_ . , . Plate XXXI.
30. Chlamydodera nuc/ialis............................................................. • • Plate XXXII
31. Chlamydodera cermniventris........................................................................................................ XXXIII
32. Chlamydodera xanthogastra .
CMamydodera guttata, Gould, Prof:. Zool. Soo. (1862) p. 161. Not figured.
B us bird has been septxated as distinct t a n (be C. Macula,a by Mr. Gould. He only bod a f a n * upon
which to found bis opinion; and the characters be gives are as fo llow s : -“ It differs m the gnttaftons r f the upper
surface being of a larger size and much more distinct, in the abdomen being buff, and m the shafts o f the
primaries being of a richer yellow." B ie specimen here described was obtained by Mr. Gregory m Northwestern
Australia. Mr. S tart, in his journey from Adelaide to the Victoria Bavin, procured a hea^ of a male
Bower-bird, which be left at Mr. Gould’s bouse on his retain: and this was decided to be the male of the .
guttata, although it s h ow sT | specific differences tom the ordinary form. Mr. Goulds figure of this male m
his -Birds of Australia,' vol. i. Supplement, with the exception of the bead, is imagmary. I am unable to see
any characters in the female sufficient to separate it tom the well-known O. maaulata, and, until we have more
evidence that it is distinct than is at present obtainable, prefer to consider that there is only one .species-of
Spotted Bower-bird.
G e n u s JSLURGEDUS.
M u rttim , Cab. & Hein. Mus. Hein. (1850) p. 213. Type xE. cam ro ttria.
, ■33. AElureedus crassi ro,s t■n s................................................................................... . . . Plate mXXBXSmIV.
34. J!Er>l7u roedju s melta noatt-s . . . . • ■ • • . . . . Plate XXXV.
Some specimens, of this species are very much darker than the one figured in the plate, and possess a
considerable amount of black on the plumage, particularly about the head and upper part o f breast. This does
not seem to be occasioned either by age or sex.
35. ASlurcedus buccoides . . . . • • • • . . . . Plate XXXVI.
Ge n u s AMBLYORNIS.
Amblyomis, Elliot, Ibis (1872), p. 113. Type A . inomata.
36. Amblyomis inomata . . . . Plate XXXVII.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.
The Paradiseidae are entirely confined in their geographical distribution to the Australian, or Western Palteo-
tropical region of the globe, the larger number of the species being natives of some of the islands forming the
Asiatic archipelago. Their range, however, even among these, is apparently restricted; for of the five groups
into which Mr. Wallace has divided the various islands, in only two of (hem, the Moluccan and Papuan, are
any species of this family known to dwell. .
Of the Papuan group, in the Austro-Malayan division o f the archipelago, the great island of New Guinea
possesses the largest number o f species; and doubtless among its unknown mountain-runges and the dense forests
that cover its entire surface, many new forms yet remain to reward the efforts of tuture explorers.
Of the thirty-six speeies, or so-called Bpecies, included in this Monograph, composing the Paradiseid», twenty-
two are known to inhabit New Guinea; and o f these, twelve are met with in no other part of the world. The
other islands constituting the Papuan group, such as Aru, Waigiou, Mysol, Salwatty, &c„ also contain species
of this family; but none of them has any species peculiar to itself, although Mr. Wallace states that Paradisea
magmnea is confined to Waigiou. This, however, is an error, as the species was obtained by Mr. Bernstein m
the islands o f Ghemien and Batanta, this last lying near Salwatty, off the coast of New Gumea. At some
remote period these two divisions, Moluccan and Papuan, were doubtless united, and also the continent of Australia
was joined to New Guinea; and in the vast extent of land thus forming one mighty continent the Birds of
Paradise found their home. That portion of it now known as the island of New Guinea, however, was
probably most suited, in its formation, climate, and productions, to the sustenance and development of these birds;
for at the present day so many species still inhabit it that we must look upon that island as the district in
which the family had its origin.
That a great length of time has elapsed since this continent was divided and its northern portion broken
up into large and small islands as we now see it, is very evident from the presence in some of these groups
of various forms of animal life that are restricted to certain of the smaller islands, and which present characters
not seen elsewhere. In the case of the Paradiseidae, for instance, there is the notable example of the Semioptera
Wallacii, which is only found in Batchian and Gilolo of the Moluccan group, and nowhere else to my knowledge,
thus showing that these two islands have been separated from New Guinea a sufficient length of time to
produce a creature differing in its generic as well as its specific characters from any form of bird-life that
existed when these islands were not isolated from their great neighbour. In the same way the non-presence,
in the smaller islands, of certain species which are now living in New Guinea and were also existing, as we
may fairly suppose, when all the groups were united, may he accounted for by the fact that, as most of the
Paradiseidae are dwellers in mountain-ranges, some of very high altitudes, only those individuals of existing New-Guinea
species which met with similar physical conditions of climate, food, and soil, in the islands to which they found
themselves perhaps suddenly restricted, would be able to maintain life in an unchanged form—and that whenever
they became exposed to influences different from those to which they had always been accustomed, they
either succumbed and disappeared altogether, or else became adapted to their new home by the gradual assumption
of a diffikrewt form, more suitable to their changed mode of existence. It is only in this manner that we can
account for the restricted habitats of some species of this family, and for the fact that others with no greater powers
for passing over considerable distances are inhabitants of more than one island. The species of the family of the
Birds of Paradise are restricted in their distribution, then, to New Guinea and to several of the islands in its
immediate vicinity, with a few outlying branches upon the neighbouring continent of Australia. To commence with
the district which we may call par excellence the home of the Birds of Paradise, we find the mountain-ranges of
the interior of New Guinea are the sole habitat of the following species :—Paradisea Raggiana, Astrapia nigra,
Parotia sexpennis, Lophorina atra, Paradigalla carunculata, Epimachus speciosus, Epimachus Ellioti, Drepanornis
Albertisi, Ptiloris paradisea, CMamydodera xanthogastra, and Amblyomis inomata, none of which have ever been met
with at any point on the coast. Our knowledge of these species had always been confined to mutilated native skins
until about a year ago, when M. von Rosenberg and, still later, M. d’Albertis procured the birds in the interior,
some at an elevation of from 4000 to 5000 feet. Of the other species inhabiting the same island, Xanthomelus
aureus and Manucodia atra have been procured on the coast near to Dorey, and Ptiloris magnificus at both Dorey
and the environs of the Bay of Lobo. On the north-eastern coast Paradisea minor, Diphyllodes speciosa, Cicinnurus
regius, Manucodia chalybea, and ASlurcedus buccoides have been met with. Seleucides alba has been obtained at the
head of the great Bay of Geelwink; and Mr. Allen, Mr. Wallace’s assistant, also procured the same species among
the mountains behind Sorong, a place on the mainland, nearly opposite the island of Salwatty; and it is possible
that this beautiful species may inhabit the whole extent of territory between these two points. The singular species
known as Paradigalla carunculata has been obtained only by Lesson, when at New Guinea during the voyage of the
‘Bonite;’ and its exact habitat is not as yet known. At Sorong, also on the north-west coast, the beautiful little
Cicinnurus regius has been procured, together with the Diphyllodes speciosa, Manucodia Keraudreni, and Paradisea
minor. The ¡«lnnd of Salwatty, lying closest to New Guinea, possesses no species peculiar to itself, but contains
only those that are met with on the mainland nearest to its position. They are Cicinnurus regius, Diphyllodes
speciosa, Seleucides alba, Manucodia atra, Xanthomelus aureus, and AElureedus buccoides. The island of Mysol, lying
to the south-west of Salwatty, has three species o f this family, viz. Paradisea minor, Cicinnurus regius, and Diphyllodes
speciosa, and is apparently the furthest point westward that any of the Paradisea; reach. Batanta, lying close to
and north of Salwatty, contains three species—the Paradisea sanguinea, Diphyllodes respublica, and ASluradus
buccoides, all of which are also inhabitants of Waigiou—which is rather singular, as Batanta, in its geographical
position, lies much nearer to Salwatty ; but the presence of these Birds of Paradise within its confines would seem