20 



ON THE PARROTS OF THE GENUS ECLECTUS. 



Ibis, 1877, 

 p. 276. 



This being the case, ornithologists were not a little surprised when 

 Dr. A. B. Meyer announced, on his return to Europe from his adven- 

 turous travels in New Guinea and the adjacent islands, that the green 

 species of Eclectus were simply the males of the red ones also that all 

 the so-called species were, in his opinion, referable to one species, and 

 one only, namely Eclectus polychlovus. In his paper on the subject in 

 the ' Zoologischer Garten' for May 1874, p. 161, Dr. Meyer says that 

 his attention was first called to this matter by finding that he had deter- 

 mined all the specimens, six in number, of the E. polychlorus (green) 

 that he had procured in the Papuan island of Mafoor (in G-eelvink Bay) 

 as males, whilst nine E. linncei (red) were all females. Struck by this 

 curious coincidence, he inquired of his Malay hunters if they knew any 

 thing of the matter. They replied that it was a well-known fact that 

 these green and red Parrots were man and wife. One asserted that he had 

 seen parents of both colours engaged in incubation, one replacing the 

 other. Though Dr. Meyer, warned by former experience, did not trust 

 implicitly to any statements made by his native hunters, these accounts 

 strengthened him in his suspicions; and he determined to investigate 

 the matter thoroughly. Three green Eclecti he obtained in Jobi were 

 all males, three red all females. These results were afterwards fully 

 confirmed by the examination of a great number of specimens on the 

 mainland of New Guinea. These were too numerous to bring all back 

 to Europe ; but he returned with thirty specimens of the genus, four of 

 which were preserved entire in spirits of wine, as well as a living pair of 

 birds (green and red). To place the parallelism in the distribution of the 

 red and green forms (already noted by Piusch, I. c.) in a stronger light, 

 he divides the Eclecti into three groups, of which E. cornelice and ivester- 

 manni (the habitats of which are, as already remarked, unknown) consti- 

 tute one. The other two are : 



polychlorus (green)] 

 linna* (red) v 



grandis (red) ) 



igu? Mygo]> 



