Birds of Celebes: Psittaoidae. 
151 
and L. stigmatus breed twice a year, viz. in February and August, and always 
prefer the sugar palms, the dead lower leaf-stems of which offer them con- 
venient nesting holes (a 4). Like other members of the genus, L. exilis is 
of a very affectionate disposition, as was shown by Dr. Platen’s tame specimens 
at Purukan. 
The nearest known ally of L. exilis is L.flosculus Wall, of Flores, which 
differs from the Celebes form, as Count Salvador! shows, in being larger (wing 
76 mm), in having the na2)e tinged Avith orange, the tijJS of the tail-feathers 
yellowish, stained with red, and in wanting the area of verditer-green surroun- 
ding the red spot on the throat The presence of this Avash of verditer or beryl- 
green on the throat of L. exilis suggests a relationship Avith L. vernalLs of India, a 
species Avhich appears to have more ancestral, or feAver recent, characters than 
other members of the genus; and on the same part of the throat a bluish tint, 
much like that in L. exilis, is found in the male of L. vernalis and is, sometimes 
also a])i)arent in the female; but in this species the red spot on the throat is 
not develojjed. 
The genus is more sjiecially considered under the heading, L. stigmatus. 
In respect of its bill L. exilis is the most strongly differentiated form of 
its genus. The under mandible ajjpears at first sight deformed, the edge of it 
is hollowed out at the sides, the terminal part is then sharply curved up and 
lengthened, fitting into the holloAved-out upper bill like an incisor tooth, which 
prevents the bill from shutting, and at each side a semicircular hole is formed. 
This construction of the bill is perhaps connected with some peculiarity in its 
feeding; the same formation is seen on a less pronounced scale in the black- 
billed L. amabilis of the Moluccas and L. aurantiifrons of Ncav Guinea and in 
some of the other black-billed species, also in the orange-billed L. pusillus Gray 
of Java and in L.flosculus AV^aTl. of I lores. Ihe resemblance is strongest in 
the last case. The orange-billed species have in general the under mandible 
with a straight cutting edge. 
* 50. LORICULUS CATAMENE Schl. 
Sangi Lorikeet. 
o. Loriculus amabilis (part.) AVald., P. Z. S. J871, 333 (Sanghir); id., Tr. Z. S. 1872, YTTT 
26 (TAveedd. Orn. Works 1881, 131). 
Loriculus eatamene (1) Schl., Ned. Tdschr. Dierk. 1871, IV, 7; (2) id., Eca". Psitt. 1874, 62; 
(III) EoavT., Oru. kEsc. 1877, II, 236, pi. LVII (cf juv., Q); (4) Meyer, t. c. 233, 
237; (5) id., Defied. AVelt 1887, 264; (6) W. Bias., Ornis 1888, IV, 560; (7) 
Salvad., Cat. B. XX, 1891, 537. 
h. Coryllis catamenia (1) EchnAv., J. f. 0. 1881, 230 (Oonsp. Psitt. 118); id., Vogelb. Nachtr. 
1883, Nr. 52. 
c. Psittacus eatamene Euss, Fremdl. Stubenvog. 1881, 805. 
d. Coryllis eatamene (1) Platen, Defied. AVelt 1887, 263. 
