156 
Birds of Celebes: Psittacidae. 
it may not be apparent at first sight whether it links on to the amabilis-^mu\i 
and thence to L. exilis and the forms of Flores and Java, or on to the Philippine 
species. L. bonapartei Sonance of the Sooloo Islands comes most into question 
among the latter birds, for, though its allies have yellow bills, this form some- 
times has a black bill (in the adult, as we believe), w’hile the bills of others 
were indicated by Dr. Guillemard as “red”, “brown-black”, “brownish”, “very 
dark yellow” and by Everett (Ibis 1893, 249) as “dull orange, clouded and 
tipped with black”. These, we believe, are younger birds, since young sjiecimens 
of L. stigmatus, catamene and amahUis are known to have yellowish bills, and we 
do not share the opinion, which Count Salvadori expresses (Ibis 1891, 
48 — 5])^ tha,t the labels of Dr. Guillemard’s specimens are not correct. 
L. bonapartei has “a rather long bill, and the exact style of plumage of the 
red-hilled L. apicalis. The blue cheeks of the female also betray its real affi- 
nities with L. apicalis and the other Philippine species”. 
The adult males of L. amabilis and of L. bonapartei both agree with the 
adult males of the stigmatus-^oup in having the bill black, a red patch on the 
throat and a red cap (absent in L. sclateri). But the key to the answer of the 
question, whether the stigmatus-^xowp has its closest affinities with L. amabilis 
or with L. bonapartei, is to he found in the females. Ihe females of the stig- 
?«fl#M 5 -group have a red patch on the throat, no red on the crown and no blue 
on the sides of the face; the females of the amabilis-growp likewise have a 
red patch on the throat, no red on the crown or blue on the face; the female 
of L. bonapartei, on the other hand, has a red crown and blue cheeks, but no 
red patch on the throat. There is thus an almost perfect parallelism in the 
coloration of both male and female of the stigmatus- and amabilis-^voup^, sex for sex, 
and this is further home out by some points of similarity in the general pattern 
of plumage, such as the abruptly marked-off red cap of the males (absent in 
sclateri) and the red metacarpal edge (absent only in L. catamene) ; the bill also 
agrees best in these two groups. The evolution of the sexes of L, bonapartei 
is not on a parallel with that of the stigmatus-ppovcp', the males of the two 
gi-oups agree, but the females do not. The fact should not be overlooked 
that the adult males of birds usually differ from the females in having some 
character, or characters, superadded to those of the female, as, for instance, 
the possession of an additional patch of colour, a crest, spurs, a song, in such 
cases the young of both sexes very frequently resemble the female, and the 
female here may be reasonably regarded as having retained the dress of an 
earlier stage in the history of the mce, whereas the dress of the male has been 
further developed. This rule is well illustrated by the genus Loriculus, in whmh 
the immature males much resemble the old females, the quite young birds haGng 
a still simpler dress. We therefore look to the females of the stigmatus- and 
amabilis-^voups for indications of the relations of these species and infer that thej 
are sprung from a race with a red spot on the throat, but with no red cap. 
Such a race is seen in L. exilis of C'clebes and in L.floscuhis of 1 lores, and these 
