82 



noose made of cocoanut-flbres. The decoy bird, as it is carried about among the cocoarmt-trees 

 utters a harsh, rasping sound, and wild birds fly down from tbe trees and alight alongside it 

 on the bamboo stick, when, by means of the other stick, they are skilfully noosed. 



" When caged aboard ship, they exhibited as pretty a picture of love as one can imagine. 

 They sat billing and smoothing eacb other's feathers for hours, and as night came on two 

 would get together and sleep with beads turned towards each other. Tbey lived in confine- 

 ment but a very short time and bore it badly. At times, even wbile we stood watching their 

 lively antics, one would tumble off its perch and die, apparently in convulsions. 



" The islands on which these birds are found are very small, and it would not require a 

 very great effort to totally exterminate them." 



As in the preceding species, the predominant tint of the body is green, especially above, 

 and this tint is not only present on the forehead, but the whole vertex is of that colour, the 

 pileum being covered with elongated, narrow feathers which are grass-green instead of 

 blue, but the occiput, which was green in V. australis, here bears long, narrow, dark blue 

 feathers. The mantle is olive-green, but the lower back, uropygium, and upper tail-coverts 

 are yellowish green. Not only are the lores, cheeks, and throat red, but the same colour 

 extends uninterruptedly all over the breast, reaching to the margin of the purple of the 

 abdomen. The flanks and under tail-coverts are yellowish green. The thighs are dark 

 purple. The wings are green above, save that the primaries have blue on the outer web. 

 Underneath, the quills and the under primary-coverts are black. The smaller under 

 wing-coverts are green, and the axillaries are red. 



The tail above has the appearance of being striped and marked with green, red, and 

 purple ; the feathers are green at the tip, dark purple on the outer web and red on the inner 

 one, but these markings are somewhat irregular. The tail beneath is of a dull crimson. 



The bill and feet are reddish yellow, the iris more or less red. 



Total length 7'2 inches, wing 4'8, tail 2'7, bill 0-5, tarsus 0'49. 



In the National Collection there is but a single specimen. 



The habitat of this Lory is almost the most northern one of any species of the whole 

 family; the single exception being Puynipet, in the Caroline Islands, which we saw was 

 inhabited by Eos rubiginosa. It is also very remarkable that the two species of Vini should 

 inhabit islands so widely separated as are the Friendly and Fanning Islands. 



