166 
Birds of Celebes: Psittacidae. 
assuming a plumage not unlike that of the immature, or female, bird of L. ver- 
nalis. This young form in both sexes (as is known in, at least, four cases^) 
develops into a bird like the adult female of its species, viz., a bird with a red 
crown of greater or less extent, and blue cheeks and chin. As the male becomes 
adult, it loses the blue on the cheeks and chin, and the red on the head gene- 
rally undergoes some change in extent and tint, and the extensive patch of red 
on the breast appears. All the females have a general likeness among them- 
selves, and an immature male of one species before us, L. apicalis (Nr. 6012) 
corresponds remarkably well with the female of another, L. chrysonotus (Nr. 1739). 
There is, therefore, reason to suppose that the Philippine species, including L 
honapartei of Sooloo, are sprung from a common ancestor much like their females. 
L. galgidus of Borneo, Bangka, Sumatra and the south part of Malacca is 
a very aberrant and puzzling form, differing in the adult male from the males 
of this branch in having a blue spot on the crown and no red there, and in 
the female from the females in wanting the blue on the face and red on the 
crown, yet it appears to belong to this branch of the Loriculi from the fact 
that the female has no red spot on the throat and that the male , like the 
Philippine males, develops a large patch of red here as a final adornment. 
We place it provisionally not far from L. honapartei^ in virtue of its black bill 
and that a young specimen from captivity and showing traces of xanthochroism 
before us offers one or two red feathers, tipped with greenish yellow, on the 
crown; but we doubt if further research will prove this position to be its 
true one. 
The grounds given for regarding the Loriculi as consisting of two main 
branches — ■ a left and a right one as shown in the above genealogical tree 
— may be briefly restated as follows: 
Left (southern) branch; 
1 . The females of the more specialized black- 
billed forms have a spot of colour on the 
throat. 
2. The males of the black-billed species assume 
the throat-spot at a very early age. 
3. The females are without a red crown. 
4 . In the black-billed adult males only, a 
red sinciput makes its appearance. 
5. The ontogeny of the plumage of the more 
highly specialized species tends to show that 
they sprang from forms like the simpler 
ones — green, with red rump and tail- 
coverts, a yellow or red spot on the throat, 
but no red on the crown. 
Bight (northern) branch; 
1. The females have no spot on the throat. 
2. Young males have no spot on the throat; 
a large patch of colour here and on the 
chest is the last thing to make its appear- 
ance in the male plumage. 
3. The females possess a red crown. 
4. The immature males have a red crown 
like that of the females. 
5. The development of the Philippine races 
appears to betoken that they come imme- 
diately from a ’ form hke their females — 
green, with red rump and tail-coverts, no 
spot on the throat, but with a red crown 
and bine chin and cheeks. 
1) X. regulus, philippensis, siquijorensis (fide Steere), apicalis. 
