112 Mr. D. G. Elliot on Two Genera 0/ Paradiseidse. 



Paradise; and Shaw included it in Lophorina; while the 

 majority of writers retained it in Sericulus. 



The genus Xanthomelus may be defined as follows : — 

 Bill — culmen straight at base, curving rapidly towards the 

 tip ; upper mandible broad at base, nostrils open and exposed, 

 feathers of forehead touching their posterior rim ; cutting-edges 

 of lower mandible curving slightly downwards ; the tips of both 

 upper and lower toothed. Head crested ; plumes of the back 

 greatly lengthened, capable of being elevated. The wings of the 

 s])ecimen before me ai'e not quite complete ; but apparently 

 the first and second of the secondaries are equal and longest. 

 The tail is rounded, while that of Sericulus is slightly forked. 

 Feathers loose and soft, only those around the base of the 

 upper mandible being short and velvety like those of the head 

 of Sericulus. 



The only known species is 



Xanthomelus aureus. 



Golden Bird of Paradise, Lath. Gen. Syn. (1782) vol. ii. p. 483. 



Oriolus aureus, Linn. Syst, Nat. (1766) vol. i. p. 163. sp. 19; 

 Vieill. Ency. M^th. (1823) vol. ii. p. 695. no. 5 ; Gray, Hand-1. 

 Birds (1869), pt. i. p. 293. sp. 4332. 



Pa7-adisea aurea, Lath. Ind. Orn. (1790) vol. ii. p. 195, sp. 11. 



Lophorina aurantia, Shaw, Gen. Zool. (1826) vol. xiv. p. 76. 



Sericulus aurantiacus, Less. Ois. Parad. (1835) p. 201^ pi. 25, 

 25 bis, 25 ter. 



Sericulus aureus, Bon. Consp. Av. (1850) p. 349. sp. 1. 



Xanthomelus aureus, Bp., ut supra ; Gray, Hand-I. pt. i, 

 p. 293. 



Hab. New Guinea. 



In a paper lately published in the ' Tijdschr. v. de Dierkunde,' 

 Prof. Schlegel described a bird from New Guinea as Sericulus 

 xanthogaster : I have by his permission been able to bring the 

 specimen (together with one of the bird next described) to 

 London, and have carefully examined them. The former does 

 not belong to Sericulus (represented, as now restricted, by S. 

 melinus) — which has the head covered with short upright fea- 

 therslike those of the typical bird of Paradise, but destituteof crest. 



