379 
Lettersj Announcements, ^c. 
XXVIII.— Lettersj Announcements, h^c. 
We have received the following letters^ addressed to the 
Editors of ^ The Ibis : ^— 
Australian Museum, Sydney, 
October 25, 1877. 
Gentlemen, —Permit me to remark, for the benefit of your 
readers, that, among the specimens of Eclectus polychlorus 
which I selected for this Museum from a large series made by 
the Eev. George Brown in New Ireland are several which I 
think will at least throw some light on the question respect¬ 
ing the sexes of the red^^ and green’^ birds. First, then, 
I have before me a young red-’smdi-blue bird, evidently not 
long from the nest. There is no trace of green feathers on 
this specimen, except on the outer margins of some of the 
wing-quills, where this colour is common to both the red 
and the greenbirds. The sex of this specimen was not 
determined. Secondly, there is in the series an apparently 
quite adult bird in the red-and-violet plumage [E, linncei), in 
which the bill is becoming yellow, and there is also a patch of 
crimson among the blue under wing-coverts ; the axillaries are 
tinged and margined with green ', and there are several feathers 
tipped with red on the sides; some of the flank-feathers are 
margined with green, as are three or four of the adjacent 
upper tail-coverts; and the sixth secondary quill on the outer 
web near the base has a spot of green; and several of the 
scapularies are tinged with the same colour at their bases. 
From these facts it would appear that the young, perhaps 
of both sexes, are red-and-blue from the nest, and that they 
retain this state of plumage for a considerable time, after 
which the males assume the green plumage, with red sides and 
under wing-coverts. 
Yours &c., 
E. P. Ramsay. 
[Mr. Brown writes (24th Feb. 1878) to Mr. Sclater 
I have satisfied myself that I had been led to make a 
very inaccurate assertion in one of my letters to you as re¬ 
gards Eclectus polychlorus and E, linnm. They are un- 
