280 Lord Walclen on Mr. Allan Hume's 



favoured with the information that Mr. Hume has " dissected 

 at the very least fifty specimens of P. sivalensis " and that " Da- 

 vison and I have recently sexed. eighteen of magnirostris " "^ . 

 And all that Mr. Oates and Captain Feilden and Messrs. Legge 

 and G. Nevill have done and told Mr. Hume, that is, within the 

 last year or two and with results unpublished until 1874, there- 

 fore has no bearing whatever on the conclusions arrived at by 

 Dr. Finsch from the evidence existing previous to 1868. 



And here let us pause to consider how is Dr. Finsch to deal 

 with P. eupatrius when he is producing " a second and most 

 m^aterially revised edition'^ {t. c. p. 1), especially if Mr. 

 Hume's hope of living to see it is likely to be realized. Cap- 

 tain Hutton, " our oldest Indian naturalist, who knew all 

 about these Paroquets long before Dr. Finsch was born " {t. c. 

 p. 14) and who "is quite a Paroquet fancier ^^ [t.c. p. 12), 

 says there are, and has named, four species on the Indian con- 

 tinent. Mr. Hume, " editor of the sole Indian ornithological 

 journal,''^ states that there is only one. Both are Indian field 

 naturahsts, who besides " contradicting f "" Jerdon and Blyth, 

 " contradict " one another. Trae, Dr. Finsch in his perplexity 

 may point out that one species, P. sacer, Hutton (Str. Feath. 

 i. p. 337), has never been seen by its discoverer, and that " the 

 natives cannot distinguish " it from the common species ; that 

 another, P.punjabi [!], Hutton {t.c. p. 338), also "regarded by 

 the natives as identical '' [1. c.) , chiefly difiers by " sometimes 

 sitting the whole day through without uttering any sou)id at 

 aU,'^ its cry, however, when heard, diiferentiating the species 

 by " being much more feeble and slightly croaking " {I. c.) . 

 While of P. vindhiana, Hutton (I. c), its discoverer, describer, 

 and denominator had " seen but one specimen and that was 

 a half-fledged nestling brought to me for sale at Monghyr 

 many years ago" (/. c), and he has " failed to procure a spe- 

 cimen since '^ {I. c.) . But of what avail these reasons when 

 urged by a cabinet naturalist " on the strength of half a dozen 



* Titles recently proposed for two of tlie fragments of P. eupatrius. 



t The noble passage commencing " I contradict Dr. Finsch, and would 

 contradict any one else," etc. {t. c. p. 8), and others, displaying almost 

 equal beauties, a lack of space compels reluctant omission. 



