9. 
LORICULUS INDICUS 
(THE CEYLONESE LORIKEET) 
ADULT MALE AND FEMALE 
Length to front of oere 5*1 to 5.2 Inches; culraen .55; total length ave¬ 
raging 5.7 to 5.8; wing 3.6 to 3.8; tall 1.7; tarsus .7; outer anterior toe 
and claw .75. 
DISTRIBUTION 
This pretty little bird, so well known as a cage pet to travellers who 
touch at Point de Galle, by whom It Is generally styled the “Love Bird®, Is 
widely distributed throughout the low country, 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 open¬ 
ly wooded and partly cultivated portion of the Western Province it is abun¬ 
dant, and in the Ratnapura and Korunegalla districts it 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 th 
this part of the island, and in the N.E. monsoon have seen it in the woods 
near Fort Ostenburgh, Trineoraalie. 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 Hambantotte, but I 
did not observe It at all In that district during the two visits I made to 
it. In the North of the Mag am Pattu I found it, but not on the seruoby sea¬ 
board near Hambantotte. In the Central Province it is common about tne 
patinas in Dumbara and Puselawa and in many parts of Uva, and during the 
dry weather prevalent during the N. E. monsoon ascends above an altitude of 
4000. feet. Mr Thwaltes, of Hakgalla, informs me that he has seen it in the 
gardens at that season of the year. 
This little bird is not very aptly style, “Indicus*; out Gneelin , who 
named It from the figure in Edwards’ plate, did not know from what exact lo- 
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callty he received his specimens, as all the information which Edwards could 
give was that it was "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 woods, detached groves of trees, compounds. 
