LORY, a division of the parrot family, embracing several very showy birds of the East Indian and South Pacific archipelagos, characterized by a large but rather slender bill, curved to the pointed tip, and with the lateral margins nearly smooth; the weakness of the lower mandible and the absence of prominences on the palate, and their softer tongue, often furnished with a pencil of bristles, show that their natural food is soft pulpy fruits and the juices of plants and flowers, and not the hard nuts and seeds eaten by most other parrots. The tail is generally of moderate length, rounded or graduated; the legs stout, and the wings, long and pointed; the prevailing color is a brilliant scarlet. In the typical genus lorius (Brisson), embracing about half a dozen species found in Borneo, the Moluccas, and New Guinea, the wings are moderate, with the second and third quills longest; feathers of the tail broad and rounded. One of the handsomest is the purple-capped lory (L. domicella, Briss.), about a foot long; the color is rich scarlet, with a yellow color on the breast, purplish crown, greenish wings with a bluish violet flexure, bluish green thighs, and orange yellow bill; it is highly esteemed for its beauty, activity, docility, and powers of articulation. The black-capped lory (L. tricolor, Steph.), about the size of a pigeon, is scarlet and violet, with black crown, green wings, and tail varied with red, green, and violet; it pronounces very distinctly the word “lory,” which has given the name to the subfamily. The Papuan lory has a very long wedge-shaped tail, especially the median two feathers, and is put by Wagler in his genus charmosyna; this, the C. Papuensis (Wagl.), is a very elegant bird, the ground color of the plumage being brilliant scarlet; the top of the head, nape, lower back, rump, and tibiæ deep azure; sides of breast and thighs rich yellow; wings green, as also the basal half of the tail; the tips of the tail feathers saffron yellow.
Papuan Lory (Charmosyna Papuensis).