Genus Trichoglossus, Vig. & Horsf.
The arboreal group of Trichoglossi or honey-eating Lorikeets, if not so numerous in species as the grass-feeding Parrakeets, are individually much more abundant and are more universally dispersed, being found in every part of the country yet visited; several species inhabit New South Wales: only one has yet been found in Western Australia. Other members of the genus are found in New Guinea and the Moluccas, but Australia is the great nursery for the birds of this form.
In their structure, habits and mode of nidification, and in their economy, no two groups of the same family can be more widely different than the Trichoglossi and the Platycerci; the pencilled tongue, diminutive stomach, thick skin, tough flesh, and fœtid odour of the former presenting a decided contrast to the simple tongue, capacious crop and stomach, thin skin, delicate flesh and freedom from odour of the latter; besides which the Trichoglossi possess a strong os furcatorium, which organ is wanting in the Platycerci; hence while the Trichoglossi are powerful, swift and arrow-like in their flight, the Platycerci are feeble, pass through the air in a succession of undulations near the ground, and never fly to any great distance. The mode in which the two groups approach and alight upon and quit the trees is also remarkably different; the Trichoglossi 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 thousand voices echoing through the woods; while the Platycerci rise to the branches after their undulating flight and leave them again in the like quiet manner, no sound being heard but their inward piping note.
The eggs of the Trichoglossi are from two to four in number.
| 409. Trichoglossus Swainsonii, Jard. & Selb. | [Vol. V. ] Pl. 48. |
| 410. Trichoglossus rubritorquis, Vig. & Horsf. | [Vol. V. ] Pl. 49. |
“Procured at Port Molle on the north-east coast, previously only found at Port Essington.”—J. M’Gillivray.
| 411. Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus. | [Vol. V. ] Pl. 50. |
| 412. Trichoglossus versicolor, Vig. | [Vol. V. ] Pl. 51. |
| 413. Trichoglossus concinnus. | [Vol. V. ] Pl. 52. |
| 414. Trichoglossus porphyrocephalus, Diet. | [Vol. V. ] Pl. 53. |
| 415. Trichoglossus pusillus. | [Vol. V. ] Pl. 54. |
Order RASORES, Ill.
Family COLUMBIDÆ, Leach.
The members of this important family are distributed over every portion of the globe, in no part of which are they more numerous than in Australia, since that country is inhabited by no less than twenty-one species, which, like its Psittacidæ, comprise several well-marked and distinct genera, and appear to be naturally divided into two great groups, the one arboreal, the other terrestrial; the Ptilinopi, Carpophagæ and Lopholaimus, with their expansive gullets and broad hand-like feet forming part of the former, and the Phaps, Geophaps and Geopeliæ the latter. The Ptilinopi and other allied forms are, in consequence of the peculiar character of the vegetation, confined, without a single exception, to the eastern and northern parts of the country.