136 THE AMBOINA PARROT. 



talker, and is therefore chiefly recommended to the amateur 

 by its beauty and tameness. 



37. THE AMBOINA PARROT. 



Psittacus Amboinensis, LIN. Le Lory Perruche tricolor, BUF. Der 

 Amboinische Sit tick Lory, BECH. 



Description. This bird somewhat resembles the Ceram Lory, 

 a variety of the Lory Noirs of BTTFFON (Psittacus ga/rrulus, 

 aurora, LnrarzEUs), and is therefore sometimes called by the 

 French, EAurore. It is one foot four inches in length, of 

 which the tail, which is rounded at the end, measures half. 

 The beak is three quarters of an inch long, sharp and very much 

 curved ; there is no naked membrane, and the nostrils are in 

 front. The root of the upper mandible is orange ; the centre 

 lighter ; the point, and all the lower mandible, black. The 

 iris is golden yellow ; the feet are ashen-grey ; the scales rather 

 inclining to dark brown. The head, nape of the neck, and all 

 the lower part of the body, are dark vermilion ; the upper 

 part of the neck is encircled by a narrow and hardly perceptible 

 blue collar. The whole upper part of the body is a fine green, 

 inclining to blue at the edges of the feathers ; the rump is dark 

 blue. The tail is black, but covered on the upper side with 

 faint green and blue stripes, changing into a decided green at 

 the root ; the tail is sometimes also dark brown. The vent is 

 black, though the feathers have each a broad red border ; the 

 pen feathers are blackish blue, edged with green ; the border 

 of the wings is a glittering light green ; the under side of the 

 wings blackish blue. 



In the female, the head is green ; the throat and breast the 

 same, but tinged with red. The vent is dark green, edged with 

 red. The tail is more marked with green than in the male ; 

 the beak is horn-brown, with a shade of reddish yellow both 

 above and below. 



Observations. This bird is a native of Amboina ; is wild, 

 shy, whistles shrilly, but does not learn to talk. Its cry is 

 " Geek /" It may be treated like other Parrots. A peculiarity, 

 however, is that its feathers are so loose as to come off in the 

 hand, if the bird be but touched. They nevertheless speedily 

 reproduce themselves. 



