The PAPUAN LORY or RASMALAS (_Pyrrhodes carmosine Papuensis_) is one of the somewhat aberrant forms of this group. In shape it is more elongated than those we have just mentioned, and may be recognised by the two middle feathers of its tail, which are longer than the body, and make the entire length of the bird seventeen inches, of which no less than eleven inches must be allowed to these middle tail-feathers: it measures about fourteen inches across the wings. The plumage of the Rasmalas is bright and beautifully tinted, its general colour scarlet, interspersed with blue, golden, and grass-green spots; the head, neck, and top of the back, and the whole of the under portion of the body, are scarlet, except two streaks of splendid sky-blue, edged with scarlet, which run over the hinder and middle parts of the head; the sides of the breast and legs are spotted with yellow, the under tail-covers and the inner side of the legs are deep blue, the wings green, and the centre tail-feathers light grass green tipped with gold, these last colours being repeated upon the other tail-feathers, only that the latter are of a somewhat darker shade at their roots. The Rasmalas is an inhabitant of New Guinea, and an article of traffic to the natives, who treat the dried skins as they do those of the Birds of Paradise, cutting away both the legs, before exporting them to Europe. As far as we know, this species has never been brought alive to our part of the world, and we are quite ignorant as to its habits and mode of life. THE BLUE-STRIPED LORY. The BLUE-STRIPED LORY (_Lorius cyanostriatus_), which we have selected as the subject of one of our coloured illustrations (Plate III.), may be regarded as the type of the beautiful race to which it belongs. Its small size, and comparatively feeble beak, the elevation of the tarsi, and the diminutive claws, are eminently characteristic, as also is the somewhat wedge-shaped tail. The prevailing colour of this species, like that of the Lories generally, is a brilliant crimson, which pervades the entire plumage, but is much relieved and set off by dark shadings of deep red, almost approaching blackness, which cover the hinder part of the back, overspread the extremities of the wings and tail, and vary the tints of the wing-covers, producing a very rich appearance, which is still further heightened by a row of feathers of ultramarine, wherewith the hinder part of the neck is ornamented as with a sort of cape. The eyes are surrounded by elongated patches of naked flesh-coloured skin, immediately behind which the ear-feathers, of a brilliant ultramarine blue, are rendered very conspicuous. [Illustration] PASSERINE BIRDS (_Passeres_).