282 Messrs. A. and E. Newton on the Psittaci 



main island almost surrounded by reefs and beset by several 

 small islets. 



Of the Parrots of the Seychelles nothing new is now to be 

 added to what has been said of them in the paper above men- 

 tioned. A few more specimens of each of their peculiar 

 species, Coracopsis burklyi and Palaornis wardi, have come 

 into our hands ; and we gladly avail ourselves of the Editor's 

 offer here to illustrate both sexes of the latter (Plate VI.), 

 one of the finest members of the genus. It is certain that, 

 owing to the clearing-away of the natural forests and replant- 

 ing of the ground with cocoa-nuts — which do not contribute 

 to the subsistence of the Parrots — both species are decreasing 

 in numbers. Add to which the fact that they are everywhere 

 ruthlessly killed by the people as opportunity ofifers, on 

 account of the damage they do to the crops of Indian corn, 

 and there cannot be much doubt that they are doomed to 

 extinction. 



The Mauritian fauna once included two Parrots. The large 

 species described by Prof. Owen (Ibis, 1866, p. 168) from a 

 fragmentary mandible found with Dodos' bones in the Mare 

 aux Songes, has had more light thrown upon it by recent in- 

 vestigations ; and M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards in 1866 (Ann. 

 Sc. Nat. ser. 5, vi. pp. 91-111) proved that it could not be 

 referred to any of the established genera or subgenera of 

 Psittaci. A few other bones of it — a second mandible and 

 a tibia being the chief — have since been discovered [op. cit. 

 xix. art. 3, p. 25), and two very characteristic figures of it 

 have been recognized by Prof. Schlegel in the MS. journal of 

 an ancient Dutch voyager (Ibis, 1868, pp. 503, 504). Tra- 

 cings of these show that the bird had a frontal crest of a shape 

 quite unlike, so far as we are aware, that found in any other 

 form of Parrot, and suggest that it had wings so short as 

 possibly to be inadequate for flight. It has hence been pro- 

 posed to be regarded as forming a distinct genus (P. Z. S. 

 1875, p. 350), and it will probably stand as Lophopsittacus 

 mauritianus (Owen), under which name it has lately been 

 figured (Encyel. Brit. ed. 9, iii. p. 732) . There is no doubt 

 that this bird has long been extinct. 



