2. CHALCOPSITTACUS BERNSTEINI 



(BERNSTEIN'S LORY.) 

 [Plate I. Fig. 2.] 



Domicella atra, Finsck, Papageien, vol. ii. p. 755 (1868). 



Chalcopsittacus bernsteini, G. v. Rosenberg, Journal fur Ornithologie, vol. ix. p. 46 

 (1861) ; T. Salvadori, Cat. of Birds in Brit. Mus. vol. xx. p. 11 (1891). 



Back, breast, and abdomen purplish black ; bead black, save edge of forehead, which is mostly dark red ; 

 quills with no red on the inner web ; tibiae dark red. 



Habitat. Mysol. 



So trifling are the distinctions which separate this species from the Black Lory, that there is 

 small "wonder it has generally been confounded therewith. It is sometimes even expressly 

 included in the same species with the kind first described. 



Thus Dr. Finsch in his fine work on the Parrots expressly includes it and calls attention 

 to Bernstein's want of persistence in maintaining the species bearing his name in lists 

 subsequently given by him *. Count Salvadori even was evidently disinclined at first to 

 accept it as distinct, though in the ' Ibis ' f he shows that his views became subsequently 

 modified. His words are : — " It appears to me that the specimens from Mysol with the 

 forehead and the tibials red require comparison, as most likely they constitute a peculiar 

 race, intermediate between Ch. ater and Ch. insignis." Dr. P. H. H. Guillemard has also 

 called attention % to the individuals from Mysol with red tibiae and forehead. 



As to the present species, Rosenberg has stated it to be pretty common in Mysol, flying 

 about in small flocks in the forests, and, like Ch. ater, frequently approaching human dwellings. 

 He further says that it is also often caught and easily tamed, being one of the gentlest of 

 birds. He found that it was on sale alive at Amboina for from fifteen to twenty gulden. 



In coloration it resembles Ch. ater, except in the points already noted, and which are 

 depicted in our Plate, which, we believe, gives the first representation of the bird that has 

 ever been published. Its dimensions also are the same as in the last-named species. 



The six skins preserved in the British Museum all agree save as to slight differences as 

 to the hue of the uropygium. In the specimen from the Gould collection the tibiae are very 

 dark. 



* Journ. fur Ornithologie, vol. x. (1862) pp. 63 & 67. 



t For 1886, p. 155. 



X Proc. Zool. Soc. 1SS5, p. 622. 



