164 
Birds of Celebes: Psittacidae: 
long standing, ilie exception is L. tener of Duke of ^ork Island in tke New 
Britain Group, in which the rump and upper tail-coverts are greenish yellow. 
The differences of plumage, which show that the genus is composed of two 
main branches originating in a form like L. vernalis, or even a form like the 
female of L. vernalis, which most likely represents a lower stage than the male 
adult, are the following: 
The throat-spot. All the members of the left or, as we will call it, 
the southern branch of the genealogical tree possess a spot or patch of colour 
on the throat in one or both sexes, and in the higher forms even in the young. 
In the adult male of L. vernalis it is bluish (nearly or quite absent in the 
female); in L. pusillus of Java it is yellow (in the female, as in the male — 
according to Finsch; paler — ■ according to Salvadori; absent — according 
to Beichenow), in L. flosculus and eocilis it is red (whether present or absent 
in the female there is insufficient evidence to say); in the seven remaining 
species it is present as a red spot like that of L. flosculus in both male and 
female, and makes its appearance at an early age in the young, in the first 
plumage being sometimes, if not always, yellowish in colour. 
In the species on the right or northern branch of the “tree” the throat- 
spot is always absent in the young and in the females; in the adult males alone 
it is developed as a final addition to their coloration in the form of an extensive 
patch of red on the throat. 
In the male L. galgulus Dr. Frenzel observed from living examples that 
“first the blue spot on the crown shows itself, next the orange-coloured, trian- 
gular spot on the nape makes its appearance, and lastly the beautiful scarlet 
on the breast (and throat) appears; the change of coloration goes on very 
slowly and the bird is not in full dress till the third year” (cV^^). But in 
the higher members of the southern branch the colour on the throat is among 
the first characters — not the last — to make its appearance. Since young 
specimens of L. stigmatus, amahilis, sclateri, and catamene with yellowish bills 
display it to some extent, it may prove to be present as yellow if not red in 
these birds from the time they leave the nest. 
Thus, in the southern branch the throat-spot appears to be a 
somewhat ancient character, in the northern branch it appears to 
be the most recent acquisition of the adult male. 
The colora tion of the crown. The two groups again present a contrast 
in regard to the coloration of the crown. In the members of the left or 
southern branch, the females of all the species may broadly be said never 
to possess any special colouring on the head (in the females of L. stigmatus, 
quadricolor, sclateri, amahilis and aurantiifrons the green feathers of the forehead have 
reddish bases). In the adult males of the latter species (except sclateri) and 
in L. catamene a sharply defined red sinciput is produced aurantiifrons yellow); 
in the simpler species, L. exilis, flosculus (as far as known), pusillus and vernalis 
no sign of a red crown is to be seen in either sex, neither does it occur in 
