DIPHYLLODES RESPUBLICA 
Bare-headed Bird of Paradise. 
Lophorina respubUca, Bp. C. R. 1850, p. 131. 
Diphyllodes respuhlica, Bp. Consp. i. p. 413 (1850). — Sclater, P. Z. S. 1857, p. 6. — Rosenb. J. f. 0. 1864, p. 130. — • 
Elliot, Monogr. Parad. pi. 14. (1873). 
Paradisea wilsoni, Cassin, Jouru. Acad. INT. Sci. PMlad. ii. p. 133, pi. 15. (1850). — Gray, P. Z. S. 1861, p. 436. — 
Sclater, P. Z. S, 1865, p. 465. — Schl. N. T. D. iii. p. 249 (1866). — Id. Mus. P.-B. Coraces, p. 87 
(1867). — Gray, Hand-1. B. ii. p. 16 (1870). 
Diphyllodes wilsoni, Wallace, P. Z. S. 1862, p. 160. — Newton, Ibis, 1865, p. 343. — Wall. Malay Arch. ii. p. 248 
(1869). 
Paradisea calm, Schl. N. T. D. ii. p. 1 (1865). 
Schlegelia calva, Bernst. N. T. D. iii. p. 4, pi. 7 (1866). 
This very beautiful Bird of Paradise was simultaneously described in the year 1850 by Prince Bonaparte 
in Europe and by tbe late Mr. Cassin in Philadelphia, but apparently in each case from an imperfect skin. 
Certainly tbe type of P. wilsoni in tbe Philadelphia Museum has not g'ot its proper head, although all the 
rest of the body seems to be quite perfect ; and as Prince Bonaparte does not mention the head, which, if 
it had been attached to the skin, could not have failed to attract his attention, we may suppose that, 
as in Mr. Cassin’s specimen, the head of some other bird had been attached. Indeed the bare cranium is 
one of the chief peculiarities of the species — so much so that Dr, Bernstein instituted a new genus 
{Schlegelia) for it ; hut inasmuch as the allied species of Diphyllodes, if not absolutely bare, have the 
cranium clothed only with short stubby plumes, I have not deemed the characters sufficient to warrant a 
generic sepai’ation ; this is also Mr. Elliot’s conclusion. 
To Dr. Bernstein, however, helongs the credit of discovering the home of this fine species. He found 
it in the island of Waigiou; and in the original note published by him, he thus characterized his proposed 
Schlegelia calm ; — “ Of the same size and general form as Paradisea speciosa and P. wilsoni ; but the upper 
part of the head, from the forehead even to the nape, covered with hare skin, broken only by some 
transverse rows of little plumes. This hare skin is in the male of a very brilliant cobalt blue, in the female 
of a dirty blue, varied with red and with grey. The rows of little plumes, of which we have just spoken, 
answer almost to the sutures of the skull in youpg individuals. The other parts of the head and the chin 
are black ; the posterior poi-tion of the neck and the mantle are straw-yellow; the remainder of the hack 
is of a fine red like that which adorns the plumage of P. regia ; the fore neck and pectoral shield are of a 
beautiful dark green with metallic reflections ; the breast and belly are black. The distribution of the 
colours in the female calls to mind those of the Wryneck {^JynoB torqailld), especially on the lower parts.” 
In a further communication Dr. Bernstein states that the young male exactly resembles the female, but 
shows the velvety black plumes on the throat and lower part of the cheeks which are seen in the adult 
male. In the third volume of the ‘ Nederlandsch Tijdschrift’ the species is fully described by him, and he 
writes in conclusion ; — “ This species, being distinguished from all the other known kinds of Paradise-birds 
by its crown and occiput being for the most part bare, I consider myself entitled to regard it as representing 
a new genus. This genus is allied, on account of its two centre tail-feathers being elongated and spirally 
twisted, to tbe genus Diphyllodes of Lesson, by the side of which it is convenient to range it. 
“This bird is found in the island of Waigiou; but it inhabits the parts of the country more or less in 
the interior, and is much more rare than Paradisea rubra, which is moreover met with in the adjacent island 
of Gemien.” Afterwards, however. Dr. Bernstein procured the species in the island of Batanta; and ten. 
specimens of his collecting in these two localities are in the Leiden Museum. 
The figures in the Plate are of the natural size. 
