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The species is subject to singular differences as to colour. Count Salvadori informs 

 us that one of its most noteworthy variations is that which has the wings, tibiag, and middle 

 of the pileum yellow. There are two specimens of this variety in the Leyden Museum, 

 one of which has probably been figured by Levaillant. It is this variety which seems to 

 have received the designation Psittacus raja from Shaw. 



Of the many individuals which have been kept in confinement, different ones seem to 

 have given rise to very different impressions as to the powers and dispositions of this species. 



As to speaking, Buffon says : " II n'y en a point qui apprenne plus facilement a parler 

 et qui parle aussi distinctement." 



Mr. Greene tells us that they show great attachment to their owners, love to be caressed, 

 and will themselves caress in return. This Lory has the advantage of being hardy also 

 and more easily fed than many others, its tongue being less filamentary in appearance; 

 though Mr. Greene thinks that all Lories are partially insectivorous (and might eat a little 

 meat), yet it does not care for insects as does the Trichoglossus nova? hollcmdice. It is also 

 preferable because it never shrieks. 



On the other hand, the Hon. and Rev. E. G. Button expresses his opinion that this 

 Lory is somewhat overrated. He bought a pair in 1882 and found them untamable. Some 

 individuals talk very well, but others will not speak at all. He adds that he had never seen 

 a talking specimen. He found his pair to be very noisy, yet not unendurably so. He notes 

 that they smelt as much as a Hawk would smell, and their cage required cleansing twice a 

 day. Though not so delicate as some other species, he nevertheless found them to be very 

 sensitive to cold. He could never get them to eat seed or rice. 



When let loose in a garden he found their movements to be quick, resembling those of 

 Barbets, and they never liked to be long separated. They had a strong homing faculty, for 

 though they would fly away to a covert a mile and a half distant and out of sight of home, 

 they always came back at five o'clock to the cornice of the house, where they would roost. 

 If they were exceptionally hungry, however, they would spontaneously return to their cage. 

 " It was a pretty sight," he tells us, " to see them fly home. They were like living jewels 

 as their bright scarlet bodies flashed through the air." Sometimes one would return twenty 

 minutes before the other, but they were always both back by five o'clock. Their owner 

 having got tired of them, they were assigned to the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's 

 Bark. 



Mr. Greene informs us that, to his personal knowledge, solitary females would lay their 

 eggs on the floor of their cage, evincing a strong desire to incubate. They lay three or four 

 eggs, which hatch in about six weeks, and the young never return to the nursery after they 

 have left it. 



Thienemann says that the eggs laid in captivity were nearly equal at both extremities. 



This is the most entirely red species of the genus Lorius we have yet met with. The 

 back, sides of the head, breast and abdomen, under and upper tail-coverts, and scapulars are 

 all red, but the back and the scapulars are a little darker than the other parts. The pileum 

 is black, but the nape is purple, the whole forming one continuous black patch. A yellow 

 band, often not very conspicuous, passes transversely across the crop-region. The wings 



