LORY, any of several East Indian and Australian parrots, but more especially one of the brush-tongued Australian family Trichoglossidæ, the smaller examples of which go by the name of lorikeets. Both the lories and the lorikeets are remarkable for their extensible tongue, furnished with a pencil at its extremity, by which they are enabled to lick up the nectar of flowers. In doing so they carry pollen from blossom to blossom, performing an important service of cross-fertilization, especially for the eucalyptus trees. (See Flowers, Fertilization of, by Birds). The lorikeets are smaller than the lories and have long tapering tail-feathers. Swainson's lorikeet (T. novæhollandiæ) is the best-known species. It is found in eastern Australia and Tasmania and is popularly known as the Blue Mountain lory or the Blue Mountaineer.
The name lory is also given to the large, brilliantly colored parrots of the psittacine genus Eclectus. Consult Newton, ‘Dictionary of Birds’ (1896); Evans, ‘Birds’ (in Cambridge Natural History, Vol. IX, New York 1901); and see Parrots.