1887.] TROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, 529 



A REVIEW OF THE GENUS PSITTACULA OP BRISSON. 

 BV KOBKRT KIO«^VAV. 



The niiiuber of specios of this genus iuluiittcd by diftbrcut writers 

 varies greatly. Exciuding the hirge number of si)ecies by him wrongly 

 referred to it, Dr. Otto Finsch, in his "Die Papageien" (1868), recog- 

 nizes only live, viz, P. pa.sscrina (LiNN.), P. sclateri Gray, P. cyimopyfja 

 SouANCE, P. couHinciUata Lafr., and P. caclesUs (Les.s.). The first of 

 these, however, includes two or more additional species which Dr. Finsch 

 supposed to represent merely immature stages or "transitional plum- 

 ages" of P. passerina. In their Nomendator Avium Neotropicalmm 

 (1873), Messrs. Sclater and Salvin add to the foregoing one species, 

 which they term." P. cyanox)tera (Bodd.)." In his Conspectus Psltta- 

 corum (1881.'), Dr. Ant. Reichcnow gives seven, including subspecies, as 

 follows: P. andicola FiNSCH, P. cyanoptera (BoDD.), P. passerina (Linn.), 

 P. passerina^ subspecies cyanopyga (Souance); P. passerina, subspecies 

 sclateri (Gray), P. cccJestis (Less.), and P. conspiciUata Lafr. The first 

 of these is a BolborJiynchus, and thus to be dismissed without fnrther 

 notice. In 1883 a new species, P. erassirostris, was described by Tacza- 

 nowski, thus raising the maximum number allowed by any authority to 

 seven. 



The difficulty experienced in attempting to discriminate the various 

 forms in this genus arises principally from two causes, viz, (1) absence 

 of sufficient material and (3) the uncertainty as to whether the male 

 differs in plumage in certain stages of its growth. Regarding the first 

 difficulty, I have been able to bring together more than fifty specimens, 

 representing not only the generally'" recognized species, but also several 

 which, if not new to science, appear not to have hitbereto been named. 

 Yet very extensive geographical areas are wholly unrepresented, as, for 

 exami^le, theentire interior of Brazil (except the Lower Amazon), Bolivia, 

 the whole interior of Guiana and Venezuela, eastern Colombia, etc. It 

 is therefore altogether likely that the actual number of existent forms is 

 greater than that given in this pai)er. Certain it is, from the account of 

 Schomburgk, that there exists in Guiana a species the male of which has 

 a blue rump. It is not at all likely that this can be P. passerina (Linn.) 

 which has not yet been recorded from north of the Amazon. It may be 

 the new P. exquisita, now known only from Cartagena, in northeastern 

 Colombia ; but it is quite as likely to be an uudescribed species. No rep- 

 resentative of the genus has yet been authentically recorded from any 

 portion of Central America;* yet it is scarcely likely that the vast re- 

 gion extending from the Isthmus of Panama to southern Mexico, so 



*P. cwlestis (Less.) lias beeu accredited to Guatemala, but if brouglit from there 

 the specimen must have been a cage bird. 

 Proc. N. M. 87 34 



