48 Count Salvadori on a 



IX. — On a rare Species of Lorikeet in the Rothschild 

 Collection. By T. Salvadori, C.M.Z.S. 



(Plate III.) 



One of the most obscure and less-known Lorikeets is, no 

 doubt, Loriculus bonapartei. 



It was described by De Souance in the ' Revue et Magasin 

 de Zoologie' for 1856, p. 222, as having been obtained from 

 the Sooloo Islands ; he says that the type-specimens had 

 been collected during the " Voyage au Pole Sud," but that 

 Hombrou and Jacquinot had omitted to mention them in 

 their account of the birds collected during that celebrated 

 expedition, probably having mistaken them for some other 

 well-known species. 



De Souance's description of Z. bonapartei runs as follows : — 

 "Vert; tout le dessus de la tete rouge ecarlate sur le front, 

 passant h. Forange sur Focciput ; croupion rouge ; chez le 

 male, une tache rouge allongee, comme chez le L.philijjpensis, 

 couvre une grande partie de la poitrine ; chez la femelle, ce 

 plastron n^existe pas, mais elle a les lorums et les joues bleus ; 

 le bee tres- allonge, mais noir. Get oiseau, ainsi qu^on pent le 

 voir, a le rouge de la tete dispose corarae chez le L. indicus ; 

 par la tache rouge de la poitrine du male et la coloration 

 bleue des lorums et des joues de la femelle, il ressemble h le 

 L, philippensis, mais il s^eioigne de ces deux especes par sou 

 bee noir.^'' 



Dr. Finscli, in his work ' Die Papageien,' vol. ii. p. 703, 

 only refers to what De Souance wrote of the present species, 

 as he never had the opportunity of seeing a specimen ; also 

 Dr. Reichenow, in his very useful " Conspectus Psittacorum,^' 

 published in the 'Journal fiir Ornithologie ■" for 1881, does 

 not add anything new to what had been already written on 

 the subject. 



This was all we knew about this species when, during the 

 Expedition of the ' Marchesa ' in 1883, five specimens of the 

 Sooloo Lorikeet were collected ; these have been studied by 

 Dr. Guillemard, who, in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society of London^ for 1885, p. 252, properly named them 



