71 



12. LORIUS FLAVOPALLIATUS. 



(THE YELLOW -BACKED LORY.) 

 [Plate XXIV. Fig. 2.] 



Domicella garrula (part.), Pinsch, Papag. ii. p. 776 (1868). 



Domicellaflai'opalliata, Bchnw. Journ. f. Orn. 1881, p. 170. 



Lorius garrulm, Sclater, P. Z. S. I860, p. 226 (nee p. 227) ; G. R. Gray, P. Z. S. 1860, 



p. 356 (partim, ex Batcliian). 

 Lorius flavopalliatus, Salvadori, Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, x. p. 33, n. 61 (1877) ; id. Orn. 



Pap. e Mol. p. 243 (1880) ; Sharpe, Gould's Birds of New Guinea, vol. v. pi. 5 (1888) ; 



Salvadori, Cat. of Birds in Brit. Mus. xx. p. 41. 



Pileum red; under wing-coverts yellow ; interscapular region bright yellow; quills with the base of the 

 inner web largely crimson. 



Habitat. The Islands Obi, Batchian, Morotai, and Raou. 



This very brilliant Lory seems, in the islands above named, to replace and represent 

 L. garrulus of Halmabera. 



The two species are certainly very closely allied, and I should follow Dr. Pinsch and 

 others in deeming it a mere variety of the Chattering Lory, but for deference to the authority 

 of Count Salvadori, who was the first to treat it as a distinct species. He has, moreover, 

 been followed in this by Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, P.L.S., who has given an admirable 

 description and most complete representation of it in his ' Birds of New Guinea.' 



The species is said to be a good talker, and large numbers are caught by the natives. 

 It appears (from the account of an anonymous writer quoted by Count Salvadori) that they 

 are caught by means of some adhesive substance. A sort of bird-lime is smeared by the 

 natives on the branches of a tree with a sunny aspect : then one of these birds, in a cage, 

 is placed in the vicinity, when wild individuals become attracted by its cries ; they come 

 and settle on the smeared branches, from which they cannot get away. Then the bird- 

 catcher, after putting on gloves to save his hands from their beaks, brings a ladder, mounts, 

 and fetches them down easily enough. 



The species has been exhibited living in the Zoological Society's Gardens. 



The general colour is bright red, deepest on the scapulars ; but the mantle is bright 

 yellow, often with a few more or less red feathers amongst the yellow ones. The whole head 

 and neck, the breast, abdomen, and upper and lower tail-coverts are bright red. The thighs 

 are green. 



The wing-coverts are grass-green; the inner, median, and greater coverts more olive- 



