ON THE GENUS LOEICULUS. 251 



'' But it must be mentioned here that I discovered, on the island-group 

 in the Gulf of Tomini, which the Dutch call the Schilopad Islands, and which 

 are more generally known under the name of the Togian Islands, a species 

 of Loriculus which shghtly differs, and which Walden called L. quadricohr— 

 a not very appropriate name, as it has more colours than four. It is inter- 

 mediate between L. stiff matus, of Celebes, and L. sclateri, Wallace, from the 

 Sula Islands, in the east of Celebes, and forms a very fine and interesting 

 transition from the one to the other. 



" Schlegel says (Nederl. T. v. d. Dierk. iii. p. 186) that, according to 

 Rosenberg, L, sclateri also occurs in Northern Celebes, toff ether with L. stig- 

 matuSy but that it is very scarce there. 



" I must confess that I doubt the correctness of this statement ; and I 

 suppose that some error has crept in here,— for instance, that birds of a 

 collection from the Sula Islands got mixed with the birds sent from Celebes, 

 or that labels have been confounded— an occurrence which, unfortunately, 

 often happens, through the inattention or the ignorance of those who unpack 

 collections from the far east or west. At least, it is conceivable, or not 

 incomprehensible, according to Darwinian principles, that these slightly 

 different forms represent each other in geographically neighbouring 

 countries; but it would be obvious that such forms kept distinct from 

 one another (i. e. did not mix) when together in the same forest. 



" As, up to this time, Loriculus sclateri has not again come from North 

 Celebes, I propose to leave its occurrence questionable till it arrives. 



" It would, no doubt, be interesting to know which species of Loriculus 

 may inhabit the south-eastern and north-eastern peninsulas of Celebes. I 

 can only elucidate this point as far as my experience goes. 



" On the southern shores of the Gulf of Tomini, where I collected in 

 the year 1871, I got, near Posso, Loriculus stiffmatus. Therefore it is not 

 impossible that to the south from this point, and on the south-eastern 

 peninsula, the same species occurs. Neither the earlier Dutch travellers, 



2m 2 



