OX THE PARROTS OF THE GENUS ECLECTUS. 21 



intermedia (green) 1 ^^ Amb Buru Ibia , 1877 , 



cardinalis (red) J p. 277. 



From this it is clear that the range of one green form (E. polychlorus} 

 corresponds with that of two red {E. linncei and E. grandis). "As I 

 cannot hesitate a moment," says Dr. Meyer, " in ascribing the conditions 

 found in E. polychlorus and E. linncei from New Guinea, Mafoor, and 

 Jobi to the other allied form (namely, that the green are the males and 

 the red the females of one and the same species), the interesting fact 

 comes out (unparalleled, so far as I know, in the ornis of the whole 

 world), that differently coloured females correspond to one and the same 

 male in different localities ; for E. linncei and E. yrandis show at first sight 

 such differences, that, so long as we did not know their true relations to 

 E. polychlorus, they were universally considered different species. Thus, 

 therefore, the male remains constant, whilst the female varies." Dr. 

 Meyer then proceeds to show that no theories of " sexual " or " natural 

 selection " can account for these facts, of the causes of which we are 

 completely ignorant. Schlegel (Ned. Tijd. v. d. Dierk. iii. p. 332, 1866), 

 he observes, has already united E. intermedium and E. polychlorus into one 

 species, the examples from Grebe and Waigiou being intermediate in their 

 characters between these two forms. Moreover an authentic specimen 

 of E. intermedius from Ceram, received from the Leyden Museum, and 

 now in the Imperial Cabinet at Vienna, quite agrees with Dr. Meyer's, 

 series from New Guinea, Mafoor, and Jobi. Hence E. polychlorus 

 (including under this term E. intermedius) possesses in different islands 

 three females, differently coloured according to the locality, viz. : 



(1) linncei, in New Guinea, My sol, Waigiou, and Gebe ; 



(2) grandis, in Gilolo, Batjan, and Morotai ; 



(3) cardinalis, in Ceram, Buru, and Aniboyna. 



Dr. Meyer then goes on to argue that E. wesfermanni and E. cornelice, 

 both remarkable for being nearly uniform in colour, must also be regarded 

 as forms of E. polychlorus. He urges that E. cornelice may well be a 

 fourth female of E. polychlorus, as we already know that the females of 

 this species are variable, whilst E. westermanni, he considers, is probably ^ s > ^^ 

 an individual that has retained its juvenile plumage and has been unable 

 to assume its adult colouring owing to captivity. 



Here I must join issue with Dr. Meyer on several grounds. First of 

 all, several examples of each of these condemned species have lived at 

 various times in the Zoological Gardens of London and Amsterdam, and 

 no noteworthy difference has been detected in these specimens. Again, 

 specimens of both species have lived for considerable periods at Amsterdam 

 without undergoing any change in coloration (vide Finsch, I. s. c.). More- 

 over Parrots, as a rule, including those of the present genus, do remarkably 

 well in captivity, and show no tendency to lose or to fail to acquire their 

 brilliant colours or to retain their immature dress. Eclectus cornelice and 



