rare Species of Lorikeet. 49 



L. bonapartei, but wrongly attributed to the same species 

 the bird from the Philippines, which had been described by 

 Finsch under the name of Coryllis hartlaubi^ and which I 

 now identify with L. apicalis, Souance. 



Dr. Guillemard^s identification of Z. hartlaubi with L. hona- 

 partei was a very startling one, especially as the bird from 

 the Sooloo Islands had been described by De Souance as 

 having a black bill, and the bird from the Philippines is well 

 known to have the bill red ! But Dr. Guillemard has the 

 following remarks about the bill of the Sooloo birds : — " It 

 is worthy of note that in the five Sulu birds under consider- 

 ation the colour of the beak is different in nearly every case. 

 In two birds it is noted as 'red,' while in the remaining 

 three it is ' brown- black,' 'brownish,' and * very dark yellow.' 

 Yet no one bird appears more adult than another. It is 

 curious that in all the Sulu birds the beaks in the dried 

 skins are black." 



These statements appear to me to be very strange, as in no 

 other species of Loriculus which has the bill red when alive 

 does it turn black after death, except in the case of young 

 Parrots, the bills of which get a brownish tinge, as often 

 happens also with other birds; neither do I know of any 

 species with the bill black' in dried skins, in which it was 

 red, or any atlier colour, when alive. 



Wishing to make the Sooloo birds out clearly, I obtained 

 from the Hon. Walter Rothschild, to whom I have to return 

 my best thanks, four out of the five specimens collected 

 during the ' Marchesa ' Expedition ; the missing one is that 

 which Dr. Guillemard mentions as having the bill ''very 

 dark yellow." 



As a matter of fact, all the four specimens examined by 

 me have the bill entirely horny black, and it appears as if 

 it could not have been any other colour when the birds were 

 alive. I am quite at a loss to explain how it is that two of 

 them are noted on the label as having a red bill ! Is that 

 a mistake, or do the labels of the two birds belong to some 

 other specimens, and have they been attached to the two 

 Lorikeets by accident ? I also notice that these two birds, 



SER. VI. — VOL. III. E 



