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Show 1869.] DR. O. FINSCH ON A RARE PARROT. 127 M. Jacquinot and Dr. Pucheran, gives no further account of the Lorius cardinalis (page 103), except the short notice that the species comes from the Solomon Islands. If I am right, the only specimen collected by the French naturalists of the expedition was, unfortunately, lost by the shipwreck of the 'Astrolabe.' When I was working out m y Monograph of Parrots, I therefore was not able to give more than a description taken from the figure in the voyage; all m y endeavours to get better information were without success. A new beam of hope arose when I was reading Prof. Rietmann's ' Wanderungen in Australien und Polynesien' (St. Gallen, 1868), and found mentioned in that amusing and, in many respects, interesting book (page 194) "shining-red Parrots," which were offered for sale by the natives of Guadalcanar during the stay of the traveller on that island. In the belief that these Red Parrots could be nothing more than Lorius cardinalis, I wrote a letter to Prof. Reitmann begging for more special information. In his kind answer the traveller was sorry to say that he was not sure whether these Parrots were quite red or not, not having brought home specimens of them; so that our knowledge of the Cardinal Lory remained as imperfect as before. During m y recent visit to London Dr. Sclater kindly showed me a very interesting collection of birds from the Solomon Islands, forwarded to him by Mr. Gerard Krefft of Sydney. This collection contained, besides two or three new species, most of the Parrots known from that group of islands, namely Plictolophus ducorpsi, Hombr. et Jacq., Pionias heteroclitus, Hombr. et Jacq., Domicella hypcenochroa, Gray (new to the Solomon Islands), and Domicella chlorocerca, Gould. Amongst them was a species of Lorius, which I, to m y greatest pleasure and surprise, recognized immediately as the Lorius cardinalis, Hombr. et Jacq. A comparison with the plate shows some differences, in the specimen not being throughout of a brilliant scarlet, but having the upper parts decidedly brownish red and the feathers of the body beneath margined with pale orange-yellow. The latter peculiarity may be perhaps a sign of the specimen not being in mature state. The brilliancy of the colours in general has probably lost somewhat by the specimen having been preserved in spirits ; but in any case one may say that the coloration of the plate in the ' Voyage au Pole Sud' is too bright and a little exaggerated. Concerning the generic position of this Parrot, it may be remarked that it belongs, according to coloration, along with Domicella rubra, Gm., D. rubiginosa, Bp., and the allied species, to the subgene-ic division Eos of Prince Bonaparte. The shape of the bill, and the structure of the quills and tail-feathers, show a greater affinity to the so-called genus Chalcopsitta, Bp. (based upon D. scintillata and D. atra, Scop.), which is chiefly distinguished by a narrow, naked, black ring round the mandible, and more extended naked orbits. Before describing this scarce specimen, I must remark that there are a few more Parrots of a more or less uniform red plumage, all being nearly, or entirely, unknown. |