THE PAPUAN LORY . 
389 
increase, for after a few circuits round the place they again alighted near me, looking down on 
their slaughtered companions with such manifest symptoms of sympathy and concern as 
entirely disarmed me.” 
The same graceful writer then proceeds to observe, with that accuracy of detail for which 
his works are so valuable, “I could not but take notice of the remarkable contrast between 
their elegant manner of flight, and their lame, crawling gait, among the branches. They fly 
very much like the wild pigeon — in close, compact bodies, and with great rapidity, making 
a loud and outrageous screaming, not unlike that of the red -headed woodpecker. Their 
flight is sometimes in a direct line, but most usually circuitous, making a great variety of 
elegant and easy serpentine meanders as if for pleasure. 
“They are particularly attached to the large sycamores, in the hollows of the trunks and 
branches of which they generally roost ; thirty or forty, and sometimes more, entering at the 
same hole. Here they cling close to the sides of the tree, holding fast by the claws and also 
by the bill. They appear to be fond of sleep, and often retire to their holes during the day, 
probably to take a regular siesta. They are extremely sociable with and fond of each other, 
often scratching each other’s heads and necks, and always at night nestling as close as possible 
to each other, preferring at that time a perpendicular position, supported by their bill and 
claws.” 
The general color of this bird is green, washed with blue, and diversified with other tints 
as follows : The forehead and cheeks are reddish-orange, the same tint is seen on the shoulders 
and head and wings, and the neck and back of the head are pure golden-yellow. The upper 
parts of the body are soft green, and the under portions are of the same hue, but with a 
yellowish cast. The greater wing-coverts are yellow, tinged with green, the primary feathers 
of the wing are deep purplish black, and the long wedge-shaped tail has the central feathers 
streaked with blue along their central line. The female is colored after the same fashion, but 
not so brightly, and the young of both sexes are green on the neck instead of yellow. The 
total length of this species is about twenty-one inches. 
The Carolina Parrot ( Conurus carolinensis) was once a very common species in the United 
States east of the Pocky Mountains, being known along the Mississippi Valley to the Great 
Lakes. They are now quite restricted. Like too many other instances, this bird has a specific 
name of no significance. The bird is, according to Dr. Coues, “ scarcely entitled to a place in 
the fauna of South Carolina.” 
As this Parrot is confined to such circumscribed areas, none being found south of the 
United States, and in view of the already decreased numbers, it would seem almost inevitable 
that the species will become at no distant day extinct. 
The habits of this bird are singular as compared with others of its race. We are accus- 
tomed to seeing all of this race of birds confined within tropical limits. Here we have a 
Parrot living the year through, west of the Alleghanies, in a cold climate ; and Barton writes 
that a very large flock of them was seen northwest of Albany, N. Y., in the year 1780. 
Wilson saw a flock, in the month of February, on the banks of the Ohio, in a snow-storm, flying 
about and uttering their peculiar cry. Wilson states that these birds breed in hollow trees. 
THE LORIES. 
In the Lories the bill is weaker than in the preceding species, and of smaller size, and the 
plumage is very beautiful, scarlet being the predominating tint. 
The Papuan Loey is, as its name denotes, a native of Papua and other parts of New 
Guinea, and has always attracted great attention on account of its beautiful form and rich 
coloring. In its general shape it is not unlike the ring Parrakeet, the contour of the body 
being very similar and the tail boldly graduated, with the two central feathers projecting far 
beyond the rest. This elongated form of the tail-feathers is so unusual in the Lories, which 
mostly have rather short and stumpy tails, that it has induced systematic naturalists to place 
the bird in a genus distinct from the other Lories. Many specimens of this lovely bird have 
