Count Salvadori on some Neiv-Guineu Birds. 267 
It is built among some twigs, after tlie fashion 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 1J, from rim to end of tail 4J. 
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 Schlegel's Sericulus xantho¬ 
gaster *, figured by Elliot in his f 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 rather elongated and 
t 2 
