LOEICFLUS INDICUS. 181 



Adult male and female. Length to front of cere 5-1 to 5-2 inches ; culnien 0-55 ; total length averaging 5-7 to 5-8 ; 



wing 3-6 to 3-8 ; tail 1-7 ; tarsus 0-4 ; outer ant. toe and claw 075. 

 Iris white ; bill light orange-red, paler at the tip, lower mandible paler than the upper; legs and feet dusky yellow ; 



cere yellow. 



Lower hind neck, back, and wing-coverts leaf-green ; forehead and front of crown rich deep red, gradually becoming 

 overcast with an orange hue on the nape, and fading into the green of the hind neck ; the upper part of the back 

 is more or less pervaded with a dull golden cast ; rump and upper tail-coverts deep red, outer webs of quills and 

 the tail dark green ; inner webs of primaries above dark hair-brown, 1st quill with a fine greenish-blue edging: 

 beneath the inner webs of the quills and the lower surface of tail verditer-blue. Cheeks, region round the eye? and 

 entire under surface pale green, washed with bluish across the fore neck. 



Young. Iris dull grey or olive ; bill dusky yellow ; legs and feet olivaceous yellow, claws blackish. Head above 

 green, with the forehead pale, and an aureous cast on the crown ; rump and upper tail-coverts as in the adult : 

 fore neck without the bluish tinge. Birds of the year are full-sized. 



Lutinos of this species are not uncommonly met with. A description of a beautiful example is given by Mr. Nevill, of 

 the Ceylon Civil Service (loc. cit.), as follows :— " Crown of the head and rump brilliant scarlet, shading into metallic 

 orange on the rump ; back vivid golden yellow, dappled with emerald-green, and tinged in places with orange ; 

 wings green, mottled with bright yellow ; quills of the normal colour, tipped with yellowish white ; beneath bright 

 but paler yellow than the back, mottled with bright pale grass-green ; throat yellowish ; cheeks rufescent ; under 

 wing-coverts mottled green, yellow, and straw-colour." 



Obs. Lorieulus apicalis, from the Philippines, is very close to this Lorikeet : a specimen in the British Museum, 

 from Mindanao, is scarcely separable in any other point but the coloration of the head, which is pale or 

 yellowish red ; the hind neck wants the aureous wash, and the throat has only a very faint wash of blue on it. 

 L. indicus also resembles the Indian and Andaman species, L. vemalis, in most points, differing from it chiefly in 

 the head. The latter bird has the head grass-green, concolorous with the back, with the forehead brighter than the 

 crown, and the hind neck wanting the aureous colour of L. indicus ■ the red on the rump does not extend so high 

 up the back ; the coloration of the tail and wings is almost identical with that of the insular bird. The wing 

 varies from 3-5 to 3-75 inches, or much the same as in L. indicus. 



Distribution. — This pretty little bird, so well known as a caged pet to travellers who touch at Point 

 de Galle, by whom it is generally styled the "Love-bird," is widely distributed throughout the 

 low country of the island, and is commonly located in the hills up to an elevation of 3500 feet. In the 

 south-west of the island it is extremely abundant, frequenting the cocoanut-groves close to the port of Galle, 

 as well as the entire semi-cultivated interior of that district. Further up the west coast it is not common 

 near the sea, but in the openly wooded and partly cultivated portions of the Western Province it is abundant; 

 and in the Ratnapura and Kurunegalla districts is quite as numerous as about Galle. To the north of the 

 Seven Korales it is less plentiful ; but I have met with it here and there throughout all the forest-tracts of this 

 part of the island, and in the N.E. monsoon have seen it in the woods near Fort Ostenburgh, Trincomalie. 

 I have noticed it again in many parts of the Eastern Province, but I do not think it is as generally distributed 

 there as in the west. Layard found it abundant about Hambantota, but I did not observe it at all in that 

 district during two visits I made to it; in the north of the Magam Pattu I found it, but not on the scrubby 

 sea-board near Hambantota. In the Central Province it is common about the patnas in Dumbara and Pusse- 

 lawa and in many parts of Uva, and during the dry weather prevalent in the N.E. monsoon ascends above 

 an altitude of 4000 feet. Mr. Thwaites, of Hakgala, informs me that he has seen it in the gardens at that 

 season of the year. 



This little bird is not very aptly styled indicus ; but Gmelin, who named it from the figure in Edwards's 

 plate, did not know from what exact locality he received his specimen, as all the information which Edwards 

 could give about it was contained in the words, " brought from some Dutch settlement in the East Indies." 

 When the bird became better known it was apparent that this settlement was Ceylon. 



Habits. — The Ceylon Lorikeet frequents woods, detached groves of trees, compounds, native gardens, 

 patnas dotted with timber, and, in fact, any locality which is clothed with fruit-bearing trees or those whose 





