EOS RETICULATA.

Blue-streaked Lory.

Blue-necked Lory, Lath. Gen. Hist. B. ii. p. 136 (1822).
Lorius borneus, Less. (nec. Steph.) Traité d’Orn. p. 192 (1831).—Salvad. Uce. di Borneo, p- 27, note (1874)

: oe pe oe : , .
Psittacus ee Verh. Natuurl. Gesch. Land- en Volkenk. pp. 107, 108 (1839-44 ).—Gray, Gen. B. ii.
Eos cyanostriata, Gray & Mitch. Gen. B. ii. p. 417, pl. 103 (1845).—Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. As. Soc. p. 11 (1849).—

Bp. P. Z.S. 1850, p. 29.—Id. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 156.—Id. Naum. 1856, Consp. Psitt. no.
303.—Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1860, p. 226.—Wall. Ibis, 1861, p. 311.—Id. PB: ZS: 1864, p. 290:
Eos bornea, Souancé, Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1856, p. 226.—Gray, List Psittac. Brit. Mus. p. 52 (1859). |
Eos reticulata, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1860, p. 226.—Wall. Ibis, 1861, p. 311.—Rosenb. J. f. O. 1862, p. 61.—
Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genoy. x. p. 33 (1877).—Id. Orn. Papuasia e delle Molucche, i. p. 245 (1880).—
Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, p. 51.
Psittacus cyanostictus, Schlegel, Handl. Dierk. i. p. 184 (1857).
Eos, sp., Rosenb. J. f.O. 1862, p. 65.
Psittacus (Eos) guttatus, Rosenb. Nat. Tijdschr. Neder]. Ind. xxv. p. 145 (1863).
Lorius reticulatus, Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Psittaci, p. 128 (1864).—Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 157 (1865).—
Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Psittaci, Revue, p. 58 (1874). |
Domicella reticulata, Finsch, Papag. ii. p. 797 (1868).
Eos reticulatus, Gray, Hand-list of Birds, ii. p. 154, no. 8203 (1870).

 

Tue above synonymy, culled from Count Salvadori’s well-known ‘ Ornitologia della Papuasia,’ would seem
to indicate that this beautiful Parrot had been known for a long time; and this is, indeed, the case ; but the
only European who has shot the species in its native haunts has been Mr. H. O. Forbes, who procured several
examples during his recent expedition to the Tenimber Islands. |
Various islands have been given as the home of this species, such as Borneo by Lesson, Celebes by Blyth ;
and in the Leiden Museum the habitat was set down as Amboina. Captain Chambers was the first to indicate
its true home when he presented two specimens to the British Museum as from Timor Laut, and Mr. Wallace
afterwards confirmed this habitat by finding that the native traders often brought living examples from
Timor Laut to Celebes.
Mr. Forbes informs us that the species is common in all the islands of the Tenimber group which he

 

 

 

visited, and that it is everywhere a favourite cage-bird with the natives.

The following description is taken from one of Mr. Forbes’s specimens in the British Museum :—

Adult male. General colour above blood-red, the head and hind neck uniform, the mantle striped
with beautiful blue in the centre of the feathers; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts obscurely
marked with dusky*blackish at the tips ; scapulars black with red on the outer web and at the tips, varying
in extent and in some feathers occupying the whole of the outer web ; lesser and median wing-coverts blood-
red, the inner ones with black on the inner web, which is more distinct on the bastard wing and greater
wing-coverts, and gives a varied appearance ; primary-coverts and primaries black, narrowly edged with
blood-red, increasing in extent so as to occupy the base of the inner primaries ; the secondaries blood-red,
with black shafts and a broad bar of bl

the innermost being entirely black ; centre tail-feathers

ack at the end, decreasing in extent towards the inner secondaries,
black, the rest blood-red on the inner web, black on
the outer, the external webs diagonally red at the tips, with the shaft black ; ear-coverts blackish, streaked
with dull blue ; cheeks and throat bright red; the rest of the under surface from the lower throat downwards

deep blood-red with dusky ends to the feathe
under wing-coverts, axillaries, and inner lining of quills beautiful blood-red, remainder

rs, the plumes of the thighs and lower flanks with black bases,

the latter with blue ends ;
of quills black below ; ‘ upper
feet black ; iris rich brown” (47. O. Forbes).
tarsus 0:65.

Adult female. Similar in colour to the male. ‘otal length 12 inches, wing oe au o°4, ara 0:7.
The specimen of this sex in the British Museum, sent by Mr. Forbes, is a very brilliant bird, and is streaked

with blue on the sides of the rump and upper tail-coverts; at the end of the black centre tail-feathers is

a subterminal oval spot of red.
The figures in the Plate represent a pair of birds,

mandible scarlet, the tip orange-red ; lower mandible the same; legs and
Total length 12 inches, culmen 0°85, wing 9:0, tail 85,

 

 

 

of the natural size; they have been drawn from two of

Mr. Forbes’s specimens. [R. B. S.]