twelve are designated as females and only two as males. I further adduced in favour o f my discovery that,
taking my six green males and nine red females (from Mafoor) by themselves, it could be mathematically
demonstrated that the probability o f a really existing sexual difference is as 32700 : 1.
“ In my third note (Proc. Zool. Soc. o f London, 1877, p. 800, pi. 7 9 ) I figured the tail o f a specimen in
the D resden Museum, which is half red, half green, and drew attention to some young individuals in several
Museums, which are partly green, partly red, proving th at the young male is coloured like the female,
whereas the well-known savant, Dr. Beccari, wrote that the young ones offer the same differences as the
adult birds (Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. vii. p. 715).
“ In my fourth note on the same subject (O rn . Centralblatt, 1878, p. 119) I chiefly showed th at D r. Brehm,
who is o f opinion (Illustrirtes Thierleben, 2nd ed. vol. iv. p. 6 8) th at the existence o f green females and of
red males has been proved, was misled by inaccurate statements, and I further drew attention to other
facts, which confirm the statement th at the young ones o f both sexes are red.
“ Now, after the lapse o f more than four years, I do not hesitate to sta te th at almost every ornithologist
admits the fact o f the sexual differences in Eclectus, and that all objections and doubts which came from
the most different quarters are silenced. The only thing at which I am surprised is, th at this sexual
difference could have been so long overlooked, red and green Eclecti having even been several times placed
in two different genera. On my last visit to London (August o f this year), I saw in the bird-galleries o f
the British Museum a specimen (which has already been a very long time there) labelled as 2?. westermami,
but which is nothing else than a young male o f E . polychlorus changing from its red dress into its green one,
and which has not yet acquired the red spots on the b rea s t; but it is covered all over its back with red
spots, the residue o f the first d re s s ; the bill, too, proves it to be a young bird. I only ask, How can the
existence o f such a specimen (green, with red spots) be understood, if not as the result o f a sexual difference?
“Apropos o f E . westermami, I am still o f the opinion which I expressed in 1874, that this is not a good
species, but th at the specimens known are only individuals which have not acquired their full plumage, in
consequence o f the unnatural conditions incident to a state o f captivity. All the specimens hitherto known,
o f which I have seen those a t Copenhagen, a t Bremen, in the British Museum, and at Leiden, are those
of birds that lived in captivity. The same remark perhaps applies to E . cornelice, which is ra re r than
E . westermami: up to the present time only a few specimens are known. I saw one in Amsterdam and
one in London; the latter is labelled as a male—a proof th at not only in the tropics can a mistake be made
in the determination o f a bird’s sex. I t is not rare that a bird does not acquire its full plumage in
captivity; for instance, my friend H r. von Pelzeln, o f Vienna, in the year 1862, published the fact th at an
Aquila imperialis in the Schdnbrunn Zoological Gardens retained its immature plumage during seven years.
“ I do not share the opinion o f Mr. Ramsay, o f Sydney (Ibis, 1878, p. 3 7 9 ), ‘ th at the young retain the
red and blue state o f plumage for a considerable time, after which the males assume the green plumage,
but think that the change o f plumage takes place in Eclectus as quickly as it does in other species o f birds.
All the red specimens which a re young males prove this to be the case by their bills ; a young red male
never has such a pronounced bill as an adult female. Even the changing specimens which we know
(partly red, partly green), still evidently prove themselves by their hills to be young ones.
“ R ecently Mr. Van Musschenbroek, the well-known Dutch resident a t Ternate and Manado, told me that
a red Eclectus can now be found in a very isolated locality o f the Minahassa, in North Celebes; but he
could not tell me which species it is ; he meant th at they are probably descendants o f individuals escaped
from captivity. If this is true, a green Eclectus also will be found there, besides Eclectus mulleri, which is
a known inhabitant o f those regions and is characteristic o f Celebes. Another instance o f a new immigrating
Eclectus in Celebes (although from other reasons) I brought to light in the case o f Eclectus
megalorhynchus (see Rowley’s Orn. Misc. iii., and elsewhere).
“ These two last-named species and others not presenting the remarkable sexual differences presented by
Eclectus polychlorus and its allies, I venture to question whether they should not be separated generically.”
The Plate is intended to represent a fully adult male o f E . polychlorus, o f the natural size. The reduced
figures flying in the background illustrate the difference between the two sexes.