Volume 15, Plate XX / Ornithology (Birds)

Blue-Bellied Lorikeet

Trichoglossus Swainsonii

A beautiful nectivorous parrot of New Holland, about 13 inches long with a six-inch tail, found in large flocks wherever flowering eucalypti supply food, eating no grain even when caged and seldom long surviving confinement. The head and throat are bluish-purple with rigid feathers, the breast vermilion passing to king’s yellow, the abdomen deep imperial purple, the body grass-green, and the bill orange in life.