some new Paradise-birds. 
251 
142° 30' E. long., about 60 miles west o£ D'Urville Island : 
on the Admiralty chart f Passir Point' is marked here, but 
-on such point exists in reality. Only at this one spot on the 
north coast did the natives bring Paradise-bird skins for sale 
along with ornamental plumes of Basyptilus . All skins 
from this locality are small in dimensions." ( Finsch .) 
The single native skin which constitutes the type of this 
species has the brown of the upper surface not pure chest¬ 
nut, as in P, minor , but paler brown, and the under surface 
is not chestnut-brown with a vinous tinge as in P. minor , but 
more of a reddish brown. These variations in colour are 
very noticeable. Besides, P. finschi differs from P. minor in 
the size and the form of the bill, which is more slender and 
elongated in the latter ; its length in P. minor reaches 32-35 
millim. in specimens in the Dresden Museum. There seems 
to be also a difference in the colour of the upper mandible, 
which in P. finschi has a light-coloured culmen. 
In Western New Guinea P. minor occurs, in Southern 
New Guinea P. nova-guinea (Salvad. Orn. Pap. ii. p. 609), 
the latter approaching P. apoda of Aroo. From the north¬ 
east of the great island no example of this form has yet 
been brought, although we are assured of its occurrence 
there, for example in Astrolabe Bay. It may be presumed 
that the north-eastern form will be nearer to P. minor than 
to P. apoda , because the great central chain of New Guinea 
running from east to west cuts off the north from the south. 
It would be interesting to ascertain whereabouts on the 
north coast P. minor passes into P. finschi. 
[The first species of Paradise-bird obtained from Emperor 
William's Land bears appropriately the name of its dis¬ 
coverer, who at the same time was the first to mark out the 
new German colony.—M.] 
12. Paradisea raggiana, Sclater. 
Astrolabe Mountains and Milne Bay. 
At fifteen miles in the interior from Port Moresby, accord¬ 
ing to Hunstein, this species is first met with, but does not 
occur on the Horseshoe Mountain. It extends to Basilisk 
Island and westward to Bentley Bay. 
2 T 
