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4. EOS CHALLENGERI. 



(THE CHALLENGER LORY.) 

 [Plate VII. Fig. 2.] 



Eos indica, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 578 ; id. Voy. Chall., Birds, p. 115 (1881) ; Murray, 



Voy. Chall., Narr. i. pt. 2, p. 669 (1885). 

 Eos challengeri, Salvadori, Cat. of Birds in Brit. Mus. xx. p. 22 (1891). 



Body, including uropygiuni, red ; interscapular region and nape blue ; the upper part of the head red, 

 mixed with blue. 



Habitat. Meangis (or Nanusa) Islands. 



This species is very like E. histrio, but it is smaller, and the head is not blue only but a 

 mixture of red and blue. Its habitat is tbe most northerly of all the species of the genus 

 save one, and of the whole family of Lories save two. 



Br. Murray tells us that "whilst be was occupied in dredging, a native canoe came along- 

 side from the Meangis Islands. It contained twenty-two men wearing turbans and very 

 dirty-looking. " They brought mats and very pretty blue-and-red Lories (Eos indica) alive 

 for sale, secured to sticks by means of rings made of cocoanut-shell at Amboina." 



Br. Sclater, quoting Br. Murray's MS., says that four specimens were purchased for some 

 tobacco. Of the specimens obtained, the skins of two females and one male are preserved in 

 the National Collection ; and these form the types of the sj>ecies. 



Br. Murray kept the male alive for several days. He used to fly about the ship and 

 return to the bouse on deck when shown bis food, but died (as was supposed) from eating 

 green-stuff, though lie might have received some injury when aloft. 



This species is extremely like that last described ; indeed it only differs therefrom in that 

 it is smaller and that there is less blue on the breast, and this is more or less mingled with 

 red. This character, however, is (as we mentioned at the end of our description of E. Mstrio) 

 sometimes present in tbe Bed-and-Blue Lory, so that we can, perhaps, hardly regard it as 

 more than a variety of the latter. 



The bill is orange, the feet and the eyes (Br. Murray says) red or light brown in the males. 



Total length 9 - 8 inches, wing 6, tail 4, bill 0"8, tarsus O'GS. 



Our figure, which represents a type, is, we believe, the first representation of this species 

 which has been published. 



Of the three skins in the British Museum, that labelled " 111, female " has the blue 

 much less extended on the back than iu the two other specimens. 



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