RED- WINGED PARROT. 
only one such male. Dec. 7, 1911. Are still very numerous; usually seen 
feeding on the small figs. Jan 13, 1912. Ten miles S.E. of Snake Bay. 
These birds are not nearly so numerous here as at Cooper’s Camp, still some 
are seen every day. Eeb. 3, 1912. Cooper’s Camp. This species is still 
very numerous here.” 
Though so little is known concerning the habits of this species, quite a 
little literature exists concerning its sub specific forms. 
In 1865 Gould wrote : “If ornithologists will compare the Crimson- 
winged Lories of Port Essington and the adjacent North-western portions of 
Australia with the Red-winged birds from the east coast, I think but little 
doubt will remain on their minds that they are distinct from each other. 
The former are smaller than the latter in all their admeasurements, except in 
the bill, which is rather larger ; and the adult males are more richly coloured, 
both in the green of the body and the red of the wing, which, moreover, has 
a crimson hue, and is not so extensive as in P. erythropterus in all other respects 
the colouring of the two species is very similar. I propose for this new species 
the trivial name of Crimson-winged Lory, and the scientific one of Ptistes 
coccineopterus. ’ ’ 
These were accepted as distinct species as recently as 1888, when Ramsay 
in his Tabular List so ranged them. In the Cat. Austr . Psitt., in 1891, Ramsay 
ranked the latter as var. coccineopterus, writing (p. 39) : “ This is only a 
northern and north-western race of P. erythropterus, smaller, and very slightly 
brighter in the crimson markings of the wing and intensity of the lazuline-blue 
on the back and rump.” 
The same year, in the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, 
Vol. XX., p. 483, Salvadori merged the two indicating a smaller race and 
observing : “ The Northern birds have been specifically separated as A. 
coccineopterus Gould. They are generally smaller than the Eastern ones ; but 
there are in the British Museum some specimens from Northern and Western 
Australia which are as large as the Eastern, so that I have been compelled to 
unite P. coccineopterus with P. erythropterus .” 
North in 1898 had been unable to distinguish the North-west from the 
Eastern birds, but Campbell in 1901 kept them as distinct species. “ Therefore 
I may be justified, on geographical grounds only, in keeping the birds separate.” 
I accepted Salvadori’ s dictum until I received specimens from the North-west, 
when I immediately endorsed Gould’s action and reinstated coccineopterus. 
When I prepared my “ Reference List ” (Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., 1912), 
I admitted three subspecies : 
Aprosmictus erythropterus erythropterus. New South Wales : 
Queensland. 
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