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Show I877-] DR. A. B. MEYER UN THE ECLECTI. 801 Eclectus polychlorus auct.1 (C 3756 of the collection), which offers not the least deviation from a common specimen from New Guinea or Halmahera, except in the coloration of the tail-feathers : but just this coloration is very remarkable ; viz. the left half of the tail and the under tail-coverts are partly coloured red, like the same parts in Eclectus linnei, as shown in the accompanying drawings (Plate LXXIX.), where fig. 1 represents the upperside, and fig. 2 the underside of the tail in the specimen. It will be observed that one half of the tail in figs. 1 and 2 is coloured like the male, the other half like the female. In fig. 1, even a small red patch is to be seen on the right web of the middle rectrix; and in fig. 2 the edges of the inner web of the rectrices are reddish. I bad apparently strong evidence that the specimen in question came from Halmahera ; but I am not able to distinguish the green specimen from Halmahera from the New-Guinea ones, notwithstanding the large series before me. It may be said that specimens from the islands Jobi and Mafoor appear to be somewhat darker, more bluish green than specimens from Halmahera and New Guinea, where this colour is a little brighter, or golden-tinged ; but specimens from Halmahera and New Guinea are, in m y opinion, not to be distinguished with certainty. I nevertheless do not doubt that the specimen in question comes from New Guinea and not from Halmahera, as the red parts on it correspond entirely with those of the red Eclecti from New Guinea, and not with those of the red ones from Halmahera, which have these parts of a yellowish colour. I do not exactly know how to interpret this remarkable coloration. Is it something of a hermaphroditism ? or is it the remains of the dress of the young male ? The specimen is not an old one, the bill showing no traces of having been used very long; else one would perhaps suggest that it is a very old female, which has adopted the dress of the male, and where the red is the remains of the female plumage; but this last supposition is out of the question. Formerly (I. ci) I discussed the question whether the young bird in both sexes is plain green or not; but I now believe that it is red in both sexes, i. e. bears the dress which the female keeps during its whole life. To this belief I came when I saw the specimen No. 22428 of the Berlin Museum (which Professor Peters kindly sent me for inspection), mentioned by Prof. Cabanis and Dr. Reichenow in the 'Journ. f. Ornithol.,' 1876, p. 324 2) as a>young male from New Britain. This is a green specimen, which has everywhere on the wing and its coverts dark purple-red patches of the colour which the female always has. These patches appear to be in dissolution, or fading away ; and if this really is the case, and if the specimen is a normal one, we have the proof that the young male is 1 This specimen was formerly in the Gorlitz Museum, whose Curator, Dr. Peck, kindly transmitted it to the Dresden Museum; and I have to thank him cordially for his courtesy. Dr. Peck published a note on this specimen in the Sitzungs-berichte of the Zoological Section of the Naturf. Ges. of Gorlitz, 26th Jan. 1875. 2 The remark made there is not quite intelligible, because, as I hear from Dr. Reichenow, the words " ist der junge Vogel " have been omitted after the word " Geschlecter." |