204 BIRDS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 



of the nape. There is a small red wing spot, and the tail 

 is blue, tipped with pale blue and white. The female has 

 a lavender grey head. 



The male is between two and three years old before ho 

 puts on the distinctive mark of his sex, from which it may 

 be inferred that the species is a long-lived one. It is as 

 hardy as the preceding, and breeds freely in confinement. 

 Like the species already mentioned, it lays four small round 

 white eggs, which are hatched in about seventeen days. 



Rosy Parrakeet. — The only difference between this and 

 the species immediately preceding it is that this one has a 

 brighter-coloured, rosier cap than the other, with little or 

 none of the purple sub-tint that distinguishes the blossom- 

 head. It is also a trifle smaller than the latter. 



Banded Parrakeet. — Top of head and cheeks bluish 

 yellowish grey ; forehead and lores, and a deep moustache 

 or neck band, black ; nape grass green ; large yellowish 

 green wing spot ; neck and breast pale rosy red ; belly and 

 remaining under parts bluish yellowish green ; upper 

 mandible red ; lower black. 



Malabar Parrakeet. — Narrow frontlet grey ; lores, eye- 

 streak, and cheek sea-green ; head and back ashen gre}' ; 

 throat and ring black, then a ring of bluisii green ; on the 

 upper jtart of the neck a bluish green shield ; lower part of 

 back green ; rump and upper tail coverts bluish green ; a 

 black spot of small extent on the lesser wing coverts ; the 

 long central pair of the tail feathers dark blue, ashen grey 

 on the under surface ; vent and under tail coverts yellowish 

 green ; upper mandible dusky red ; lower brownish red. 

 The female is not different. 



Ceylonese Hanging Parrakeet. — This little bird, 

 whose form approximates it to the love-birds, from which 

 it is widely ditlerentiated by its habits, is a native of 

 Ceylon, and about the size of a common sparrow, or 



