280 Mr. W. A. Forbes on the 



determination of the sexes of his specimens — that Hoedt had 

 no pretensions to any seientific knowledge — and that Rosen- 

 berg has in other iiistanccs made blunders of a similar kind — 

 so that their evidence counts for little. Dr. Meyer adds 

 some mathematical calculations showing that the chances 

 are 32,700 to 1 against his having killed six all males of the 

 green Eclectus, and nine all females of the red one in the 

 same island, if they really were distinct species. 



So far Dr, Meyer. Important evidence in corroboration 

 of part of his theory is given by the Italian naturalists who 

 have lately visited New Guinea. Beccari, in his Ornitholo- 

 gical Letters to Count Salvadori"^, says, ^' Though it seems 

 strange, it is nevertheless true that the green Eclectl are 

 males of the red ones. I learnt this at Aru from my hunters ; 

 and the young have the same differences." Salvadori says 

 again (/. c. pp. 756, 757), speaking of the sexual differences in 

 E. grandis, that there is " no longer any doul)t on this sub- 

 ject. D'Albertis has assured me that it is a well-known fact 

 amongst the natives of the Moluccas and New Guinea." In 

 his various papers on Papuan ornithology in the same journal, 

 the green specimens of Eclectus are always determined as 

 males, the red as females. 



Prof. Garrod also tells me that during his prosectorship 

 the only two Eclecti that have died in the Zoological Society^s 

 Gardens were one E. polychlorus and one E. grandis, respec- 

 tively male and female. On the other hand, the Rev. George 

 Brown, C.M.Z.S., who has lately sent over to this country such 

 interesting collections from New Britain and the adjacent 

 islands, says, in a letter to Mr. Sclater, dated Sydney, Oc- 

 tober 22, 1876, " This " {i. e. the green and red Eclecti being 

 specifically identical) " is a gross error. Our attention was 

 directed to this subject ; and I am quite sure they are two dif- 

 ferent birds. We shot the green ones, both male and female." 

 Two skins in the collection are referable to E. polychlonis 

 and li7in<si ; the latter is marked female. It is to be hoped 

 Mr. Brown will renew his investigations into this subject, as 



* Ann. Mas. Civ. Rtoria Natur. Genova, vol. vii. p. 704, 1875, and Ibis, 

 |S7(i. n. 25;',. 



