Abstract
Introduction
During the last few years, lories and
lorikeets have experienced a well
deserved increase in popularity
among aviculturists. With their clownlike
behavior and their brilliant colors,
they are truly a feast for the eyes and
excellent subjects for aviaries and (for
some species) for large cages. In the
past, fanciers regarded these birds
with perhaps less enthusiasm than
they might, due to their specialized
diet and the fact that their droppings
are watery and messy, which meant
that cages had to be thoroughly
cleaned on a daily basis. There is thus
little positive information about them
in the literature. As I have personally
had opportunities to study these birds
in their natural habitats as well as having
had much experience with captive
specimens, I hope, with this text, to
modestly offer some facts which will
lead to a better general understanding
of these beautiful and extremely interesting
psittacines.
Geographical Notes
The "heart" of "lory country" is
Australasia, but especially New
Guinea and its rich collection of tiny
eastern islands which include the last
"lory stongholds" of Henderson
Island and the little Pitcairn Ducie
Islands, where in 1907, the Stephen's
Lory (Vini stephensi) was discovered.
This bird is now rarely if ever seen in
captivity though I once viewed a specimen
owned by a Belgian fancier. I am
not aware of any American or Canadian
specimens. Travelling westwards
from New Guinea, we come to the
many islands of Indonesia all populated
with lories as far as Bali and
Lombok where the Mitchell's Lorikeet
(Trichoglossus haematodus mitchelli)
is found. This is a splendid bird with a
light red breast which appears irregularly
on the market.
Some of the lory species from the
aforementioned areas (Henderson
Island to Bali) have a surprisingly
large range and several occur on two
or more islands. The climate and availability
of food may have some bearing
on the distribution of various subspecies.
In some genera there are subspecies
that we can cautiously say
are questionable. The well known
German ornithologist, Dr. H.E.
Wolters would recognize 56 species,
though I would be doubtful about
three of these; another one, the New
Caledonian Lorikeet (Hypocharmosyna
diadema), is probably extinct.
Of the 134 subspecies recognized by
Dr. Wolters, there are at least 15 which
can be regarded as synonyms of the
nominate forms or at least with doubtful
status. Personally, I do not believe
it is necessary to give subspecies
status on account of small color differences;
alllories and lorikeets (with a
few exceptions) possess a varied color
pattern which could easily lead to
mistaken classifications. I am of the
opinion that further studies based on
morphological rather than color characteristics
are necessary before we
can make any hard and fast ornithological
decisions regarding the classifications
of this group of species. As we
are here mainly concerned with the
care and breeding of the avialable
species, we will omit further taxonomical
discussion.