Letters, Announcements, ^c. 379 



XXVIII. — Letters, Announcements, S^c. 



We have received the following letters^ addressed to the 

 Editors of ^ The Ibis:'— 



Australian Museum, Sydney, 

 October 25, 1877. 



Gentlemen, — Permit me to remark, for the benefit of your 

 readers, that, among the specimens of Eclectus polychlorus 

 which I selected for this Museum from a large series made by 

 the Rev. George Brown in New Ireland are several which I 

 think will at least throw some light on the question respect- 

 ing the sexes of the '' reiV and '^ green'' birds. First, then, 

 I have before me a young red-oxiA-blue bird, evidently not 

 long from the nest. There is no trace of green feathers on 

 this specimen, except on the outer margins of some of the 

 wing-quills, where this colour is common to both the " red '^ 

 and the '^ green'' birds. The sex of this specimen was not 

 determined. Secondly, there is in the series an apparently 

 quite adult bird in the red-and-violet plumage [E. linncei), in 

 which the bill is becoming yellow, and there is also a jiatch of 

 crimson among the blue under wing-coverts ; the axillaries are 

 tinged and margined yiiih. green ; and there are several feathers 

 tipped with red on the sides ; some of the flank-feathers are 

 margined with green, as are three or four of the adjacent 

 upper tail-coverts ; and the sixth secondary quill on the outer 

 web near the base has a spot of green ; and several of the 

 scapularies are tinged with the same colour at their bases. 



From these facts it would appear that the young, perhaps 

 of both sexes, are red-and-blue from the nest, and that they 

 retain this state of plumage for a considerable time, after 

 which the males assume the green plumage, with red sides and 

 under wing-coverts. 



Yours &c., 



E. P. Ramsay. 



[Mr. Brown writes (21th Feb. 1878) to Mr. Sclater :— 

 " I have satisfied myself that I had been led to make a 

 very inaccurate assertion in one of my letters to you as re- 

 gards Eclectus polychlorus and E, linnm. They are un- 



