174 BIA,^-BELLIED LORIKEET. 



mesticated state; a fact curiously illustrative of their 

 peculiar habits, and the situation they hold in the 

 family of the Psittacidee. It appears that they sel- 

 dom live long in confinement, and that when caged 

 they are very subject to fits. This in all probabili- 

 ty arises from a deficiency of their natural food ; arid 

 the instinctive feeling or appetite for its favourite 

 diet is strongly exemplified in the fact; that one kept 

 by Mr Caley being shewn a figure of a coloured 

 plant, used to put its tongue to the flowers, as if 

 with the intent of sucking them, and this it even did 

 when shewn a figured piece of cotton furniture. By 

 the natives it is called War-rin ; the settlers call it 

 by the name of the Blue Mountain Parrot, though 

 the term seems to be misapplied, as it is a frequenter 

 of the plains, and not of the hilly districts. Its flesh 

 is excellent, and highly esteemed. This bird was 

 confounded with two other species, viz. the Psitt. 

 hcematodus of Linnaeus, and the Psitt. amboinensis 

 varia of Brisson. The subject, however, has been 

 thoroughly investigated by Mr Swainson, and the 

 result, of that investigation is given in the " Illustra- 

 tions of Ornithology,*"" where it is clearly shewn to 

 be a species distinct from the other two, and as such 

 it received the name we now attach to it, which we 

 think it proper to notice, as it has since been desig- 

 nated by Wagler, in his Monograph of the Parrots, 

 as the Trichoglossus multicolor, 



o 



* Illustrations of Ornithology by Sir William Jarchne, 

 Bart, and P. J. Selby, v. 2. part's, pi. 1 12. 



