the species from the Am Islands was a different 
one ; and he named it thereupon after Prince Bonaparte, the original proposer of the genus. Since that 
date very little information has been added to our knowledge of the Aru bird, until in 1876 it was 
discovered on the mainland of South-eastern New Guinea by the late Dr. James, who found it there, about 
eight miles east of Yule Island, “ inhabiting clumps of trees and shrubs in the midst of scrub.” This 
solitary note is, I believe, all that has ever been published respecting the habits of any species of Todopsis. 
Signor D’Albertis met with it in the same part of New Guinea, at Naiabui. Count Salvadori, in recording 
the latter specimen, thought that the bird from South-eastern New Guinea might be T. mysoriensis of Meyer 
— a bird which certainly very much resembles T. bonapartii , but differs (so Mr. Sharpe tells me) in having 
the upper back black and only the mantle ultramarine, whereas the latter colour is more extended in T. 
bonapartii , occupying both the mantle and upper back. 
The following descriptions are from Mr. Sharpe’s ‘ Catalogue of Birds — 
Adult male. Crown of head bright cobalt of an enamelled texture, running in a narrower line down 
the nape ; a narrow frontal line, lores, feathers above and below the eye, cheeks, ear-coverts, sides of 
neck and hinder neck, the latter washed with purple, mantle, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts purplish 
cobalt ; the greater series of coverts and the inner secondaries black, externally edged with purple ; 
primaries black, with scarcely any purple edgings ; back velvety black, glossed with purple, the upper tail- 
coverts of the last-named colour ; tail-feathers purplish black, inclining to duller black on the inner webs ; 
entire under surface of body deep purple, much brighter on the breast and flanks ; under wing-coverts 
black glossed with purple. Total length 5'8 inches, culmen 0'65, wing 2'3, tail 2*5, tarsus 095. 
Adult female. Crown of head cobalt, extending in a rather broad band down the nape ; a narrow frontal 
line, lores, sides of face including a narrow eyebrow, and the sides of the hinder crown and nape purplish 
black ; upper surface of body maroon-chestnut, as also the scapulars and wing-coverts, some of the outermost 
coverts of the thumb spotted with lilac; quills dark brown, externally edged with rufous like the back, the 
secondaries tipped with pale rufous ; tail-feathers dull indigo, obscurely waved under certain lights, and 
broadly tipped with white ; entire throat purplish blue, descending onto the sides of the chest ; centre of 
of the fore neck, chest, and middle of the body white, the sides of the body light maroon-chestnut, including 
the thighs and under tail-coverts; the sides of the upper breast distinctly glossed with lilac; under wing- 
coverts very light rufous, paler on the lower series, a spot on the edge of the wing cobalt-blue ; “ bill 
black ; feet dusky olive ; iris dark ” ( Wallace , MS.). Total length 5'9 inches, culmen O' 65, wing 2'25, 
tail 2'65, tarsus 0'9. 
In the Plate I have figured a male of the natural size, with the head of a male, and in the centre is a bird 
which I take to be a young one, all from the Aru Islands. I was at first inclined to believe that it might be 
an old female exhibiting differences from the same sex of T. cyanocephala and wanting the blue throat. As, 
however, the British Museum contains blue-throated females of T. bonapartii from the Aru islands, I believe 
now that it must be only an immature bird, which has not gained the blue throat of the adult. 
