XX 



INTKODUCTION. 



The plumage of the Loriidce is almost always a mixture of greeu or purple (or blue) and 

 red, often of all three, while yellow is frequently also present ; sometimes the whole body is 

 green of one or more shades ; while the plumage may be all red or, in very rare instances, 

 blue or blue and white, and sometimes the upper parts may be dusky brown or almost 

 entirely black. Commonly there is some black or dusky colour present here or there, 

 very frequently on the quills. In many species the head is blue, and it is a common thing 

 for the head to have bright shaft-streaks of that tint, and there may be yellow, or green, 

 shaft-streaks on other parts of the body. Very commonly the inner webs of the quills have 

 a yellow or red patch, so that when the wing is opened a transverse band of yellow or red 

 appears on its under surface. The two middle tail-feathers often differ in their tints from 

 the lateral ones. The latter are generally party-coloured, and the whole often become 

 yellow or red towards the tips. The bill is sometimes black, very often more or less orange 

 or red. The feet may be blackish or reddish or yellowish, and they are very often grey. 

 The cere is broadest over the culmen, gradually narrowing along either side of the bill, as in 

 the Psittacmce, and so contrasting with its condition in the Nasiternince. It is never covered 

 with hairy feathers, as in the Nestors. The bill is elongated, and in its delicacy and 

 weakness offers a strong contrast to that of the typical Parrots, and still more to that of the 

 Cockatoos — especially of Microglossus — and those of the Macaws. It is nearly smooth 

 underneath, and is destitute of the transverse ridges which are present in the greater 

 majority of Parrots on the under surface of the apical portion of the upper mandible. The 

 latter is much compressed, generally longer than deep, smooth, and without a notch. The 

 culmen is rounded and narrow, while the lower mandible, which is rather long, has the 

 gonys straight and narrow, slanting obliquely upwards, not flattened in front, and with no 

 keel-like ridge. 



Pig. 2. 



Fig. 1 . Dorsal view of tongue of Eos cardinalis. 

 Fig. 2. Lateral view of the same. 



The tongue is very remarkable, the papillae at the sides of the dorsal surface and towards 

 its apex being much elongated and bent inwards and more or less backwards* so as to form a 

 kind of brush, which is no doubt destined to extract the nectar and the pollen of flowers. The 

 tongue of all the genera of Lories has not, so far as we know, been yet examined ; but this 

 brush-like condition of it is so generally present that it may be provisionally assumed to be so 

 iu all species of the family. In Parrots generally the tongue is smooth and simple, and is 



* See the late Professor Garrod's paper, P. Z. S. 1872, pp. 787-789. 



