on Dr. Jerdon's ^ Birds of India.' 353 



exclusion of Woodpeckers." Now not only are Woodpeckers ex- 

 cluded from Australia, but all of the non- Psittacine zygodactyle 

 birds, excepting parasitic Cuculina, and one or more allied species 

 of Centropus — in fact, all of those which have a doubly emarginated 

 sternum, no caeca, and agree in laying pure white eggs in holes 

 of trees : such are the Megalamidee {Capitonida) of the Indian 

 region, Africa, and South America, the nearly allied Rhamphastida. 

 of South America, and the Musophagida of Africa — those birds 

 which, among the zygodactyle Insessores, might be thought to 

 approximate to the Parrots more nearly than any others. Indeed 

 the exclusion of that group extends to the whole Australian 

 region, with the exception of three Woodpeckers in Celebes and 

 one in Lombok, its extreme western boundary, so that the 

 argument tells rather in the opposite direction. I fail to per- 

 ceive any special approximation on the part of the Parrots to 

 any true Insessorial bird whatever, and consider that, as an 

 order of birds, they stand quite as distinctly apart as the birds 

 of prey . 



147. PaljEornis alexandri is found also in the Andaman 

 Islands. 



149. PALiEORNIS ROSA. 



Occurs also near Canton (Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1863, p. 159). 

 Mr. Louis Fraser possesses a specimen with a green tail; habitat 

 unknown. Is not this the Chinese race ? 



150 and 151. Pal^egrnis schisticeps and P. columboides; 

 Gould, B. As. pt. X. pis. 



152. Pal^ornis javanicus. 



Professor Schlegel adopts the separation of the Javan race 

 from that of North-eastern India and Burma, identifying 

 with the former P. derbianus, Fraser (P. Z. S. 1850, p. 245, 

 pi. XXV. ; Gould, B. As. pt. x.), — an opinion from which I must 

 dissent, having examined the type- specimen in the Derby 

 Museum of Liverpool. Neither can I agree in the separation 

 of the common Burmese bird from that of Java and Borneo. 

 From an early age (before leaving the nest) the sexes differ in 

 the male having the upper mandible coral-red, while that of the 

 female is black (besides being smaller, as also in P. alexandri) ; 



