264 Sir R. H. Schomburgl< on the Birds of Siam. 



They are as delicious as our home species. I have been told they 

 are likewise to be fouud in the environs of Bangkok. 



37. Pal.eornis javanicus. (Nock kang-mong.) 



The Parrot-tribe is but sparely represented, in Siam. I am 

 only aware of two species ; one I believe to be the Black-billed 

 Parrakeet, and the second another species of Palceornis. The 

 first fly in flocks^ and are destructive to the rice-fields. I have 

 not heard that they are brought to Bangkok in a domesticated 

 state ; and hence their power of imitating the human voice is un- 

 known to me. The specimen sent herewith was shot at Aughin, 

 on the eastern coast of the Gulf of Siam. 



38. Pal^ornis alexandri. (Nock kae-oh.) 



This is, I believe, likewise a Palceornis ; but, as far as I 

 have been able to ascertain, they are not seen in flocks. They 

 resemble, to judge from description and coloured figures, in 

 many respects the P. alexandri ; however, those which I have 

 seen did not possess the ring round the neck ; but the few 

 feathers of rose and bluish tint, which in the coloured repre- 

 sentations of P. alexandri in the * Naturalist's Library ' are on 

 the smaller wing-coverts, are not wanting in my specimen. The 

 bill of the bird is red, and the natives here pretend that it is 

 altogether a different bird from the one alluded to previously 

 (Noch kang-mong). It is soon taught to imitate the human 

 voice, and to whistle when in captivity, and is then trained. It 

 is highly prized in Bangkok, principally amongst the Chinese ; 

 there is scarcely a shop of a " well-to-do " Chinese huckster, 

 or a person of even a higher pretension in mercantile affairs, 

 who does not possess a bird of this description sitting on a 

 contrivance of the slightest mechanical skill — a kind of cross- 

 tree with a piece of wood hollowed out, which swings below its 

 perch by means of a string, and contains in one department 

 food, in the other water. There it sits as merry, chattering, 

 screaming, and whisthng as any of its congeners, leaving the 

 Grey and Festive Parrots out of view. A Kae-oh that speaks 

 well fetches a high price at Bangkok; a common one, not yet 

 initiated in that art, costs about 5 ticals {12s. 6d.). Their 

 natural voice is very shrill. 



