Birds of Celebes: Psittacidae. 
165 
the immature males which gain it when adult; these resemble the females 
when young. It is the latest character to be assumed in the ontogenetic deve- 
lopment of the male individual as it gradually acquires the markings of the 
perfect bird, and it would, therefore, appear that the red sinciput is 
the latest acquisition in the phylogenetic development of this 
branch of the species. 
In the members of the right or northern branch of the tree the process 
is strongly contrasted with this. Not only do the males possess red on the 
crown (excej)t L, galgulus in which there is a blue spot on the crown, but we 
have found some traces of red in a young sjjecimen), but also the females 
(except, again, L. galgulus) have red crowns — sometimes confined to the fore 
part of the head, sometimes extended to the nape, ' — and the immature males 
generally — probably always — resemble the females. Only the very young 
birds are quite green on the head, so bearing much likeness to L. verrialis, 
female. In this group, therefore, one may conclude that the red crown is 
a character of rather long standing. 
Ontogenetic and phylogenetic development. As may be gathered from 
the above, the development of the plumage of the two branches of the Lori- 
culi starting in common with a first plumage of green with a red rump and 
upper tail -coverts, afterwards proceeds on two quite different lines. It is 
known that in L. amabilis and stigmatus., two most highly specialized species of 
the left branch of the genealogical tree, a yellowish or whitish beak and a 
yellowish spot on the throat is found in the quite young bird (in stigmatus first 
“light yellow and then orange-yellow”, according to Briiggemann 8). A now- 
existing sjDecies with a yellow patch on the throat and a yellow bill is the 
simply coloured L.jmsillus of Java, which therefore may be the not-much-changed 
ancestor of L. amabilis and stigmatus and its fellows. L. amabilis and stigmatus 
in the next stage of their immature development become like L. flosculus and 
exihs, in that the yellow spot changes into red, but the bill now or soon after 
loses its pale colour and becomes black, and the carpal edge and the bases of 
the feathers of the forehead show a red tinge; so that, though the young 
bird has still mnch in common with L. exilis^ the parallelism in coloration is 
not perfect. The females do not develojD their coloration beyond this stage, 
which is also the dress of the young males before they acquire the red sinciput, 
and the same characters are found in the females and immature males of four 
species — L. stigmatus^ quadricoloj\ sclateri (the male of which never acquires 
a complete red cap) and amabilis. These considerations afford some ground for the 
supposition that these four species are descended from a common ancestor a 
good deal resembling the adult males of L. floscidus and exilis in coloration. 
The young female of L. catamene corresponds still more closely with L. exilis 
and floscidus. 
The ontogeny of the plumage of the species of the northern branch of 
Loriculus proceeds by the young birds [L. rcgidus^ L. philippensis) first of all 
! ^ 
