Letters, Announcements, ^c. 467 



bird would prove to be C. albicollis ; but this does not appear to 

 be the case. My specimens, an adult and an immature one, were 

 taken on the 27th of July last, near Eaux-Chaudes, and agree 

 precisely with the identical Scandinavian examples examined by 

 Mr. Salvin. I am, Sir, &c., 



H. B. Tristram. 



Greatliam, 20 August, 1867. 



Sir, — In the last number of ' The Ibis ' for this year (p. 295), 

 I observe that Mr. Blyth has given a new title, Loriculus 

 edwardsi, to the common little Parrakeet of Ceylon, hitherto 

 known as Psittacus indicus, Gm., or as P. asiaiicus, Lath. 

 With due deference to Mr. Blyth's high authority on ornitho- 

 logical subjects (and no one more fully respects it than I do), I 

 regret that I cannot concur in the reasons given by that gen- 

 tleman for rejecting, in this case, the older titles and adding a 

 new one to our already over-loaded list of synonyms. 



Edwards first figured and described the Ceylon species 

 (i. pi. 6), from a specimen in spirits " brought from some Dutch 

 settlement in the East Indies." From his descriptions and plate, 

 which Brisson notices as " une figure exacte," it is evident that 

 the Ceylon bird and no other served as the subject. Brisson, 

 describing from the plate, but without having seen the species 

 (for the two asterisks at the commencement of his diagnosis are 

 wanting), founded on it his Psittacula indica. He quotes no 

 other authors. Linngeus (Syst. Nat. Ed. XII.) omitted all notice 

 of Brisson's description, and, under P. galgulus, merely refers the 

 reader to Edwards's plate (" Conf. Edw. t. 6 ") P. galgulus having 

 been solely based by him on Edwards's plate 263, fig. 1. 

 Latham (Syn. i. p. 311), under the title of "red and green 

 Indian Parrot," inserts the species on the authority of Brisson 

 and Edwards; while Gmelin (Syst. Nat. i. p. 349), quoting 

 those three authors only, gave the species the title of P. indicus. 

 Latham, a little later, 1790 (Ind. Orn. i. p. 130), while quoting 

 Gmelin, Brisson, Edwards and himself, entitled it P. asiaticus. 

 Both Gmelin and Latham therefore gave their names to Edwards's 

 species, which was undoubtedly from Ceylon. Mr. Blyth seems 

 fully to admit that Edwards's plate 6 refers to the Ceylon bird. 



