312 Broirn-ncdced Parrot. 



Brown-necked Parrot. 



By T. H. NijWMAx, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 



The following interesting communication is in response 

 to Dr. Hopkinson's request, see page 251 of 7>..V. September 

 issue, current volume. — Ed. 



Poeocephalus ruhricapillus. Under the above name 

 Forbes and Eobinson, in Bulletin of the Livenpool Aluseums, 

 Vol. I. p. 15, August, 1897, describe two Parrots, q^ from 

 West Africa (Whitfield, C), as follows: — 



'^ A specimen from the above locality (No. 809, Lord Derby's 

 collection), which died in coniincment at Knowsley in 18G7, we ihid 

 it impossible to assign to any described species known to us. It 

 is near to P. fuscicoilis and hielongs to the section, in SalvadMrL's 

 key of the g-enus, in which the ground colour is green, with llic 

 bend oi' the wing, metacarpal edge, and thighs witliout red citlour, 

 and the br.;a.st and abdomen green. But the head is neitlier brown 

 nor yellow. Instead, the whole head, and the neck down to the 

 shoulders, are silver-grey, or silvery hrown, each feather broadly 

 tipped with brick red, deeper on the top, of the head, and linid 

 neck, less blight on the sides of the head, tlir(jat, and chest. On 

 the lattei the silvery part of the feathers is more pnjminent, and 

 ultimately merges into a pale, greyish-hrown chest band, with red 

 shaft stripes; interscapular region dark brown with Iiroad green 

 margins; upper and smaller wing coverts dark brown tipi)cd with 

 green. Lower back, bright green; rump and under surface, green 

 washed with blue; the concealed parts of the flank feathers j^ale 

 reddish orangie. Quills black; secondaries nariowly margined with 

 green on outer web. Upper mandible, large and conspicuously 

 hooked, 1.6 inch, measured from tip to cere with callipers; lower 

 large, 1.1 inch in greatest breadth; length, 9.(3; wing, .08; tai'sus 

 1 inch . 



" The colour chang^es and variability of parrots in conhncment 

 are well known; and if ours had been a solitary specimen, we should 

 have entered it as P. fuscicoilis, var. We have, however, two speci- 

 menfs identical in every respect, a precise similarity not likely to 

 occur in both specimens, if abnormal." 



Count Salvadori in his excellent critical notes on the Parrots 

 described since he wrote Vol. XX. of the " Brit,.^ j\Ius. Cat. of 

 Birds," comments on the above in Ibis, 190(», p. 654 thus: — 



" .Forbes and Robinson have described two birds in the Liver- 

 pool Museum, which had been kept i:i confinement. They diller 

 from P. fiisGicollis in having the silvery-grey <jr silvery-brown 

 feathers of the head and neck broadly tipped with red. 



" iA.ccording to Dr. Eeichenow they are cage-varieties of P. 

 fuscicoilis." 



This last statement seems to be a part of but not the 



