128 DR. O. FINSCH ON A RARE PARROT. [Feb. 11, 
The first is the beautiful Eelectus cornelie, Bp. (Finsch, Parrots, 
ii. p. 348), well described and figured in P. Z. S. 1849, pl. x1., and 
seen once or twice living in the Zoological Gardens at London and 
Amsterdam, but without any information about the dwelling-place 
—probably from one of the islands of the Malayan archipelago. 
Another uniform red one is the Psittacus unicolor of Shaw 
(Finsch, Parrots, ii. p. 924), a very doubtful species, and known 
only from the descriptions of the older authors. It is not quite im- 
possible that the P. wnicolor may be related to the Eclectus cornelia, 
being evidently a short-tailed Eelectus or Pionias, and not an Eos, 
as Mr. G. R. Gray suggests (List Psitt. p. 20); but it differs in 
having all the quills and the bill red. Levaillant mentions having 
seen two specimens in the collection of M. Temminck; but that 1 
believe is one of his mystifications, and his figure (pl. 125) is only 
copied from Shaw’s; for there is no reference to the Lori unicolor 
in Temminck’s ‘ Catalogue Systématique du Cabinet d’Ornithologie,’ 
of the year 1807. If that species really exists, I believe it will-be 
found also in the Moluccan region; but I consider it to be more 
probable that the P. unicolor was based upon a manufactured speci- 
men, and never will be found again. 
A third thoroughly red Parrot isan drara, mentioned by Alexander 
von Humboldt (Reise in die Aeguinoctial-Gegenden des neuen Con- 
tinents, iv. 1860, p. 6; Finsch, Parrots, ii. p. 935) in the following 
short note :—‘“ In one of the huts of the Pacimonales we bought an 
Ara, being a species of Aras, about 17" long, and of an entirely 
purple plumage, like the Psittacus macao.” The celebrated tra- 
veller made this notice at the missionary station San Francisco So- 
lano, on the left side of the Casiquiare, a country not yet explored 
by zoological collectors. If the information is correct, there can be 
no doubt that the 47a might be certainly new, and one of the most 
wonderful species in the whole tribe. It must be recollected, how- 
ever, that Von Humboldt was not at all an ornithologist ; and there 
may have happened a mistake, as in the case of the celebrated Ca- 
perote of Madeira, which was nothing more than our well-known 
Sylvia atricapilla, Lath. 
About all those questionable points we must wait for further ex- 
planations. These will come, perhaps, as unexpected as in the case 
of Domicella rubiginosa, Bp. (Finsch, Parrots, i. p. 781), also a 
red-coloured species, which was for a long time said to be a native 
of New Guinea, but was found by the Novara expedition on the 
small island Puynipet, of the Senjawin group, in a region where 
nobody would have expected Parrots at all. 
Now we will give for the first time a full description of the excellent 
DoMICELLA CARDINALIS. (Plate XI.) 
Lori cardinal, Hombr. et Jacq. Voy. au Pole Sud, Atlas, pl. 24 dis. 
f. 2 (1843). 
Lorius cardinalis, Jacq. et Pucher. Voy. au Pole Sud, Zoologie, iii. 
(1853) p. 103; Hartl. Journ. f, Ornith. (1854) p. 165; G. R. Gray, 
Gen. of B. App. p. 20. 
