27G Mr. W. A. LV^rbes on the 



This being the case, ornithologists were not a little sur- 

 prised when Dr. A. B. Meyer announced, on his return to 

 Europe from his adventurous travels in New Guinea and the 

 adjacent islands, that the green species of Eclectus were 

 simply the males of the red ones — also that all the so-called 

 species were, in his opinion, referable to one species, and 

 one only, namely Eclectus polychlorus. In his paper on this 

 subject in the ' Zoologischer Garten ^ for May 1874, p. 161, 

 Dr. Meyer says that his attention was first called to the matter 

 by finding that he had determined all the specimens, six in 

 number, of the E. polychlorus (green) that he had procured in 

 the Papuan island of Mafoor (in Geelvink Bay) as males, 

 whilst nine E. linnai (red) were aW. females. Struck by this 

 curious coincidence, he inquired of his Malay hunters if they 

 knew any thing of the matter. They replied that it was a well- 

 known fact that these green and red Parrots were man and 

 wife. One asserted that he had seen parents of both colours 

 engaged in incubation, one replacing the other. Though 

 Dr. Meyer, warned by former experience, did not trust im- 

 plicitly to any statements made by his native hunters, these 

 accounts strengthened him in his suspicions ; and he deter- 

 mined to investigate the matter thoroughly. Three green 

 Eclecti he obtained in Jobie were all males, three red all 

 females. These results were afterwards fully confirmed by 

 the examination of a great number of specimens on the main- 

 land of New Guinea. These were too numerous to bring all 

 back to Europe ; but he returned with thirty specimens of the 

 genus, four of which were preserved entire in spirits of wine, 

 as well as a living pair of birds (green and red) . To place 

 the parallelism in the distribution of the red and green forms 

 (already noted by Finsch, /. c.) in a stronger light, he divides 

 the Eclecti into three groups, of which E. cornelice ar.d wester- 

 manni (the habitats of Avhich are, as already remarked, un- 

 known) constitute one. The other two are : — ■ 



po ycioriis (green) |^^^ Guinea, Waigu, Mysol, Gebe, 



' . , ,, \ Gilolo, Batian, Morotai. 



granais (red) J 



