Abstract
The four of us were sitting in New
Orleans' famous Arnaud's Restaurant.
Across from me was Theo Pagel, Jr.; to
my left his father, Theo Pagel, the
famous German lorikeet expert; and to
my right, Paul Roth, a Swiss ornithologist
who now lives in northern Brazil
and whose specialty is parrots. Our
discussion centered on parrots, then
suddenly it turned to hybrids. Wfth
hesitation I explained having seen a
very unusual, indeed almost incredulous,
cross in Australia- the offspring
of a male rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus
haematodus moluccanus) and
a female king parrot (Alisterus scapularis).
I expected Pagel to react the same
way I did when first hearing of the bird
- my eyebrows raised, facial expression
clearly showing that I did not believe
the cross was possible, and then asking
the person telling me the story if they
had been drinking - but he did not;
in his soft-spoken words, he related
another peculiar happening: the rearing
of hybrids between a macaw (Ara spp.)
and Pionites or caique. These two birds
are as separate from each other as the lorikeet and king.