Paradisaeidae

Diphyllodes (Paradisea) gulielmi III
Meyer, 1875: 29

Currently considered as a hybrid between Diphyllodes magnificus and Cicinnurus regius

Magnificent x King Bird of Paradise
1 holotype, 1 cotype

Holotype: ZMA 782, adult male, obtained in April-May 1874 from a local hunter on Sauék [= Saonek, a small island S off W Waigeu I.] by S.C.J.W. van Musschenbroek when the latter was on travel with O. Beccari, said to be collected in the interior mountains of E Waigeu. Presented by Van Musschenbroek in 1877 to H.M. King Willem III, who had them on exposition in the palace Het Loo at Apeldoorn. The King send the bird for exhibition to the International Trade Fair, organized by Van Musschenbroek in Amsterdam in the summer of 1883, and donated it to the Museum of the Royal Zoological Society 'Natura Artis Magistra' (the predecessor of the ZMA) on 26 Aug 1883, after the end of the fair. Wing 106.5, tail (excluding the streamers) 39, bill to skull 27.6, tarsus not measured (see below).

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Cotype: ZMA 783, adult female Diphyllodes magnificus magnificus, with data as for ZMA 782 above; wing 120, tail 58.5, bill to skull 24.7, tarsus not measured.

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Additional information
The holotype is strikingly intermediate between males of the King Bird of Paradise Cicinnurus regius and the Magnificent Bird of Paradise Diphyllodes magnificus, without characters of his own, a reason to consider it as a hybrid (Berlioz 1927, Stresemann 1930). The cotype is a normal female D.m. magnificus, not a hybrid. Both birds were leg-less trade skins, acquired by Van Musschenbroek on Saonek, a well-known trading post for bird skins, in the period that Van Musschenbroek was the Resident [Governor] of Ternate, another trading post. The Ternate Residency then included the N Moluccan and W Papuan islands, as well as (indirectly) W mainland New Guinea (which was a colony of the Sultan of Tidore, a subordinate of the Dutch Government). Hence, the provenance of the specimens is guesswork, but as neither D. magnificus nor C. regius occur on Waigeu, they probably came from Salawati I. or the W mainland of New Guinea. The leg-less birds had to be mounted before they were given to Willem III, and therefore were provided with the legs of a common European bird, perhaps a blackbird Turdus merula (tarsus 33, middle toe 26). The mounting was done by H. Koller, taxidermist of the Royal Zoological Society. The description of this taxon, which was recognized and named by Van Musschenbroek in letters sent 6-13 Nov 1874 to A.B. Meyer and K. von Rosenberg, was first made public by Meyer, either in a letter dated 9 Jan 1875 and published shortly afterwards in the journal Zoologische Garten, vol. 16, pp. 29-30 ('the January number for 1875'), in a letter from Meyer published in Nature on 14 Jan. 1875 (p. 208), or in a letter from Meyer read for the Zoological Society of London on 19 Jan 1875 and published in the Society's journal for that year on p. 31; in these letters, Meyer cites Van Musschenbroek as the author of the name. Von Rosenberg's letter was sent to Zoologische Garten on 10 Jan 1875 and published on pp. 30-31. Both gentlemen extensively quote details of Van Musschenbroek's original letters, while Meyer also adds details of the two type-specimens received from Van Musschenbroek (especially in Meyer 1875). This account is based on Meyer (1875), Von Rosenberg (1875), and a manuscript of K.H. Voous dated Mar 1943 present in the ZMA.
The ZMA has also another leg-less male of this hybrid, coll. nr. 3503, a trade skin received in 1945 from the Handelsmuseum (Trade Museum) of the Colonial Institute in Amsterdam (coll. nr. 2407-3-1933); wing 110.

Measurements
As far as types in the ZMA are concerned, all measurements were taken by C.S. Roselaar, unless otherwise noted, using the methods as described in Svensson (1992) and comparable with the data published in the Handbook of Western Palearctic Birds. All are in mm, and are given to the nearest mm when taken with a ruler and to one-tenth of a mm when measured with calipers.

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