SCHLEGELIA RESPUBLICA (Bp.), 
Bare-headed Bird of Paradise. 
Lophorina respublica, Bp. Compt. Rend. xxx. p. 291 (February 1850, note).— Id. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1850, 
p. 124, note. — Sclater, Ibis, 1877, p. 493. 
Diphyllodes respublica, Bp. Compt. Rend. xxx. p. 291 (1850, note).— Id. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1850, p. 242.— 
Id. Consp. Av. i. p. 413 (1850). — Id. Compt. Rend, xxxviii. p. 262 (1854). — Rosenb. Nat. Tijdschr. 
Ned. Ind. xxv. p. 247 (1863). — Id. J. f. O. 1864, p. 130.— Elliot, Mon. Parad. Introd. p. xxvii, pi. xiv. 
(1873). — Meyer, Mitth. zool. Mus. Dresd. i. pp. 5-7 (1875). — Gould, B. New Guin. i. pi. 20 
(1876). — Cory, Beautiful & Curious B. pt. iii. (1881). 
Paradisea wilsoni, Cass. Proc. Acad. Philad. 1850, p. 57 (August). — Id. Journ. Acad. Philad. 1852, p. 133, pi. 15. — - 
Gray, P. Z. S. 1858, p. 194.— Id. Cat. B. New Guin. pp. 36, 59 (1859).— Id. P. Z. S. 1861, p. 436.— 
Scl. P. Z. S. 1865, p. 465. — Schl. Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk. iii. p. 249 (1866). — Id. Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, 
p. 87 (1867). — Finsch, J. f. 0. 1866, p. 136. — Gray, Hand-1. B. ii. p. 16, no. 6250 (1870). — -Wagler, Zool. 
Gart. 1873, p. 11, map 7. — Rosenb. Malay. Arch. p. 395 (1879). — Musschenbr. Dagboek, pp. 189, 221 
(1883). 
Diphyllodes wilsonii, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1857, p. 6. — Id. Proc. Linn. Soc. ii. p. 163 (1858). — Wallace, Proc. 
Zool. Soc. 1862, p. 160. — Newton, Ibis, 1865, p. 343. — Wall. Malay Arch. ii. pp. 405, 419 (1869).— 
Beccari, Ann. Mus. Genov, vii. p. 713 (1875). — Sclater, Ibis, 1876, p. 251. — Nehrk. J. f. O. 1885, p. 34. — 
Guillem. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1885, p. 654. — D’Hamonv. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xi. p. 510 (1886). 
Paradisea respublica, Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 173 (1865). 
Schlegelia calm, Bernst. Nat. Tijdschr. Nederl. Ind. xxvii. p. 79 (1864). — Id. Nat. Tijdschr. Dierk. ii. p. 1 (1864). 
—Id. J. f. O. 1864, p. 401. — Id. Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk. ii. p. 320 (1865), iii. p. 4, pi. 7 (1866). 
Paradisea calva, Schl. Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk. ii. p. 1 (1864). — Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 173 (1865). — Rosenb. 
MT. orn. Ver. Wien, 1885, p. 31. 
Schlegelia wilsoni, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iii. p. 175 (1877). — Eudes-Deslongch. Ann. Mus. Caen, i. p. 34 
(1880). — Witmer Stone, Proc. Philad. Acad. 1891, p. 448. 
Schlegelia respublica, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov, ix. p. 192 (1876).— Id. Orn. Papuasia, etc. ii. p. 642 (1881). — 
Id. Agg. Orn. Papuasia, etc. ii. p. 162 (1890). 
This wonderful Bird of Paradise was described in August, 1850, by the late Mr. John Cassin from a specimen 
in imperfect condition which bad been acquired in Paris by Dr. Wilson and presented by him to the Museum 
of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences. It was named Paradisea icilsoni by Cassin, in honour of the donor, 
to whose liberality the Philadelphia Museum owed so much. In February of the same year, however, 
Bonaparte had published a short diagnosis of a new Bird of Paradise, which he called Lophorina respublica ; 
and in 1877, when I was describing the family in the ‘ Catalogue of Birds, ’I pointed out that the only species 
which answered to Bonaparte’s diagnosis, “ fasciculo e plumis elongatis nucha; rubris,” was Rhipidornis 
gulielmi-tertii of Meyer, and I therefore restored the name of icilsoni to the present species. In commenting upon 
my conclusions Dr. Sclater has given us the whole history of the transaction, and it seems that the specimen 
described by Cassin in Philadelphia was actually the same as the one seen by Bonaparte in Europe. The 
following are Dr. Sclater’s notes on the subject : — “ The late Prince Bonaparte, having been allowed 
to examine the (then unique) type specimen in question, before its transmission to Philadelphia, thought 
the opportunity of describing a new Paradise-bird, and at the same time of promulgating his republican 
sympathies, too good to he lost, and in spite of the injunctions of the owner of the specimen, inserted the 
name ‘ respublica ,’ with a short diagnosis (certainly erroneous, and probably drawn up from recollection), in 
a footnote to a paper which he was at the time engaged upon for the ‘ Comptes Rendus.’” Under the 
circumstances thus detailed by Dr. Sclater there is no choice left hut to adopt the name of respublica 
for the species, as has been done by Count Salvadori ; hut I am inclined to agree with Mr. Witmer Stone 
that “ anyone would he justified in passing over such a description as Bonaparte’s and adopting the 
first clear diagnosis, which, in the case of the present bird, is that of Cassin.” 
Bernstein was the first naturalist to discover the true habitat of the present species, which he met with 
both in Waigiou and Batanta. He described it as a new genus and species of Bird of Paradise, and the 
name of Schlegelia happily remains to remind us of Bernstein’s prowess as a traveller and a naturalist, 
and at the same time of the great Director of the Leiden Museum, to whom science is so deeply 
