Birds of Gambia. 199 



nortJi, though the limit of its range cannot bJei far away, as it 

 appears to be quite common in Futa Jallon, the country behind 

 French Guinea and Sierra Leone. The three Gambian Parrots are: 



Palaeornis docllis. ROSE-RINGED PARRAKEET. 



Range. West Africa (Senegambia to Gold Coast). Sudan. 

 Equatorial Africa. Abyssinia. (H.L.) 



Poecephalus senegalus. SENEGAL PARROT. 



Range. Senegambia. (H.L.) 



And another FoeGepihalus, whirli I take to be 



P. fuscicoUis, the BROWN-NECKED PARROT, 

 though the Hand List gives the range of this species as 

 West Africa (Togoland to Gaboon), countries far to the south, of 

 the Gambia, in the Gulf of Benin. 



The first of these, the Rose-ringed I'arrakeet, is mm'cly 

 a somewhat smaller edition of the Ring-neck Parrakeet iinporled 

 in such large numbers from the East, a green long-lailed l)ird, 

 the male of which Avhen adult has a pink collar encircling the neck 

 behind and at the sides and a bhick one commencing witli mnu- 

 stache-like streaks at the bill and joining the pink, but nut i-eachiiig 

 the nape. The female and young have no collar. The bill of I lie 

 adult is waxy crimson; in the young it is grey, which gradually 

 changes to crimson as age advances, though a dark tip j)ersists 

 Until the bird is at least some years old. The ir'is is grey in 

 the young, bright brown in the adult. Legs grey. 



Like their Eastern relatives most of them are inveterate 

 scrciamers in captivity, and have, in my opinion, very little to 

 recommend them as pets, though I have known one or two, wliicli 

 had been taken young and remained tame and trustful and learnt 

 to say a few words, but most of those. I liave liad, have been 

 terribly noisy and savage. Tnose which had been caught when 

 adult were all absolutely untameable, while even my young birds 

 became wild and unsatisfactory as they grew up. On the other 

 hand when free, they are most attractive birds, which generally 

 go about in flocks of from twenty to tfiirty, conspicuous when on 

 the wing for their rapid whizzing flight, their gleaming green plum- 

 age and outspread tail, but most difficult to see when feeding on 

 a leafy tree, though their presence is always made manifest by 

 their constant shrill screaming. They are very common and breed 

 throughout the Protectorate, the nesting season commencing about 

 May, and lasting till September. The nest is in a hole in a tree 

 and contains as a rule four white eggs. They feed on all kinds 

 of bush- fruits, and in the season work great havoc in the ripen- 

 ing corn-fields, while later on, when the ground-nuts are pulled 

 and left in the fields to dry, they live for a time almost entirely 

 on these. In parenthesis I may remark that, besides the birds, 

 every one, both black and white, and nearly every animal, from 

 horses and dogs downwards, is in this country a groundnut-eater 

 on a large scale, especially when they are fresh, when they are 



