Parrots of the Genus Eclectus. 277 



intermedius (screen) ~) ^ . . _, 



,. ,. , ,, r Leram, Amboyna, Buru. 



caramalis (red) J '' 



From this it is clear that '' the range of one green form 

 {E. polychlorus) corresponds Avith that of two red ones [E. 

 linnai and E. grandis). "As I cannot hesitate a moment/' 

 says Dr. Meyer^ "in ascribing the conditions found in E. 

 polychlorus and E. linncei from New Guinea, Mafoor, and 

 Jobi to the other allied form (namely, that the green are the 

 males and the red the females of one and the same species), 

 the interesting fact comes out (unparalleled, so far as I know, 

 in the ornis of the whole world), that differently coloured 

 females correspond to one and the same male in different loca- 

 lities ; for E. linncei and E. grandis show at first sight such 

 differences, that, so long as we did not know their true 

 relations to E. polychlorus, they were universally considered 

 different species. Thus, therefore, the male remains con- 

 stant, whilst the female varies. '^ Dr. Meyer then proceeds 

 to show that no theories of " sexual " or " natural selection " 

 can account for these facts, of the causes of which we are com- 

 pletely ignorant. Schlegel (Ned. Tijd. v. d. Dierk. iii. p. 332, 

 1866), he observes, has already united E. intermedius and E. 

 polychlorus into one species, the examples from Gebe and Wai- 

 giou being intermediate in their characters between these two 

 forms. Moreover an authentic specimen of E. intermedius 

 from Ceram, received from the Leyden Museum, and now in 

 the Imperial Cabinet at Vienna, quite agrees with Dr. Meyer's 

 series from New Guinea, Mafoor, and Jobi. Hence E. poly- 

 chlorus (including under this term E. intermedius) possesses 

 in different islands three females, differently coloured accord- 

 ing to the locality, viz. : — 



(1) linnm, in New Guinea, My sol, Waigiou, and Gebe ; 



(2) grandis, in Gilolo, Batjan, and Morotai; 



(3) cardinalis, in Ceram, Buru, and Amboyna. 



Dr. Meyer then goes on to argue that E. westermanni and 

 E. cornelicB, both remarkable for being nearly uniform in 

 colour, must also be regarded as forms of E. polychlorus. He 

 urges that E. Cornelia may well be a fourth female of E. poly- 

 chlorus, as we already know that the females of this species 



SER. IV. VOL. I. u 



