* 
Pai'rots of the Genus Eclectus. 
277 
mtermedius (green) I „ . , „ 
7 . 7 . . ° > Ceram, Amboyna, Burn. 
cardmahs (red) J J 
From this it is clear that “ the range of one green form 
(E. polychlorus) corresponds with that of two red ones (E. 
tinned and E. grandis) . “ As I cannot hesitate a moment,” 
says Dr. Meyer, “in ascribing the conditions found in E. 
polychlorus and E. tinned from New Guinea, Mafoor, and 
J obi to the other allied form (namely, that the green are the 
males and the red the females of one and the same species), 
the interesting fact comes out (unparalleled, so far as I know, 
in the ornis of the whole world), that differently coloured 
females correspond to one and the same male in different loca¬ 
lities; for E. tinned and E. grandis show at first sight such 
differences, that, so long as we did not know their true 
relations to E. polychlorus , they were universally considered 
different species. Thus, therefore, the male remains con¬ 
stant, whilst the female varies." Dr. Meyer then proceeds 
to show that no theories of “ sexual" or “ natural selection ” 
can account for these facts, of the causes of which we are com¬ 
pletely ignorant. Schlegel (Ned. Tijd. v. d. Dierk. iii. p. 332, 
1866), he observes, has already united E. intermedius and E. 
polychlorus into one species, the examples from Gebe and Wai- 
giou being intermediate in their characters between these two 
forms. Moreover an authentic specimen of E. intermedius 
from Ceram, received from the Leyden Museum, and now in 
the Imperial Cabinet at Vienna, quite agrees with Dr. Meyer’s 
series from New Guinea, Mafoor, and Jobi. Hence E. poly¬ 
chlorus (including under this term E. intermedius) possesses 
in different islands three females, differently coloured accord¬ 
ing to the locality, viz. :— 
(1) tinned, in New Guinea, My sol, Waigiou, and Gebe; 
(2) grandis, in Gilolo, Batjan, and Morotai; 
(3) cardinalis, in Ceram, Buru, and Amboyna. 
Dr. Meyer then goes on to argue that E. westermanni and 
E. corneliee, both remarkable for' being nearly uniform in 
colour, must also be regarded as forms of E. polychlorus. He 
urges that E. corneliee may well be a fourth female of E. poly¬ 
chlorus, as we already know that the females of this species 
SER. IV.-VOL. i. u 
