Varied Lorikeet

About the Varied Lorikeet

The varied lorikeet (Psitteuteles versicolor), is a species of parrot in the family Psittaculidae that is endemic to the northern coastal regions of Australia. The first depiction of the species was included in a seminal folio by Edward Lear, the subject of his illustration has since been lost and it became recognised as the holotype. The image was published as the thirty sixth lithographic plate in September 1831, without a location or description, in his work Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots (1830–32) depicting live specimens in English zoological exhibitions and private collections. The name supplied in the caption was Trichoglossus versicolor, with the subheading "Variegated Parrakeet". The source of the specimen, according to Richard Schodde (1997), was incorrectly determined as "Cape York", a location proposed by Gregory Mathews in 1912 and subsequently repeated. Schodde reports the absence of records at that location, instead drawing attention the surveys of Admiral King along the Northwest coastline from Arnhem Land to King Sound and settlements in 1824, Fort Dundas at Melville Island, and the 1827 Fort Wellington at Raffles Bay, and giving... Wikipedia →