24 ON THE PAKROTS OF THE GENUS ECLECTUS. 



ones, both male and female/' Two skins in the collection are referable 

 to E. polychlorus and linncei ; the latter is marked female. It is to be 

 hoped Mr. Brown will renew his investigations into this subject, as the 

 *81 7 ' determination of the sexes is not always very easy without careful 

 dissection, the suprarenal bodies in birds being particularly liable to be 

 mistaken for the testes when the latter are not developed to the extent 

 that they are during the breeding-season. On the whole, I think, we 

 must conclude, in company with Dr. Meyer and Count Salvadori, that; 

 the green Eclecti are really males, the red females. 



With regard to Dr. Meyer's conclusion that all the species hitherto 

 described must be regarded simply as forms of one species (E. poly- 

 chlorus), I have already adduced reasons for believing that E. ivestermanni 

 and E. cornelice are good species. As regards the other five, a careful 

 examination of a large series of skins from different localities (we now 

 know that Eclectus extends east as far as Tule Island and Duke-of-York 

 Island) will be necessary before coming to any definite conclusion on the 

 subject. Count Salvadori, however, who has probably had as large a 

 series of specimens from different Papuan islands of this genus as any- 

 body, recognizes three distinct species (besides the two of unknown 

 habitat), which he says may always be recognized as distinct at any age 

 or in either sex. He gives the following table of these species as under- 

 stood by him (I. c. p. 756) : 



1. Virides: lateribus rubro-puniceis. (Mares.) 



a. Majores. 



a'. Viridis, colore obscuriore, cauda minus caerulea .................. 1. polychlorus. 



b'. Viridis, colore laetiore, cauda magis caerulea ..................... 2. cardinalis*. 



b. Minores. Cauda \-ix cserulea ............................................. 3. ffrandis*. 



2. Kubrse : fascia interscapulari et abdomine cyaneo vel violaceo. 



(Feminse.) 



a. Annulo periophthalmico cyaneo .......................................... 1. polychlorus- 



b. Annulo periophthalmico nullo 



a'. Subcaudalibus auroreis vel rubro-flayis .............................. 2. cardinalis. 



b'. Subcaudalibus pure flav is .......................... . .................. 3. 



In this table the green E. cardinalis is, I suppose, the intermedius of 

 most authors, whilst the red E. polychlorus is clearly what is usually 

 called E. linncei, 



Ibis, 1877, On the whole it seems probable that we must be content with ascribing 



p. 282. f. Eclectus the most marked sexual differences in colour of any Parrots 



hitherto known. Aprosmictus (at least in some species, e. g. A. scapulatus) 



also presents very well-marked sexual differences in coloration, and, as 



Prof. Garrod has shown (P. Z. S. 1874, p. 494), agrees very closely with 



* In the original paper Count Salvadori has accidentally transposed these two 

 names, as I have ascertained from a corrected copy of his paper that he forwarded to 

 Mr. Sclater. 



