Order PASSERIFORMES. 
No. 738. 
Family PARADISEIDM. 
PTILORIS VICTORLE. 
LESSER RIFLE-BIRD. 
(Plate 591.) 
Ptiloris victoria Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. (Loud.) 1849, p. Ill, Aves, pi. 12 (between 
Jan. and June 1850) : Barnard Isles, North Queensland. 
Ptiloris* viciorice Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.) 1849, p. Ill ; id.. Birds Austr. Suppl, 
pi. 50 (pt. 1), March 15th, 1851 ; id., Handb. Birds Austr., Vol. I., p. 593, 186.5; 
Ramsa 3 ^ Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.) 1875, p. 599 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., 
Vol. III., p. 155, 1877 ; Ram 8 a 3 % Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. II., p. 191, 1878; 
id.. Tab. List Austr. Birds, p. 11, 1888 ; Sharpe, Mon. Paradis., Vol. I., pi. 2, 1891; 
Hall, Key Birds Austr., p. 9, 1899; Campbell, Nests and Eggs Austr. Birds, 
Vol. I., p. 69, 1901 ; North, Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., No. 1, Vol. I., p. 26, 1901; 
Mathews, Handl. Birds Austral., p. 106, 1908; Jaclaon, Emu, Vol. VIII., 
pp. 235, 241, pi. xxxy., 1909 ; Broadbent, ib., Vol. X., p. 239, 1910 (N.Q.); 
Campbell and Barnard, ib., Vol. XVII., p. 37, 1919 (N.Q.). 
Ptiloris paradisea victorios Rothschild, Ibis, 1911, p. 366; Mathews, Nov. Zool, 
Vol. XVIII., p. 441, 1912 ; id., List Birds Austr., p. 312, 1913 ; id.. South Austr. 
Orn., Vol. II., p. 61, 1915. 
Ptiloris paradisea dyotti Mathews, Austral Avian Record, Vol. II., pi. 7, p. 133, Jan. 28th, 
1915: Cairns, North Queensland. 
Ptiloris victoricB victorice Mathews, ib., Vol. V., pts. 2-3, p. 42, Feb. 21st, 1923. 
Ptiloris victoricB dyotti Mathews, ib. 
Distribution. North Queensland. 
Adult male. Head and liind-neck metalhc bronze-gi'een ; sides of the face, mantle, back, 
rump, upper wing-coverts and secondaries velvety-black, shaded with bronze- 
purple ; middle pair of tail-feathers glossj' steel-green with purple reflections; 
outer pairs of tail-feathers black, margined on the outer web with purple; 
primaries and secondaries black, shaded with purplish-blue and violet; chin and 
throat velvety-black glossed witli pui'jfle ; a large triangular patch of glossy steel- 
green feathers across the tlu’oat extending on to the chest; chest velvety-black, 
higlily glossed with pintle ; bre.nst, belly and sides of the body deep velvety-black, 
each feather tipped with oU-green with purple reflections. Ej'es brown, bill and 
feet black. Total length 235 mm. ; cuhnen 35, wing 141, tail 78, tarsus 34. 
Figured. Collected at Atherton Scrub, Cairns, North Queensland, in August, 1908. 
* Also spelt Ptilorhia. 
% 
372 
