142 



November 27, 1849. 

 R. H. Solly, Esq., in the Chair. 

 The following papers were read : — 

 1. On the Lorine genus of Parrots, Eclectus, with the 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES, ECLECTUS CoRNELIA. By 



Charles Lucian, Prince Bonaparte, F.M.L., F.Z.S. 

 ETC. ETC. etc. 



The richness, good scientific order and proper management of the 

 well-kept Zoological Garden of Amsterdam, as well as the courtesy 

 and liberality of its able director, Mr. Westerman, will strike every 

 naturalist, even though coming, as I did myself, from England. The 

 establishment has been lately illustrated by the pen of H. Schlegel, 

 equally superior when it removes the boundaries of science for pro- 

 fessed zoologists, or renders it useful and popular to ladies and chil- 

 dren. With or without his valuable book, a visit to this attractive spot 

 would be fully repaid by the inspection alone of the gigantic Sala- 

 mander, Sieboldia inaxima, Bonap., which has grown more than a foot 

 in length since I gave it that generic name ; not to speak of the beau- 

 tiful collection of living FringillidcB and Parrots. Among the rarest 

 and most splendid species of these latter birds, collected from every 

 quarter of the globe, I will only mention, from America, a magnificent 

 Macrocercus hi/acinthinus,Yiei[\., with the bill still larger than usual ; 

 from Africa, the Congo Jack, Pionus guliehni, established a few weeks 

 ago by Sir William Jardine ; and from Malasia the Lorine, which I 

 now introduce to the Zoological Society, sure of their receiving with 

 forbearance my compendious account of its relations. 



The genus Eclectus of Wagler holds a conspicuous place in the 

 family of Lorine Parrots, and is eminently natural if kept within the 

 proper boundaries assigned to it by its founder, including his two only 

 species, and, as a third, my new one, all from the Moluccan islands, 

 and similar in form, having a large stature, the plumage loose, red, 

 with more or less blue, a powerful black bill with scarcely a cere, a 

 smooth simple tongue, and a shortish square tail. 



1. Eclectus puniceus. E. coccineus, dorso, alts, cauddque pur- 

 pureo-fuscescentihis ; maryine alarum, tectricibus inferioribus, 

 remigibus, anmilo ophtJiahnico, fascia abdominali et torque in- 

 terscapulari, pulchre cyaneis ; crisso, et caudce apice, rubris. 



Synonyms. 



Psittacus puniceus, Gm. (exclus. specimin. rostro rubro.) 

 Lorius amboinensis? Briss. Orn. iv. p. 231. sp. 19. 

 Psittacus cardinalis? Bodd. ex Lory d'Amboine, Buf.Pl.Etd. 518. 

 Domicella! punicea? Wagl. Mon. Psitt. in Act. Monac. p. 5G9. 

 gen. xiii. sp. 3. 



