Letters, Announcements, ^c. 367 



rather than go to the ground for their food ; so I hit on the 

 device of hanging it to a wire swinging loose in tlie cage. 

 To this they instantly resorted, holding it steady with one 

 foot, and tearing it with their bills. They are very wasteful, 

 throwing down large pieces ; and only rarely will they reach, 

 head down, from a perch to recover a fallen lump, which 

 they then hold in their claws, mutually feeding from the 

 same morsel. 



They hang and feed in any position, holding sometimes by 

 one foot and twisting round in every direction. Often in 

 their play or battles they Avill simultaneously grasp claws and 

 striiggle to upset each other. 



The male, though allowing himself to be handled by my 

 son, showed from the first an unbounded antipathy to a ser- 

 vant-girl, attacking her with bill and claws, accompanied by 

 piercing cries, whenever she approaches the cage. The girl 

 says all parrots show this antipathy to her. 



When drinking they lap their sugar and water with great 

 rapidity. Their bills are slightly immersed, and kept some- 

 what open ; and between the mandibles the tongue may be 

 seen swiftly protruded and withdrawn. 



If they Avish to cross one another on the perch, the female 

 performs a rapid evolution, throwing herself underneath, and 

 coming up on the other side, without losing her hold, de- 

 scribing a circle in fact, the male passing through the centre 

 Avhile she is below him. 



E. L. Layard. 



Noumea, January 20, 1879. 



British Museum, May 1, 1879. 

 Sirs, I have just received, within the last Aveek, a copy of 

 Mr. E. P. Ramsay^s paper entitled "^Contributions to the 

 Zoology of New Guinea," parts 1 and 2, which was read by 

 him before the Linnsean Society of New South Wales on the 

 30th September, 1878. In this paper I find that tAvo species 

 published by me in the April number of the ' Annals,' Apros- 

 mictus broadbenti and Pcecilodryas flavicincta, have been de- 

 scribed by Mr. Ramsay as Aprosmictus chloropterus and Eo~ 



