2 Mr. E. Blyth on the Birds of India. 



Mr. Hodgson states that " it inhabits the Sal-forest exclusively, 

 and is not known to the Parrot-tamers." It is the ordinary 

 Parrakeet of the Punjab. In the peninsula of India it appears 

 to be somewhat rare ; but, in Ceylon, Mr. E. L. Layavd 

 "found it in countless thousands at Battacalsa, nesting in 

 the cocoa-nut palms, and resorting to them by night in vast 

 flocks. I procured a specimen or two,'^ he adds, " at Maleth, 

 in the central provinces; and I shot a single bird at Gillymalle.^' 

 The very young are brought in considerable numbers to Cal- 

 cutta, the earliest towards the close of February, and another 

 batch of them in April, being doubtless the second brood ; many 

 old birds also. They come from the Midnapur jungles chiefly, 

 as I am assured, though some probably are from the Rajmahal 

 and other proximate hills. Buchanan Hamilton states that this 

 species " frequents the Sunderbans, but comes to the neigh- 

 bourhood of Calcutta when the crop of rice is ripe" (MSS.). 

 If so (and the authority of that great observer is unquestionable), 

 there can be little doubt that the flocks which visit this vicinity 

 come rather from the hill-jungles westward of the delta ; and it 

 is not improbable, but consistent rather with daily observation 

 of the habits of the birds of this genus, that they regularly 

 return to their accustomed roosting-places in the hills every 

 evening, however great may be the distance *. That Sonnerat 

 observed the Alexandrian Parrakeet wild in the Philippine 

 Islands needs confirmation. 



2. P. TORQUATUS : Psittacus torquatus, Boddaert (PI. Enl. 

 551). Ps. cubicularis, Hasselquist (?) : P. parvirostris, Bp. (?) : 

 P. layardi, Blyth. 



Syn. Vide Gray, Brit. Mus. Cat. Psittacidse (1859), p. 19. 



Hab. " The Rose-ringed Parrakeet," writes Mr. Swainson, 

 " is one of the few birds of Senegal whose geographic distribu- 

 tion extends from east to west. Of four specimens in very 

 perfect plumage now before us, three are from Western Africa 

 and one from Madras : between the first three of these there is 



* " All the Parrakeets love the shelter of hills, and breed there exclu- 

 sively ; though they wander a good deal in the cold weather, especially in 

 the plains " (Hodgson). P. torquatus is so far an exception, that it 

 breeds abundantly throughout the plains of India. 



