Wallace's Standardwing, Semioptera wallaceii

Hand-coloured lithograph, Wallace's Standardwing Bird of Paradise. From John Gould's "Supplement to the birds of Australia", Plate 52.

Wallace's Standardwing was named after Alfred Wallace, co-author (with Charles Darwin) of the theory of evolution by natural selection. The specimens pictured in this illustration were collected by Wallace from Bacan Island in the eastern part of the Indonesian archipelago. He recognised this species as being distinctly different from any other bird of paradise known at the time.