The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

428 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.presents in tlie dried and flattened skins of the natives, throughwhich alone it is at present known. The feet appear to be darkblue.THE MAGNIFICENT BIED OF PARADISE.(DiphyllodcS SpeCWSa.)Tliis rare and elegant little bird is found only on the mainlandof New Guinea, and in the island of Mysol.A still more rare and beautiful species than the last is theDiiDhyllodes wilsoni, described by Mr. Cassin from a native skinin the rich museum of Philadelpliia. The same bird was afterwardsnamed " Diphyllodes respublica " by Prince Buonaparte,and still later, " Schlegelia calva," by Dr. Bernstein, who was sofortunate as to obtain fresh specimens in Waigiou.In this species the uj^per mantle is sulj^hur yellow, the lowerone and the wings pure red, the breast plumes dark green, andthe lengthened middle tail featliers much shorter than in tlieallied species. The most curious difference is, however, that theto 11 of the head is bald, the bare skin being of a rich cobalt blue,crossed by several lines of black velvety feathers.It is cibout the same size as Diphyllodes speciosa, and is nodoubt entirely confined to the island of Waigiou. The female,as figured and described by Dr. Bernstein, is very like that ofCicinnurus regius, being similarly banded beneath ;and we maytherefore conclude that its near ally, the "Magnificent," is atleast equally plain in this sex, of which specimens have not yetbeen obtained.The Superb Bird of Paradise was first figured by Bufibn, and