493 
Letters , Announcements , fyc. 
parently males, which had been caught by some birdcatchers 
in the neighbourhood, and luckily fell under the notice of 
Sehor Francisco de los Bios, Curator of the Institute at Ma¬ 
laga, to whom ornithologists are indebted for the know¬ 
ledge of the occurrence of several scarce birds in the vicinity 
of that chy. 
I succeeded in securing these birds for Lord Lilford, and 
trust they may survive the passage home. 
I believe this North-African bird has not hitherto been 
recorded from Spain, and only in three or four doubtful in¬ 
stances from the European continent, although, according to 
Mr. Wright, it has been several times caught alive at Malta. 
Francisco de los Rios having met with so many rarities at 
and near Malaga, we may hope that other North-African 
stragglers will yet be noticed by him, as, constantly resident, 
he has every opportunity of observing them. 
Yours &c., 
L. Howard Irby. 
Bonaparte’s “ Lophorina respublica.” —In the new volume 
of his Catalogue of birds just issued Mr. Sharpe has transferred 
the name Lophorina respublica of Bonaparte (Compt. Rend. xxx. 
p. 131) from Diphyllocles wilsoni (to which it has been hitherto 
always referred) to the newly discovered Diphyllocles gulielmi- 
tertii, and has assigned to it precedence over the latter name. 
His reason for doing this is that D. guelielmi-tertii is the only 
species which answers Bonaparte^s diagnosis. But, as I have 
already stated (P. Z. S. 1857, p. 6), and as Bonaparte himself 
has confessed (Compt. Rend, xxxviii. p. 262, et Not. Orn. 
p. 54*), the name Lophorina respublica was founded upon the 
same individual specimen as the Faradisea wilsoni of Cassin ; 
and consequently these two terms cannot possibly be applied 
to two different species. 
The fact is, I believe, as I was informed upon the best autho¬ 
rity before I made the above-mentioned statement, that^the 
late Prince Bonaparte, having been allowed to examine the 
% This important reference appears to have escaped Mr. Sharpe’s notice 
altogether. 
