Birds of Celebes: Psittacidae. 
151 
and L. stigmatus breed twice a year, viz. in February and August, and always 
prefer the sugar palms , the dead lower leaf-stems of which offer them con- 
venient nesting holes (a 4). Like other memhers of the genus, L. eocilis is 
of a very affectionate disposition, as was shown by Dr. Platen’s tame specimens 
at Purukan. 
The nearest known ally of L. eocilis is L.flosculus Wall, of Flores, which 
differs from the Celebes form, as Count Salvador! shows, in being larger (wing 
76 mm), in having the nape tinged with orange, the tips of the tail-feathers 
yellowish, stained with red, and in wanting the area of verditer-green surroun- 
ding the red spot on the throat. The presence of this wash of verditer or beryl- 
green on the throat of L. exilis suggests a relationship with L. vernalis of India, a 
species which appears to have more ancestral, or fewer recent, characters than 
other members of the genus; and on the same part of the throat a bluish tint, 
much like that in L. exilis^ is found in the male of L. vernalis and is, sometimes 
also apparent in the female ; but in this species the red spot on the throat is 
not developed. 
The genus is more specially considered under the heading, L. stigmatus. 
In respect of its hill L. exilis is the most strongly differentiated form of 
its genus. The under mandible appears at first sight deformed, the edge of it 
is hollowed out at the sides, the terminal part is then sharply curved up and 
lengthened, fitting into the hollowed-out upper bill like an incisor tooth, which 
prevents the bill from shutting, and at each side a semicircular hole is formed. 
This construction of the bill is perhaps connected with some peculiarity in its 
feeding; the same formation is seen on a less pronounced scale in the black- 
billed L. amabilis of the Moluccas and L. aurantiifrons of New Guinea and in 
some of the other black-billed species, also in the orange-billed L. pusillus Gray 
of Java and in L. jlosculus Wall, of Flores. The resemblance is strongest in 
the last case. The orange-billed species have in general the under mandible 
with a straight cutting edge. 
* 50. LORICULUS CATAMENE Schl. 
Sangi Lorikeet. 
a. Loriculus amabilis (part.) Wald., P. Z. S. 1871, 333 (Sangliir); id., Tr. Z. S. 1872, VIII, 
26 (Tweedd. Orn. Works 1881, 131). 
Loriculus catamene (1) Schl., Ned. Tdschr. Dierk. 1871, IV, 7; (2) id., Lev. Psitt. 1874, 62; 
(III) Powl., Orn. hlisc. 1877, II, 236, pi. LYII ((j^ juv., Q); (4) Meyer, t. c. 233, 
237; (5) id., Grefied. Welt 1887, 264; (6) W. Bias., Ornis 1888, IV, 560; (7) 
Salvad., Cat. B. XX, 1891, 537. 
h. Coryllis catamenia (1) Bchnw., J. f. O. 1881, 230 (Consp. Psitt. 118); id., Vogelb. Naclitr. 
1883, Nr. 52. 
c. Fsittacus catamene Puss, Fremdl. Stiihenvog. 1881, 805. 
d. Coryllis catamene (1) Platen, G-efied. Welt 1887, 263. 
