Mr. A. Newton on Palaeornis exsul. 343 



error in our identifying with Palceornis exsul. This docu- 

 ment, as M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards has satisfactorily shown 

 (Comptes Rendus de FAcademie des Sciences, 1875, pp. 1212- 

 1210'^), must have been written prior to 1730. The anony- 

 mous author, after stating that there were three kinds of Par- 

 rots found in the island, and giving some particulars of the 

 habits of the largest, which was doubtless the bird originally 

 described by M. Milne-Edwards under the name of Psittacus 

 {Eclectus ?) rodericanus, but has since been referred by him 

 to a genus which he calls Necropsittacus , says : — 



'' La seconde espece est un peu plus petite et beaucoup plus 

 belle, parcequ^ils ont leur plumage vert comme les precedents, 

 nn peu plus bleu et le dessus des ailes un peu rouge, aussi 

 bien que leur bee." 



The last words serve to show that the adult male of Palce- 

 ornis exsul, should one ever be procured, will be found to have 

 a red bill and a red alar patch, as is the case with so many 

 other species of Palceornis. The unfortunate bird seems to 

 be nearly extinct. Mr. Henry Slater informs me that during 

 his stay in Rodriguez he saw a single example only. This 

 was on the 30th of September, towards the south-western end 

 of the island, where there is a good deal of wood, and he could 

 have shot the bird if he had had a gun with him ; but neither 

 of his companions was favoured with a sight of this expiring 

 species, and no further information about it could be obtained 

 from the Creoles. 



Magdalene College, Cambridge, 

 June 11, 1875. 



* Translated, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (4) xv. pp. 436-439. In the ori- 

 ginal there is a singular misprint, which is corrected in the translation, 

 of " posterieur " (I. c. p. 1213, line 25) for " anterieur." On the other hand 

 the translator makes a slight mistake (/. c. p. 438, line 9) in putting " It " 

 for " He " [i. e. Pingre]. 



