276 
Mr. W. A. Forbes on the 
This being the case, ornithologists were not a little sur¬ 
prised when Dr. A. B. Meyer announced, on his return to 
Europe from his adventurous travels in New Guinea and the 
adjacent islands, that the green species of Eclectus were 
simply the males of the red ones—also that all the so-called 
species were, in his opinion, referable to one species, and 
one only, namely Eclectus polychlorus. In his paper on this 
subject in the f Zoologischer Garten 9 for May 1874, p. 161, 
Dr. Meyer says that his attention was first called to the matter 
by finding that he had determined all the specimens, six in 
number, of the E. polychlorus (green) that he had procured in 
the Papuan island of Mafoor (in Geelvink Bay) as males, 
whilst nine E. tinned (red) were all females. Struck by this 
curious coincidence, he inquired of his Malay hunters if they 
knew any thing of the matter. They replied that it was a well- 
known fact that these green and red Parrots were man and 
wife. One asserted that he had seen parents of both colours 
engaged in incubation, one replacing the other. Though 
Dr. Meyer, warned by former experience, did not trust im¬ 
plicitly to any statements made by his native hunters, these 
accounts strengthened him in his suspicions ; and he deter¬ 
mined to investigate the matter thoroughly. Three green 
Eclecti he obtained in Jobie were all males, three red all 
females. These results were afterwards fully confirmed by 
the examination of a great number of specimens on the main¬ 
land of New Guinea. These were too numerous to bring all 
back to Europe; but he returned with thirty specimens of the 
genus, four of which were preserved entire in spirits of wine, 
as well as a living pair of birds (green and red). To place 
the parallelism in the distribution of the red and green forms 
(already noted by Finsch, l. c .) in a stronger light, he divides 
the Eclecti into three groups, of which E. corneliee and wester- 
manni (the habitats of which are, as already remarked, un¬ 
known) constitute one. The other two are :— 
polychlorus (green) 
tinned (red) 
grandis (red) 
New Guinea, Waigu, My sol, Gebe, 
Gilolo, Batjan, Morotai. 
