VARIED LORIKEET. 
Adult male. General colour of the back, wings, tail, lower breast, abdomen, axillaries 
and under wing-coverts yellowish-green with paler edges and paler shaft-lines to 
the feathers ; the primary-quills darker green, the shafts black, the inner portion 
of the inner webs of both primary- and secondary- quills blackish ; inner webs of 
tail-feathers yellow ; lores and crown of head cardinal red ; ear-coverts greenish- 
yellow ; sides of throat, sides of face, and occiput bluish-green with minute yellow 
shaft-streaks, becoming darker and more blue on the hind-neck and sides of the 
neck where the shaft-streaks are almost obsolete ; middle of throat and breast 
dull red with yellow shaft-lines and green tips to the feathers ; the bases of some 
of the feathers on the sides of the abdomen show a tendency to orange ; the major 
series of under wing-coverts and quill-lining blackish ; under-surface of tail, which 
is almost entirely obscured by the under tail-coverts, golden yellow. Bill red, 
with the tip, tomium and the base of the upper mandible streaked with brown ; 
eyes light brown ; cere and orbits creamy-white ; feet and tarsus leaden grey. 
Total length 202 mm. ; culmen 14, wing 119, tail 66, tarsus 14. Figured. 
Collected at Derby, North-west Australia, on the 26th of November, 1910. 
Adult female. Similar, but not so pronounced in coloration. 
Immature male. Differs from the adult male in being darker green above where the shaft- 
streaks are more contrasting, the crown of the head incompletely covered with 
cardinal red, and the red on the breast much less pronounced. 
Male, juvenile. Almost entirely green above and below, darker and inclining to emerald- 
green on the upper wing-coverts, rump, and upper tail-coverts ; the crown of the 
head with the base of the fore-head and lores only dull red ; throat and breast 
slightly washed with red, becoming somewhat brighter and more pronounced on 
the sides of the breast. 
Nest. A hollow in a tree. 
Eggs. Clutch, two ; white. 23-24 mm. by 19-20. 
Breeding-season. May to January. 
This beautiful little Parrot seems to have been unknown until figured by 
Lear in 1831. 
Shortly after Gilbert commonly met with it, and Gould’s notes from 
that source read : “ The northern coast is the only part of the country in 
which it has as yet been discovered ; it is particularly abundant at Port 
Essington, where its suctorial mode of feeding leads it, like the other members 
of the genus, to frequent the flowery Eucalypti. Gilbert informed me that 
it congregates in immense numbers, and when a flock is on the wing their 
movements are so regular and simultaneous it might easily be mistaken for 
a cloud passing rapidly along, were it not for the utterance of the usual 
piercing scream, which is frequently so loud as to be almost deafening. 
They feed on the topmost branches of the Eucalypti and Melaleucce . I 
observed them to be extremely abundant during the month of August on 
all the small islands in Van Diemen’s Gulf. The stomach is membranous 
and extremely diminutive in size. The food consists of honey and minute 
portions of the blossoms of their favourite trees.” 
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