This pretty little species of Manakin is one among the number of those numerous acquisitions in the science of Natural History, for which the Naturalist is indebted to the prolific regions of Australasia. The very close affinity which it bears to the Gmelinian Pipra Nævia, a species described originally by Buffon under the title of Fourmilier tacheté de Cayenne, may possibly have occasioned some confusion among authors respecting this individual species, but there are still, if we mistake not, sufficient indications of the two birds being specifically distinct. This was the opinion of the late Dr. Shaw: he constituted a new species of the bird before us under the name of Pipra Punctata, and the english trivial of Speckled Manakin, and we are induced to follow that example from a persuasion that his conclusion was correct. Pipra Nævia, to which it is so nearly allied, has the throat and chin black, and the breast spotted with black: Pipra Punctata, on the contrary, has the throat and breast yellow, without any black spots. These differences afford a conspicuous distinction of the two birds, besides which, there are some others of less consideration that will appear upon an attentive comparison.
As a new species, it appears, therefore, pretty certain that we have to acknowledge the late Dr. Shaw as the first author by whom this interesting bird was introduced to the knowledge of the learned world: he describes it, as before observed, under the name of Pipra punctata. M. Vieillot is consequently in an error when he refers to authority of Dr. Latham for this name. The bird was so designated in the first instance, in the work entitled the Naturalist’s Miscellany, written by Dr. Shaw; nor was the species mentioned by Dr. Latham either in his Synopsis or his Index Ornithologicus. In a final or second supplement published by Dr. Latham long after the Synopsis, we find the bird mentioned under the name of the Speckled Manakin, but only upon the authority of the Naturalist’s Miscellany of Shaw, and a drawing of the bird by General Davies, for at that late period even, the bird appears to be unknown to Dr. Latham, except upon those two authorities. This observation is the more material since the Ornithologist M. Vieillot in dividing the Linnæan Genus Pipra into two Genera, Pardalotus and Pipra, assigns for the type of his genus Pardalotus the “Pipra punctata” of Latham, at the same time, as we have already shewn, the works of Dr. Latham affords us no such name. The present species was described under the appellation of Pipra punctata only by Dr. Shaw. Dr. Latham does not adopt this name, he records the species only under the trivial english name of the Speckled Manakin, which name had also been assigned before by Dr. Shaw. If, therefore, the name of Pipra punctata had occurred to M. Vieillot, it must have been in the work of Dr. Shaw, and not of Dr. Latham. Perhaps Vieillot had inadvertently imagined this Speckled Manakin to be the same as the Spotted Manakin of Dr. Latham’s Synopsis. If this be really the source of error, it may be added, that this latter bird appears to have been described by Dr. Latham upon the authority only of Planches Enluminées, and is no other than Pipra Nævia of Gmelin, as Dr. Latham has himself pointed out in his Index Ornithologicus.
The description of this bird, as it occurs in the first instance, in the works of Dr. Shaw, is to this effect. Pipra punctata (Speckled Manakin) grisea, fusco undulata, vertice alisque nigris, albo punctatis tectricibus caudæ rubris. The notice of the species as before-mentioned in Dr. Latham’s second Supplement is subsequent to this, and appears only under the trivial name of the Speckled Manakin.
In adverting to the separation of the Pipra genus as it occurs in the work of M. Vieillot, it will not be amiss to point out precisely those distinctions, which, according to his mode of classification, constitute the characters of those two genera into which he has divided them. The first of these genera denominated Pardalotus comprehends those species of the Pipra genus in which the form of the bill is very short in proportion to its length, a little robust or stout, the base dilated upon the edges, entire, conoid, thick at the point, the upper mandible a little bent, and the lower one convex beneath. Those birds which are allowed to remain in the Pipra genus have the bill conoid, trigonal at the base, compressed at the sides near the end, cut off and curved at the point, the lower mandible turning up at the extremity; and the exterior toes connected rather beyond the middle. It may be added, finally, that Cuvier, on the contrary, in his Règne Animal, allows the Manakins (Pipra of Linnæus) to remain united as before. He does not adopt the genus Pardalotus, and this circumstance is the more worthy of note since we have seen the species arranged in our Museums with the synonymous appellation of “Pardalotus Punctatus Cuvier,” and have observed it designated as the type of Cuvier’s New Genus Pardalotus.
This interesting little creature being represented in its natural size in the plate annexed, it will be perceived to be one of the smaller tribes of the feathered race: we have even few birds in England more diminutive, for in point of magnitude it does not exceed that of our common willow-wren, its length being only about four inches. The elegance of its plumage, is, however, in a peculiar degree attractive, and more than amply compensates for this inferiority in size. The general colour above is cinereous brown, varying to a cinereous purple; the throat and breast a delicate fulvous yellow; the crown of the head black spotted with white; the wings, except the coverts, which are the same colour as the back, are black, and the tip of each of these black feathers are marked with a spot of white. The rump coverts are testaceous, becoming gradually redder towards the end: the tail itself is black, having the base of a fine crimson with some intermixture of yellow; and in general, though not invariably, there is a white dot at the tip of each of the tail feathers; sometimes it is only the outer feather on each side the tail that is marked with a white dot. Beneath, the throat and breast is of a delicate yellow colour; the bill black, and legs brown.
In the plate that accompanies this description, this elegant little bird appears perched upon a sprig of the ovate leaved Goodenia, Goodenia Ovata, a vegetable production of the Australasian regions, that flowered in the month of July, during the present year, in the Royal Gardens, Kew.
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London. Published as the Act directs, by E. Donovan & Mess.rs Simpkin & Marshall, Oct.r 1, 1822.