The sexes present no difference in colour, and the young assume the plumage of the adult at a very early age.
Forehead and ear-coverts deep crimson-red; at the upper part of the back a broad patch of light chestnut-brown; the remainder of the plumage grass-green; on the flanks a spot of orange; primaries and secondaries black, broadly margined on the external webs with grass-green; base of all but the inner webs of the lateral tail-feathers deep red at the base, passing into yellow and tipped with grass-green; bill blackish brown, passing into reddish orange at the tip; cere and orbits olive-brown; irides buff, surrounded by a narrow circle of yellow.
I was not aware, until after the impressions of the present plate had been printed, that Dr. Latham had applied the specific term of Australis to this bird long before that of concinnus was conferred upon it by Shaw; a fact, however, with which the accurate Wagler was acquainted, and which he has recorded in his valuable Monograph of the Psittacidæ above quoted; the correct appellation of the species is therefore Trichoglossus Australis, Wagler.
The figures are of the natural size.
TRICHOGLOSSUS PORPHYROCEPHALUS: Diet:
J. & E. Gould del. C. Hullmandel Imp.
TRICHOGLOSSUS PORPHYROCEPHALUS, Diet.
Porphyry-crowned Lorikeet.
Psittacus purpurea, Diet., Phil. Mag. 1832, vol. xi. p. 387.
Psittacus purpureus, Wagl. Mon. Psitt. in Abhand., vol. x. p. 747.
Trichoglossus porphyrocephalus, Diet., Trans. Linn. Soc., vol. xvii. p. 553.