Count Salvadori on some New-Guinea Birds. 267 



It is built among some twigs, after the fashiou of a Long-tailed 

 Titmouse's, and has a singular pendent tail, giving it the form 

 of an inverted cone or jelly-bag. The inside is lined with 

 very fine rootlets ; and the outside, the rim, and halfway 

 down the interior are, as it were, solidly felted with cobwebs. 

 In it are the fragments of two eggs, of a pinky white ground, 

 covered with brown blotches. Outside diameter of nest 

 2^ inches, depth inside 1^, from rim to end of tail 4^. 



XXIV. — On Sericulus xanthogaster, SchL, and Xanthomelus 

 aureus {Linn.). By T. Salvadori, C.M.Z.S. 



Among the birds from New Guinea collected by D'Albertis, 

 Beccari, and Bruijn's hunters, or obtained by them from the 

 natives, are seven specimens (six males quite adult, and one 

 in transitional plumage) of Xanthomelus aureus, and two 

 birds which quite agree with Schlegers Sericulus xantho- 

 gaster, figured by Elliot in his ' Monograph of the birds of 

 Paradise ' under the name of Chlamydodera xanthogastra ; 

 with the latter name they have been mentioned by Mr. Sclater 

 (P.Z.S. 1873, p. 697). 



Working lately at Xanthomelus aureus for my book on the 

 birds of New Guinea, I have been struck by the fact that the 

 male in transitional plumage, mentioned above, shows cha- 

 racters intermediate between those of the fully adult X. 

 aureus and those of the so-called Sericulus xanthogaster ; and 

 having gone through the subject, I have arrived at the con- 

 clusion, which I think will be rather unexpected, that Seri- 

 culus xanthogaster is the young of Xanthomelus aureus. 



The specimen in transitional plumage which has led me 

 to this conclusion is, unfortunately, a native skin, without 

 feet : it has the upper part of the head orange-red ; some of 

 the feathers round the eyes and on the sides of the head are 

 black ; on the throat there are a few blackish feathers ; all 

 the upper parts, the wings and the tail, from above, included, 

 are olive-brown, with a slight yellow tinge on the upper tail- 

 coverts ; the feathers of the mantle are ratlier elongated and 



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