Liberia 



^^ 



smaller than the ordinary grey parrot, and does not learn to talk. 

 It seems to be a connecting link between the larger forms of 

 Fceoce-phalus (some of which have a marked tendency to brownish 

 grey in plumage) and Psittacus. 



It would be an interesting study tor some ornithologist 

 to collect a series of Fsittacus forms from, say, south of the 

 Gambia River on the west, and along the coast to Angola, 

 including the island of Principe in the Bight of Biatra, to see 

 to what extent Fsittacus timneh grades into P . enthacus — whether, 

 for example, the grey parrot of the Ivory Coast has a true red tail 

 or a tail that is more incHned to purple (as is the case with the 

 Sierra Leone parrot), and in what locality the dun or brownish 

 grey of Psittacus timneh changes into the light or dark ash-colour 

 of the true grey parrot. The parrots of Principe Island are 

 quite a well-established variety, in which the grey has become 

 almost purplish — very dark — and the tail a purplish crimson. 



The Grey parrot o^ Angola and the southern part of the 

 Congo Basin tends to be a very light whitish grey, or to be 

 flecked with patches of pink or light scarlet. Some examples 

 of this variety are a pinkish scarlet all over, and are known as 

 " king parrots." It would seem as if the Grey parrot was in the 

 process of developing at least two new species : that of Principe 

 Island, which is becoming a purple bird, and that of Angola 

 or the south-western Congo Basin, which is growing into a form 

 scarlet all over. 



The Grey parrot seems to have extended its range quite 

 recently from the north-eastern verge of the Congo Poorest, 

 and perhaps the adjoining kingdom of Uganda, to Kavirondo, 

 the Nandi Plateau, and even Kikuyu in East Africa, within three 

 hundred miles of the Indian Ocean. It also seems to be spread- 

 ing southwards, from Lake Tanganyika in the direction of Lake 

 Nyasa. It is curious that at the same time there seems to be no 



778 



