118 
Birds of Celebes: Loriidae. 
Talaut, and the good series obtained by our native hunters confirms the opinion of 
its abundance there. 
In his beautiful Monograph of the Lories Dr. Mivart shows that he has 
misgivings as to the vahdity of the Talaut race, inasmuch as he supposes that the 
differences described as racial fall within the scope of individual variation of the 
form of Sangi. Probably extremes meet — otherwise the Talaut bird would come 
under the definition of species, not subspecies — hut we have not yet found such 
extremes. 1 5 adults from Talaut and 5 adults from the Sangi Islands before us can 
he correctly sorted by a glance at the wing-coverts and tips of the secondaries, with- 
out looking at the labels, and these are only about one-half of those examined by us. 
3. Eos Mstrio challengeri (Salvad.). 
s. Eos indica (1) Sclat., P. Z. S. 1878j 578; id., Moy. Chall. B. 1881, 115; (3) Murray, 
Yoy. Chall., Narr. 1885, I, 2, 669. 
t. Eos challengeri (1) Salvad., Cat. B. XX, 1891, 22 (type examd.); (II) Mivart, Loriidae 
1896, 25, pi. YII, f. 2. 
Diagnosis. Very much like E. Mstrio, but much smaller, and with the blue colom- on the 
breast less extended and more or less mingled with red (Salvad. oi). Feet black; 
bill orange; eyes red, or light brown in the male (Murray n I). Wing 152; tail 
102, tarsus 17 mm. 
Distribution. Melangis, Xanusa Islands (Murray o I). 
Observation. Wlien the “Challenger” was dredging off the Xanusa Islands on lO*** Febr. 
1875, some natives came off in a boat from the southern island bringing with them 
four specimens of this parrot. Three of these are now in the British Museum, one 
of which we have examined. They appear to be the only birds yet known from these 
islands, and we question whether they are adult. 
The Bed-winged Lory, Eos histrio, affords an interesting case of differen- 
tiation into races within short distances, and it affords food for considering 
whether such variations may have occurred per saltum or by imperceptible gra- 
dations, and what may have been the cause. Such simple examjrles may con- 
tain perhaps a more ready answer to these difficult questions than the more 
complicated ones often attacked by students of evolution. It should be borne 
in mind, however, that “per saltum” and “gradually” are really vague terms; 
what one person may call a “jump”, another may call a “gradation”. 
The genus Eos, comprising Bed-Winged Lories as distinguished from the 
typical Lorius in which the wings are green, ranges, according to Professor 
Beichenow' and Count Salvadori, from the Solomon Islands through Papuasia 
to the Moluccas, occurring also in the Tenimber group and on the islands lying 
between North Celebes and Mindanao. The latter authority includes within the 
range of Eos the remote island of Ponape or Puynipet in the West Carolines, 
the habitat of Eos rubiffinosa (Bp.), which occui’s on the island, as Dr. Finsch 
observed, in great numbers, doing much damage to the plantations of the colo- 
nists. The occurrence of Eos in localities north and east of Celebes, and its 
absence in this country as an indigenous species is somewhat remarkable; in 
the neighbourhood of Manado specimens of Eos histrio have indeed been 
