LORIES. 



129 



within hearing, and they made a great demonstration 

 of sympathy. They often do the same in response to 

 the call of a wounded one, and the shooter may then 

 kill a large number without difficulty. 



" They make splendid pets, but are very difficult to 

 feed when young when a fruit-stone> the size of a pea 

 will kill them. They have a greater variety of notes 

 and calls than any other bird met with in this locality. 



" When an old Ka-ka is eating a ripe Miro-berry he 

 rejects the skin and only licks out the little bit of fruit 

 between it and the stone. I think that they also break 

 the stones for sake of the little oily kernels, but I am 

 not quite sure of this.* All the stones are broken, and 

 the Ka-kas have a substance like the kernels in their 

 crops. The etones are terribly hard to break, but the 

 rats can break ithem. Ka-kas also cast up the skins of 

 the big wood-grubs, which look like dry bits of tissue* 

 paper. 



" After my pets were able to fly one of them was 

 killed by a Hawk. I heard the scream of distress, and 

 went to see 1 what was the matter. Several old Ka-kas 

 also came to the rescue, and one of them followed the 

 Hawk about through the trees, while others tried to 

 intercept him, but they were not nearly smart enough. 



" Many Xew Zealand trees and sihrubs are very 

 erratic seed-producers. In some seasons all berries are 

 scarce, while in others some are plentiful and some are 

 absent ; yet the Ka-kas and Katapos seem to know 

 beforehand when there will be plenty to feed their 

 young cnes and to hatch them at the right time. 



" It often happens that the female has a much 

 lighter-coloured head than the male, but no two of 

 them are exactly the same." 



The London Zoological Gardens first acquired this 

 species in 1863, and in 1867 they added two others by 

 presentation. It also reached the gardens of Amster- 

 dam and Hamburg, and Russ says that of late a 

 good many have been imported. 



LORIES AND LORIKEETS (Loriid}. 



In the Lories and Lorikeets the tongue is furnished 

 with a kind of brush ; the tail is rarely longer than 

 the wings, which are acute, with the three first 

 primaries generally longest. In their wild state these 

 birds are gregarious, feeding upon fruit, honey, 

 pollen, unripe seeds, and the buds of trees. In cap- 

 tivity Mr. Seth- Smith and others recommend milk- 

 sop (slightly sweetened), ripe fruit, and canary, hemp 

 and millet. On the other hand, Mr. E. J. Brook 

 expressed dissatisfaction with this food, which seemed 

 to have caused the death of some of his birds ; an 

 examination of the excreta revealed alkali and some 

 specks of very acid undigested milk curd. A com- 

 bination of Mellins' food with boiled milk proved 

 satisfactory as a corrective, but oranges, as fruit for 

 these birds, were found to be objectionable ; peptonis- 

 ing the milk with Fairchild's peptonising powders was 

 found beneficial (cf. The Avicultural Magazine, 

 Second Series, Vol. VI., pp. 85, 86). Later on Mr. 

 Brook found that equal parts of milk, barley-water, 

 and pure water poured on powdered plain biscuit, and 

 then boiled and sweetened, answered admirably. 



Never having personally kept these birds, I am aware 

 that my opinion respecting a food for them can have 

 little weight, but the Hon. and Rev. Canon Button 

 says that a food which he has always found perfectly 

 satisfactory consists of a mixture of dried fig and 



* " I have just found out that the Kakias do break the Miro- 

 eton6-when they ar6 green, at all events. They are broken 

 fairly in two, crosswise." 



bun. Boiling water is poured over each, then the fig 

 is mashed up with double the quantity of bun. If 

 this is a satisfactory food I fail to see why stewed 

 apple mashed up with sponge-cake should not answer 

 equally well ; it would do away altogether with the 

 risks of indigestion, which must exist when a bird 

 swallows milk and acid fruits as its regular articles 

 of food. I cannot believe that so utterly unnatural 

 a food as milk can be good for any Parrot, and I 

 have had adundant evidence, since the infirmities of 

 these birds have been repeatedly brought to my notice, 

 week after week, since December, 1898, that for all 

 birds of this order, excepting the Honey-eaters, it is 

 extremely injurious. 



BLACK LORY (C'halcopsittacus ater). 



Purplish-black ; rump, upper and under tail-coverts 

 deep purplish-blue ; tail above greyish-purple, chang- 

 ing to greyish olive towards tip, below dark red 

 towards base, golden olive at tip ; bill, cere, and 

 feet black ; irides maroon, with an inner white ring. 

 Female not differentiated. Hab., " Western New 

 Guinea, from Dorei-Hum and Has (Beccari) to Sorong ; 

 Salwatty, Batanta; perhaps also Waigiou." ( Salvador!) . 

 Dr. Guillemard (" Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society," 1885, p. 622) says : " Iris, inner ring yellow, 

 outer red; bill and feet black." "This species was 

 abundant in Mysol, in flocks of from ten to twenty 

 individuals. One that lived in confinement on board 

 the ' Marchesa ' for some months became excessively 

 tame." 



I can discover no further notes respecting the living 

 bird. An example reached the London Zoological 

 Gardens in March, 1905, probably from Mrs. Johnstone. 

 who described it in The Avicultural Magazine, Second 

 Series, Vol. III., pp. 147-149. 



RED-FRONTED LORY (C'halcopsittacus scintillatus}. 



Green ; back of neck, lower back and rump brighter, 

 but bluer ; upper back, breast, and abdomen streaked 

 with yellow ; tail with basal half of inner webs red ; 

 forehead, lores, and upper cheeks red ; crown, sides of 

 head and chin black ; throat and sides of breast washed 

 with red, breast dark green, the shaft-streaks orange- 

 yellow ; tibiae and under wing-coverts red ; flights below 

 dusky, yellow towards base ; tail below with yellowish 

 olive tip ; bill, cere, and feet black ; irides orange- 

 yellow. Female with much narrower beak, having a 

 longer terminal hook ; top of head distinctly duller than 

 in the male. Hab., Western New Guinea ; Aru Islands. 



I can discover no notes respecting the wild life of 

 this species ; it reached the London Zoological Gardens 

 in November, 1872, and, on his return from New Guinea 

 in 1907, Mr. Walter Goodfellow brought home a pair, 

 which also found their way to the London Gardens. 

 It is possible that others may hlave been imported, but 

 if so the late Dr. Russ appears to have been unaware 

 of the fact. 



BLUE-STREAKED LORY (Eos reticulata). 



General colour red, mottled with darker red on under- 

 parts ; hind neck and interscapular region streaked with 

 blue ; scapulars black, edged with red externally ; lesser 

 and median wing-coverts with concealed black bases ; 

 greater coverts black, tipped with red ; primaries black, 

 red at base of inner webs ; secondaries red, tipped with 

 black ; rump and upper tail-coverts streaked with dull 

 purple ; tail black, slightly tinged with purple ; inner 

 web of lateral feathers red; under surface of tail red, 

 with outer webs of lateral feathers golden-olive ; bill 

 scarlet, tipped with orange; cere, orbital naked patch 



