X A N TH OM E LU S A U R E U S .
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XANTHOMELUS AUREUS.
Golden Bird of Paradise.
Golden Bird o f Paradise, Edwards, Nat. Hist. Birds, iii. p. 112 (17 5 0 ).
Oriolus aureus, Linn. Syst. N a t.i. p. 163 (17 6 6 ).—Gray, Gen. o f B. i. p. 232 (1 8 4 5 ).—Id. Hand-list B. i. p. 293
(18 6 9 ).
Paradisea aurea, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 195 (1790).
Le Paradis orangé, Audeb. et Vieill. Ois. Dor. ii. p. 26, pis. 11, 12 (1 802).
Le Loriot de Paradis, Levaill. Hist. Nat. Ois. Parad. i. pis. 18, 19 (1806).
Paradisea aurantia, Shaw, Gen. Zool. vii. p. 499, pi. 68 (1809).
Lophorhina aurantia, Stephens, Gen. Zool. xiv. p. 76 (1 8 2 6 ).
Sericulus aurantiacus, Less. Traité, p. 339 (1 8 3 1 ).—Id. Ois. Parad. Syn. p: 20 (1 8 3 5 ).—Id. H. N. Ois. Parad.
p. 201, pis. 25, 25 bis, 25 ter (1835).
Sericulus aureus, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 349 (1 8 5 0 ).—Gray, P. Z.S. 1861, p. 435.—Wall. Ibis, 1861,
p. 287.—Id. P .Z .SI 1862, p. 1 6 0—Id. Malay Areh. ii. p. 257 (1869).—Schl. Mus. P.-B. Coraces,
p. 98 (1867).-—Sclater, Ibis, 1876, p. 248.
XantJiomehis aureus, Bonap. Comptes Rendus, xxxviii. p. 538 (1 8 5 4 ).—Elliot, Ibis, 1872, p. 112.—Id. Mono°r.
Parad. pi. 15 (1 8 7 3 ).—Salvad. Ann. Mus, Civic. Genov, vii. p. 783 (1 875).—Id. op. cit. ix. p. 192
(1 8 7 6 ).—Sharpe, Cat. Birds, iii. p. 186 (1 8 7 7 ).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov, x. p. 152 (1877).
Sericulus xanthogaster, Schlegel, Nederl. Tijdsch. Dierk. v. p. 50 (18 7 1 ).—Salvad. Ibis, 1876, p. 267.—Id. Atti
R. Accad. Torino, xi. p. 688 (1876).
Chlamydodera mnthogastra, Elliot, Ibis, 1872, p. 113—Id. Monogr. Parad. pi. xxxiii. (1 8 7 3 ).—Sclater, P .Z .S .
1873, p. 697.
It will be seen that this remarkable Bird of Paradise was described and figured by Edwards more than one
hundred and twenty years a g o ; and yet it is only within the last five years that we have been able to get
perfect examples for our European collections. It may readily be imagined that the dried skins prepared
by the natives afforded us but a very faint idea o f its beauty; and therefore it gives me great
pleasure to acknowledge my obligation to my friend Count Salvadori, who, during his visit
to this country, was so kind as to bring with him some lovely specimens for my use in the present work;
and I must record en passant my appreciation o f the zeal shown by his countrymen in the scientific
explorations recently made by Italian naturalists in New Guinea. It must be remembered that the present
species was one o f the few Birds o f Paradise which Mr. Wallace was unable to obtain in a perfect state; and
it had also baffled the endeavours o f the Dutch naturalists to obtain the bird in the adult plumage.
The Golden Bird o f Paradise is an interesting species in every way. Ornithologists who have studied
Mr. Elliot’s ‘ Monograph o f the Paradisiidse ’ will remember that he has included in that family the
Bower-birds, and on one o f his plates he figured a species as belonging to the latter group under the name
o f Chlamydodera mnthogastra. This bird had been previously described as a Sericulus by Prof. Schlegel,
from specimens sent to the Leiden Museum from North-western New Guinea by Baron von Rosenberg; so
that Mr. Elliot was but following Dr. Schlegel in assigning it a place among the Bower-birds; and there was
nothing* in the habitat o f the species to render it unlikely that it would prove to be a Chlamydodera, as the
latter genus is found all over many parts o f Australia, and one species at least, C. cerviniventris, is very common
in South-eastern New Guinea. It was therefore with considerable surprise that ornithologists must
have regarded a communication from Count Salvadori to ‘ The Ibis,’ stating that he had come to the conclusion
that Sericulus mnthogaster o f Schlegel was nothing more than the young o f Xanthomelus aureus.
Having looked carefully into the matter myself, I have not the least doubt that Count Salvadori is perfectly
right in his conclusions.
In his third volume of the ‘ Catalogue o f Birds’ Mr. Bowdler Sharpe has not admitted the Bower-birds
into the family Paradisiidse, in that respect differing from Mr. Elliot; but he places Xanthomelus among the
true Paradise-birds, leading from them to the Orioles. A further knowledge of the habits o f the species
is very desirable and can alone determine whether it should be placed among the Bower-birds.