On a new Bird of Paradise

Mr. Th. H. Ruys, who stayed during four years for commercial purposes at the north-west coast of New Guinea, presented at his return in Holland to our Museum some skins of birds of paradise, among which is, besides the rare Diphyllodes gulielmi III, also a species, being as I believe new to science. I cannot place it in any of the described genera of the Paradiseida ; it shows some relations to Diphyllodes and also to Paradisea, but as there are important differences with these two genera, I propose to call it: Neoparadisea ruysi, nov. gen. et nov. spec. The bird seems to be a male in not fully developed plumage. The tail is, like that of Paradisea, composed of 12 feathers, of which the central pair is much elongated, like in P. apoda and minor, but the barbs are a little longer, those of the outer web are longer than those of the inner web and of a metallic green colour. These two feathers are curved downwards as in Paradisea, not aside as in Diphyllodes.