DOMICELLA COCCINEA. 129 



draughts ; and therefore they are rarer with us in Europe. Most die on 

 the passage ; I succeeded in bringing one specimen over to London in the 

 year 1872 (together with a new species of Loriculus, see P. Z. S. 1872, 

 p. 789), which perhaps still lives in the Zoological Society's Gardens. 



" Domicella coccinea inhabits Siao and the island of Great Sangi, from 

 which two localities I procured the bird How far it is spread over the 

 smaller islands of the group I cannot say. The island Tagulanda is a 

 somewhat larger one, between Siao and Celebes ; it would be interesting to 

 know whether it also occurs there, or not. 



"The nearest allies of Domicella coccinea are D. ncmia^a (Bechst.), from 

 Halmahera, Batjan, and the neighbouring islands, and D. cyanogenys (Bp.), 

 from Mysore and Mafoor, besides some other, less-known species. 



" Natives of those islands sometimes tell curious stories about the 

 animals and birds of their countries. Thus I have noted down in my 

 diary one about D. coccinea and D. riciniata, related to me by one of 

 my best hunters, who was very familiar with the Sangi Islands and 

 Ternate. He said that these two species have this in common, that there 

 exist two different kinds of birds of each : viz., if the female has but one 

 egg there appears a large bird ; if it has two, the birds remain small. He did 

 not speak of young and old ones, but of two different kinds. He was quite 

 convinced of the truth of his story, because the way in which the natives 

 get the birds is only this — that they rob the nests of the young ones and 

 rear them. 



" I abstain from investigating what may or may not be the truth of this 

 story, or what was meant by it." 



The Plate represents a female in my own collection. 



T 2 



