21



l'HK


Hvicultural /Ifratja^mc,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



New Series. —VOL. IV. — NO. 1 .—All rights reserved. NOVEMBER, 1905.



THE BLACK-THROATED LORIKEET.


Trichoglossus nigrigularis, G. R. gray.


By W. A. Harding, F.Z.S.


In 1904 I became the possessor of a pair of these birds

through the courtesy of Mrs. Johnstone, who had just introduced

them into .England for the first time. The Black - throated

Lorikeet inhabits, according to the British Museum Catalogue,

the Ke Islands and Aru Islands, groups lying to the South West

of New Guinea, and is also found in New Guinea itself, along

the middle part of the Fly river.


Its length is eleven inches, and its plumage, of which the

accompanying coloured plate renders a description unnecessary,

very closely resembles that of the Green-naped Lorikeet (T.

cyanogrammus). In nigrigularis, says Mivart, the occiput is less

purple, and the dark transverse bands of the breast are narrower

than in cyanogrammus ; the red of the breast is also paler and

more orange in hue, and the middle of the abdomen is darker—

“a blackish green.” Wallace, writing of the Aru Islands

[.Annals and Magazine cf Natural History, New Series, Vol. XX.

p. 475] evidently alludes to the Black-throated Lorikeet in the

following passage : “ The very first bird to attract one’s attention

at Dobbo [Aru Islands] is a most beautiful brush-tongued parro-

quet, closely allied to Trichoglossus cyanogrammus, Wagl. It

frequents in flocks the Casuarina-trees which line the beach, and

its crimson under wings and orange breast make it a most con¬

spicuous and brilliant object. Its twittering whistle may be

heard almost constantly in the vicinity of the trees it frequents.”



