OCR Text |
Show 632 DR. O. FINSCH ON A NEW CROWNED PIGEON. [Nov. 16, The specimen above described I obtained by chance from a dealer in Holland. When at the Gardens of the Zoological Society at Amsterdam, Mr. Westerman called m y attention to a living specimen of Goura, which he believed to be new*, and which proved to be of the same species as m y specimen. From my description, however, this specimen differs in some respects, having the throat and the smaller upper wing-coverts also vinaceous purplish brown, and the anterior coverts of the secondaries more decidedly whitish and tipped with purplish brown ; otherwise the specimens agree in every respect. These differences probably depend on age or sex. In the living bird the eyes are deep red, the legs and feet red, the bill blackish with pale tips. This remarkable new Crown-Pigeon is intermediate between the two known species. It agrees with G. victories in size and the coloration of the underparts, but differs in the composition of the crown-feathers, which exactly resemble those of G. coronata. In G. victories these feathers are totally different, having a regularly webbed triangular disk at the apex, bordered very distinctly at the tip with white. G. coronata, of which the Leyden Museum possesses a series of nineteen specimens, never has the throat and breast purplish brown, but, on the contrary, has the back of this colour. As we know from the interesting account of Mr. Mitchell (P. Z. S. 1849, p. 169, t. xii.), G. coronata (male) and G. victories (female) paired and produced a hybrid in the Gardens of this Society, which unfortunately died in a few days. Having regard to this fact we might incline to believe this new Goura to be a hybrid ; but if this were really the case, the formation and composition of the crown-feathers would no doubt prove to be intermediate between those of the two parents. This is not the case in m y specimen, which, in regard to the crest, agrees throughout with G. coronata ; and so I cannot believe it to be a hybrid. I may remark that G. coronata shows great variation in colour according to its localities. Specimens from Sorong, on the west coast of New Guinea, opposite the island Salawatti, have the sides of head and nearly the whole of the under surface black ; and this is also the case in specimens from the island of Waigiou (G. coronata minor, Schleg.) and from Mysol ("abdomen et bas-ventre noir," Schlegel). But as between these black-varied specimens and those in the ordinary dress, there are many intermediate forms, and as, on the other hand, both forms occur in the same locality, I do not venture to consider the black-bellied form a distinct species. Following the wishes of m y esteemed friend Mr. Westerman, who wishes to express the feelings of thanks of himself and of the Royal Zoological Society of Amsterdam, I have the pleasure of naming this new species after Mr. C. Scheepmaker, of Soerabaya, who has presented to the Society many rare animals, and to whom also belongs the credit of having sent home the first specimens of this interesting new Goura. Although the exact localities of my specimen and of that in the * See notice of the same bird by Mr. Sclater, P. Z. S. 1875, p. 380, |