BLUE-BELLIED LORIKEET. 
175 
Mr Lear’s beautiful and accurate figure renders 
it almost unnecessary to give a description of the 
plumage; but as the bird has so frequently been con- 
founded with two other species, it may perhaps be 
satisfactory to some of our readers to give it in de- 
tail. Length about 13 inches, of the tail alone 6 
inches ; bill, in the dead bird, pale saffron yellow, in 
the living, inclining to orange ; head and throat of 
a fine bluish-purple, the feathers rigid and subulate, 
upon the lower part of the throat they are more in- 
clined to lavender purple, and lose the rigid and su- 
bulate character; nuchal collar yellowish or vivid silken 
green ; lower neck and breast bright vermilion-red, 
passing on the sides of the breast into rich king's yel- 
low; middle of abdomen of a deep imperial purple, 
the feathers towards the sides vermilion, tipped with 
vivid green ; hypochondria green, the basal part of 
the feathers varied with vermilion and yellow; tibial 
feathers vermilion-red ; under tail-coverts, with the 
base of the feathers, red, the middle part yellow, the 
tips green ; under wing-coverts rich vermilion-red ; 
margin of the wings anil all the upper plumage bright 
grass-green ; the feathers upon the lower part of the 
back of the neck with their bases vermilion, margin- 
ed with yellow ; tail with the four middle feathers 
entirely green, the remainder of the lateral feathers 
with part of the inner web rich yellow, increasing in 
extent to the outermost, where the whole oflhe web, 
with the exception of a smal -not at the tip, is of 
that colour; quills with the i ner webs dusky, and 
