458 The Cuckoo-like Birds 



area, and although Norfolk Island is only about four miles distant, neither species 

 has been found except in its own island. The Philip Island Parrot (N, pro- 

 ductus) was about fifteen inches in length and may be readily distinguished by 

 a broad yellowish band across the breast. This bird was probably always a 

 rare species, for the limited habitat would preclude the possibility of it ever 

 having been very abundant. The last individual seen alive was about 1851, 

 and of the species there remains hardly twenty skins distributed among the 

 museums of the world. The Norfolk Island Parrot (N. norfolkensis] was the 

 smallest species of the genus, being only twelve inches long, and is further dis- 

 tinguished by possessing the longest bill of any, this being some three and eight 

 tenths inches in length. There are no specimens of this bird known to be pre- 

 served, and in fact the species rests entirely on a description published by Latham 

 in 1822, and a colored drawing of the head executed by one F. L. Bauer, a botan- 

 ical artist, who made it from a living specimen on Norfolk Island, January 

 19, 1805. The remaining species is the Count of Essling's Parrot (N. esslingi), 

 only a single specimen of which has ever been obtained, and the precise place 

 and date of capture of this are both unknown. It approaches most closely to 

 the Kaka and is thought by some to be merely an abnormal variation of this 

 species. 



The Lories and Lorikeets (Subfamily Loriince}. Although possessing 

 some points in common with the last subfamily, the much handsomer 

 Lories and their relatives are distinguished by having a relatively shorter 

 bill, which is still slightly longer than it is deep, and lacks the groove in the 

 middle of the upper mandible, while the tongue is provided with a brush-like 

 instead of fringed tip. They are for the most part small birds, mainly falling 

 under ten inches in length; indeed, some are but four and a half inches long, 

 while few exceed a foot. They have pointed wings in which the first three quills 

 are usually the longest, and mainly graduated or rounded tails which rarely 

 exceed and are usually shorter than the wings. The Lories number about eighty- 

 five species disposed among some fourteen genera, and in distribution are mainly 

 confined to the Australian region and adjacent Polynesia, many species being 

 restricted to single, often small, islands. They are strong, rapid-flying, noisy 

 birds, going about in flocks often of large size, and, as Gould says, " dashing 

 among and alighting upon the branches simultaneously, and with the utmost 

 rapidity, and quitting them in like manner, leaving the deafening sound of their 

 many voices echoing through the woods." Their food consists largely of soft 

 fruits, but they are also very fond of nectar, which their bushy tongues well 

 adapt them to secure. Their eggs, four or five in number, are deposited in holes 

 in trees. 



The Broad-tailed Lories, so called from the fact that the feathers of the tail 

 are broad and more or less rounded at the tip, were formerly included within 

 a single genus, but are now disposed among half a dozen, the differences being 

 based largely on the size and on the color of the bill and plumage. Thus in the 

 Black Lories (Chalcopsittacus\ol which there are seven species, all of the Papuan 

 Islands, the plumage is purple-black, brown-olive, or rarely green, and the bill, 



