Birds of Celebes: Psittacidae. 
153 
Sangi Lorikeet may be distinguished by its larger size and also by its scarlet 
under tail-coverts. These are, however, almost entirely yellow-green in the young, 
much as in L. amaUlis both young and old; this species has the under tail-coverts 
of a uniform green. This might appear to indicate that L. amabilis represents 
an earlier race, which developed scarlet under tail -coverts in Sangi. But 
L. amabilis has also developed some red colouring in its j)lumage, and, indeed, 
in a place where it is not found in L. catamene, viz: on the metacarpal edge 
and in the females at the bases of the feathers of the forehead. Therefore, 
whoever would argue that one species is directly descended from the other, 
must admit that the red has become lost in one place and developed in another. 
It is possible that a species with red on both the metacarpus and under tail- 
coverts remains to he found, since there is a female specimen (apparently a 
cage-bird) in the British Museum, labelled Halmahera and doubtfully referred 
to L. amabilis by Count Salvador!, which has red on both of these parts. The 
question can be raised whether the male of the form from which L. amabilis 
developed, had a red cap or not. The fact that the young males of L. stigmatus, 
quadrkolor, sclateri, and — in all probability — amabilis, acquire the red carpal edge 
and L. catamene the red under tail-coverts, at an earlier age than the red cap, 
which is never produced in L. sclateri, render the opinion plausible that the 
ancestral form of L. amabilis and catamene was without a red cap, and so was 
more like the L. jlosculus and ea^ilis of to-day. These species are marked as of 
an earlier development in our genealogical tree of the genus (p. 163), a position 
which receives further confirmation from the fact that the young female of L. 
catamene is known to have the under tail-coverts nearly all green, a spot of red 
on the throat and a yellowish hill (W. Blasius 6), so corresponding in nearly 
every detail of coloration with the mature L. esoilis and Jlosculus. 
* 51. LORICULUS SCLATERI Wall. 
Sula Lorikeet. 
In Sula the birds of this species have a more orange, in Peling and Banggai 
a redder back, and the following nomenclature may be employed for these 
two races: 
1. The typical Loriculus sclateri. 
a. Loriculus sclateri (Ij Wall., P. Z. S. 1802, 330, pi. XXXVIII; 1804, 287, 294; (2J 
Sell!., Mus. P.-B. Psitt. 1864, 132; (3) id., Xed. Tdsclir. Drk. 1860, HI, 186; 1871, 
IV, 8; (4) Wald., Tr. Z. S. 1872, VIM, 32 (Orn. Works 1881, 136); (5) Sclil, 
Bev. Psitt. 1874, 61; (6) Meyer, Bowl. Orn. Misc. 1877, II, 233, 251; id., Ibis 1879, 
52; (7) Bosenb., Malay. Archip. 1878, 274; (8) Sclat., List Vert. An. 1883, 326; 
(9) Tristr., Cat. CoU. B. 1889, 76; (10) Salvad., Cat. B. XX, 1891, 533; (11) 
M. & Wg., Abb. Mus. Dresd. 1896, Xr. 2, p. 9. 
h. Coryllis sclateri ^7) Pinsch, Papag. 1868, 11, 697; (P‘J Prenzel, Mtsschr. Ver. Sclitz. 
3Ie3’er & Wigleswortli, Birds of Celebes (Oct. IStli, 1S97). 20 
