546 ON THE OENITHOLOGT OP THE PHILIPPINES, [1877. 



sex ; so that all are readily to be recognized as belonging to one species. The whole top and 

 back of the head is bright cherry-red, almost of the same shade as in L. indicus. The nape is 

 pure golden orange in adults of both sexes. The back is green, more or less washed with yellow, 

 and in adults ( c? 2 ) with golden. In all, the uropygium and upper tail-coverts are rich crimson. 

 Adolescence in both sexes, when seen from above, is betrayed by the crown-feathers being green 

 at their insertions and tipped with orange, instead of cherry-red, and by the back being pure 

 green and not suffused with yellow, the uropygium being of a less intense crimson, mixed more 

 or less with green. 



Seen from below, two well-marked phases of plumage are represented, apart from the inter- 

 mediate grades which characterize nonage. In one phase, the cheeks, chin and upper throat, 

 superciliaries, and lores are pale blue, the lower throat, breast, and abdomen light green or 

 yellow-green. In the other phase, the supercilium, lores, cheeks, chin, throat, and under 

 surface generally are of a full sap-green, with the exception of a crimson, lengthened, pectoral 

 plastron, quadrate below, and diminishing gradually to a narrow gular stripe, reaching almost 

 to the chin. All the examples marked S (6) belong to the first category, as well as some 

 marked <3 (5). All those with the crimson pectoral mark, or with the slightest trace of red on 

 the breast or throat, are marked male. So distinct a species do the individuals falling under 

 one or other of the two categories appear, that, were it not for several examples in the 

 series marked <s exhibiting every gradation of the crimson pectoral mark, from a solitary crimson 

 P.Z.S.1877, plume to the fully developed plastron, it might be considered that two species were represented 

 ^' " ■ in the series. Three examples, marked d , with the crown obscure reddish green, have the face, 

 chin, throat, and supercilium pale faded green, and not blue ; these possess no indications of the 

 red pectoral patch. Three other examples ( d ), coloured above almost as brightly as an adult, 

 have the lores, supercilium, cheeks, and chin blue, as in the female ; but they betray their sex by 

 a few scattered red plumes on the throat and breast. Were it not for these isolated plumes, the 

 sex would be undeterminable by the plumage alone. In one of these three examples the blue 

 chin- and face-feathers are passing over to bright green ; and this example exhibits the greatest 

 number of scattered red pectoral and gular plumes. In six other examples ( c? ), with the pectoral 

 plastron fully developed or almost so, there is no blue about the chin and face. 



If the six examples described above (marked by Mr. Everett as being of females) are in 

 perfect plumage (and their upper plumage is not to be distinguished from that of undoubtedly 

 adult males), the sexes in this species, when adult, have each a peculiar plumage. It was from 

 either an adult female or else a young male with a blue face and chin, and before any red pectoral 

 plumes had appeared, that Dr. O. Finsch described L. hartlauM. Souance's description of his 

 L. honapartei (K. et M. Zool. 1856, p. 222), a bird said to be a native of the Sooloo Islands, 

 agrees in all respects with L. hartlauM d adult, the colour of the bill excepted, which is stated 

 to be black. The adult male of L. indicus is difficult to distinguish from L. hartlauM, 2 vel cJ 

 juv. But in the Ceylon bird the cherry-red of the head does not descend so low on the occiput, 

 and the nape is not so intensely orange. The lower surface of L. indicus is pure light green and 

 not yellow-green ; the upper tail-coverts do not cover so much of the rectrices. The blue on the 

 inner webs of the quills and on the under surface of the rectrices is much lighter in shade. 

 L. indicus is also somewhat larger, and has a shorter and more powerful bill. Souance's 



