LORICULUS INDICUS. 
181 
Adult male and female. Length to front of cere 5-1 to 5 -2 inches; oilmen 055; total length averaging 5-7 to 5-8; 
wing 3-6 to 3-8 ; tail 1*7 ; tarsus 0-4 ; outer ant. toe and claw 0-75. 
Iris white ; bill light orange-red, paler at the tip, lower mandible paler than the upper ; legs and feet dusky yellow ; 
cere 3 T ellow. 
Lower hind neck, back, and wing-coverts leaf-green ; forehead and front of crown rich deep red, gradually becoming 
overcast with an orange hue on the nape, and fading into the green of the hind neck; the upper part of the back 
is more or less pervaded with a dull golden cast ; rump and upper tail-coverts deep red, outer webs of quills and 
the tail dark green; inner webs of primaries above dark hair-brown, 1st quill with a fine greenish-blue edging; 
beneath the inner webs of the quills and the lower surface of tail verditer-blue. Cheeks, region round the eye, and 
entire under surface pale green, washed with bluish across the fore neck. 
Young. Iris dull grey or olive ; bill dusky yellow ; legs and feet olivaceous yellow, claws blackish. Head above 
green, with the forehead pale, and an aureous cast on the crown ; rump and upper tail-coverts as in the adult ; 
fore neck without the bluish tinge. Birds of the year are full-sized. 
Lutinos of this species are not uncommonly met with. A description of a beautiful example is given by Mr. Nevill, of 
the Ceylon Civil Service ( loc . cit.), as follows : — “ Crown of the head and rump brilliant scarlet, shading into metallic 
orange on the rump ; back vivid golden yellow, dappled with emerald-green, and tinged in places with orange ; 
wings green, mottled with bright yellow ; quills of the normal colour, tipped with yellowish white ; beneath bright 
but paler yellow than the back, mottled with bright pale grass-green ; throat yellowish ; cheeks rufescent ; under 
wing-coverts mottled green, yellow, and straw-colour.” 
Obs. Loriculus apicalis, from the Philippines, is very close to this Lorikeet : a specimen in the British Museum, 
from Mindanao, is scarcely separable in any other point but the coloration of the head, which is pale or 
yellowish red ; the hind neck wants the aureous wash, and the throat has only a very faint wash of blue on it. 
L. indicus also resembles the Indian and Andaman species, L. vernalis, in most points, differing from it chiefly in 
the head. The latter bird has the head grass-green, concolorous with the back, with the forehead brighter than the 
crowm, and the hind neck wanting the aureous colour of L. indicus ; the red on the rump does not extend so high 
up the back; the coloration of the tail and wings is almost identical with that of the insular biid. The wing 
varies from 3-5 to 3-75 inches, or much the same as in L. indicus. 
Distribution. — This pretty little bird, so well known as a caged pet to travellers who touch at Point 
de Galle, by whom it is generally styled the “ Love-bird,” is widely distributed throughout the 
low countiy of the island, and is commonly located in the hills up to an elevation of 3500 feet. In the 
south-west of the island it is extremely abundant, frequenting the cocoanut-groves close to the port of Galle, 
as well as the entire semi-cultivated interior of that district. Further up the west coast it is not common 
near the sea, but in the openly wooded and partly cultivated portions of the Western Province it is abundant; 
and in the Ratnapura and Kurunegalla districts is quite as numerous as about Galle. To the north of the 
Seven Korales it is less plentiful ; but I have met with it here and there throughout all the forest-tracts of this 
part of the island, and in the N.E. monsoon have seen it in the woods near Fort Ostenburgh, Trincomalie. 
I have noticed it again in many parts of the Eastern Province, but I do not think it is as generally distributed 
there as in the west. Layard found it abundant about Hambantota, but I did not observe it at all in that 
district during two visits I made to it; in the north of the Magam Pattu I found it, but not on the scrubby 
sea-board near Hambantota. In the Central Province it is common about the patnas in Dumbara and Pusse- 
lawa and in many parts of Uva, and during the dry weather prevalent in the N.E. monsoon ascends above 
an altitude of 4000 feet. Mr. Thwaites, of Hakgala, informs me that he has seen it in the gardens at that 
season of the year. 
This little bird is not very aptly styled indicus ; but Gmelin, who named it from the figure in Edw ards’s 
plate, did not know from what exact locality he received his specimen, as all the information which Edwards 
could give about it was contained in the words, “ brought from some Dutch settlement in the East Indies.” 
When the bird became better known it was apparent that this settlement was Ceylon. 
Habits. The Ceylon Lorikeet frequents wrnods, detached groves of trees, compounds, native gardens, 
patnas dotted with timber, and, in fact, any locality which is clothed with fruit-bearing trees or those whose 
