Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS

THE PARROTS

The Lories and Lorikeets

(Subfamily Loriina). — Although possessing some points in common with the last subfamily, the much handsomer Lories and their relatives are distinguished by having a relatively shorter bill, which is still slightly longer than it is deep, and lacks the groove in the middle of the upper mandible, while the tongue is provided with a brush-like instead of fringed tip. They are for the most part small birds, mainly falling under ten inches in length; indeed, some are but four and a half inches long, while few exceed a foot.

They have pointed wings in which the first three quills are usually the longest, and mainly graduated or rounded tails which rarely exceed and are usually shorter than the wings.

The Lories number about eighty-five species disposed among some fourteen genera, and in distribution are mainly confined to the Australian region and adjacent Polynesia, many species being restricted to single, often small, islands. They are strong, rapid-flying, noisy birds, going about in flocks often of large size, and, as Gould says,”dashing among and alighting upon the branches simultaneously, and with the utmost rapidity, and quitting them in like manner, leaving the deafening sound of their many voices echoing through the woods.”Their food consists largely of soft fruits, but they are also very fond of nectar, which their bushy tongues well adapt them to secure. Their eggs, four or five in number, are deposited in holes in trees.

The Broad-tailed Lories, so called from the fact that the feathers of the tail are broad and more or less rounded at the tip, were formerly included within a single genus, but are now disposed among half a dozen, the differences being based largely on the size and on the color of the bill and plumage.

Thus in the Black Lories (Chalcopsittacus),oi which there are seven species, all of the Papuan Islands, the plumage is purple-black, brown-olive, or rarely green, and the bill, cere, and naked chin are black. With orange-red bills the fifteen species of Red Lories (Eos) are distinguished by the prevailing red color of the plumage, including the wings, while the. true Lories (Lorius), of which there are a baker's dozen of species, have the wings green. As an example of the beautiful coloring among the latter the Purple-capped Lory (L. domicella) of Ceram and Amboyna may be more fully described.

The general color of the plumage throughout is scarlet, darker on the back and scapulars, the top of the head deep purplish black, becoming violet on the hind head, while the breast is relieved by a broad band of golden yellow; the wings are green, becoming blue at the bend and beneath, and the tail is red with a band at the tip which is dark purple-red above and golden-red below; the length of this bird is twelve inches.

 

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