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large numbers arrived, of which the majority, I fear, have since

died. Some years ago I gave a substantial sum for a pair of

Ornamented Lorikeets; several have come over since ; and late

last autumn they arrived in shoals. Really I am not exaggerating

very much, but one cannot help feeling the reverse of sweet-

tempered sometimes ; and none the more sweet was I when letters

came in offering some of these “great rarities” at very fancy

prices, although for a time almost any number of the Lories and

Lorikeets mentioned and to be mentioned were obtainable at

20/- a head, and the Tits for a very small sum. One feels

inclined to say that one will never give a high price for a bird

again, no matter how “ rare.”


The class for Lories and Lorikeets (excluding the strangers,

for the Yellow - naped Parrakeet was a good bird) was chiefly

noticeable for the general bad plumage of the exhibits—quite a

number appearing in the travel-worn dresses in which they

reached this country recently—and for the presence of a rare

species which seems to have been pretty generally overlooked.

Of the “Ruby Lorikeet” of the catalogue, it will suffice to say

that it was an ordinary specimen of Eos rubra, the common

Scarlet Lory. But Mr. H. B. Smith’s “ Lory,” No. 1827 if I

mistake not, was a new species at the Palace, and one I never

saw, that I know of, before December last, when some few

arrived along with the other Lories and Lorikeets already

referred to. This was Forsten’s Lorikeet, Trichoglossus forsteni,

from the Island of Sumbawa ; I only glanced at the “ Green Nape

Lorikeet,” but it appeared likewise to be a bird of this species.

If not particularly noticed, Forsten’s might readily be taken for

an Ornamented Lorikeet; but a closer examination reveals several

points of difference. In a bad light the head seems dark brown,

but, under more favourable conditions, the front is found to be

strongly tinged with dark blue-purple, which changes into a

dark red-purple at the back. What, for the sake of convenience,

I will call the collar, in the Ornamented is of a bright yellow on the

sides, but of a bright red behind. In Forsten’s Lorikeet, the

collar is well-defined, and of a greenish-yellow colour. Behind

this conies a dark, ill-defined, purple yoke, followed by some red,

which, on examination, proves to be an irregular extension of the

bright red breast. It is larger than its Ornamented brother,

but, in call and movements, not unlike it.


I am not fond of criticising the critics, but cannot forbear

remarking that, before I went to the Palace, I read in one of the

daily papers an account of the show, in which, among other

“ rare ” birds, a Brazilian Hangnest was mentioned, a black bird



