INSESSORES. 97 



on the same branch ; it is, however, not so numerous as that 

 species, nor so generally distributed over the face of the 

 country. The brushes near the coast, studded here and there 

 with enormous gums, towering high above every other tree 

 by which they are surrounded, are the localities especially 

 resorted to by it. 



Its principal food is honey, gathered from the cups of the 

 newly expanded blossoms of the Eucalypti, upon which it feeds 

 to such an excess, that on suspending a fresh-shot specimen by 

 the toes a large teaspoonful of liquid honey will flow from the 

 mouth. A proper attention to the diet of these birds by 

 supplying them with food of a saccharine character, would 

 doubtless enable us to keep them as denizens of our cages 

 and avaries, as well as the other members of the family. 



Among other places, the Scaly-breasted Lorikeet breeds in 

 all the large Eucalypti near Haitian d on the Hunter, but I 

 regret to say I did not procure its eggs. 



The sexes are so closely alike as not to be outwardly dis- 

 tinguished. 



All the upper surface, wings, and tail rich grass-green ; a 

 few feathers at the back of the neck and all the feathers of 

 the under surface bright yellow, margined at the tip with a 

 crescent of grass-green, giving the whole a fasciated appear- 

 ance ; under surface of the shoulder and base of the primaries 

 and secondaries rich scarlet ; bill beautiful blood-red, inclining 

 to orange at the tip ; cere and orbits olive ; irides in some 

 specimens scarlet with a circle of buff round the pupil, in 

 others buffy yellow. 



As far as I am aware, this is the only species of Tricho- 

 ^lossus that has the bases of the feathers of the under sur- 

 face yellow ; those feathers are, however, fringed round with 

 green, imparting that scale-like appearance to the breast of 

 the bird which suggested its specific appellation. In size 

 this species is intermediate between the larger IVic/ioylossi 

 and the succeeding species, Ptilosclera versicolor. 



VOL. II. H 



