Mr. D. G. Elliot un Two Genera 0/ Paradiseidse. 113 



The present bird has its closest aflBnity to the Chlamydodera cer- 

 viniventris of Gould, and should be included in that genus. 

 According to Prof. Schlegel the sexes of this species are alike, 

 which is also the case with those of the C. cervineiventris. The 

 specimens appear to be fully adult ; and their sex was ascertained 

 by dissection by Von Rosenberg, who procured them in the 

 interior of New Guinea. Like the majority of the Bower-birds, 

 C. xanthogastra is rather plain-looking, being brown above and 

 bright yellow beneath, destitute even of any nuchal band of 

 bright colours, which some species of the genus possess — re- 

 sembling in this fact, however, C. cerviniventris. The acquisition 

 of a second species of this group of birds is very interesting ; and 

 doubtless, when the unknown wilds of the great island of New 

 Guinea become accessible to scientific explorers, other and more 

 extraordinary new forms will be discovered. The species will 

 therefore be known as 



Chlamydodera xanthogastra. 



Sericulus xanthogaster, Schleg. Tijdsch. v. d. Dierk. iv. p. 50 

 (1871). 



Hah. New Guinea. 



The other species to which I referred above as having been 

 described by Prof. Schlegel in the same paper, was placed by 

 him in the genus Ptilonorhynchus, and named P. inornatus. It, 

 however, differs greatly from the P. violaceus {holosericeus auct.), 

 the only species now representing that genus, in wanting the 

 feathers projecting over the bill and hiding the nostril (one of 

 the principal characters of Ptilonorhynchus) , and also in having 

 a very different structure of feather. The sexes, according to 

 Von Rosenberg, are the same in the colour of their plumage, 

 while those of P. violaceus are widely different. I have therefore 

 regarded it as representing a new generic form, which I propose 

 to call 



Amblyornis, 



with the following characters — 



Bill short, thick, culmen much curved^ gonys nearly straight ; 

 nostrils partly hidden by the feathers of the forehead, which are 

 soft and flexible. A few short bristles project forwards over 



