Review of Dr. Finsch's ' Die Papageien.' 287 



wing-spot/' because it relates to the point in dispute and does 

 not strictly accord with either Jerdon or Blyth's account. 

 Jerdon says "a marone wing-spot in the male, barely indicated 

 in the female" (B. Ind. i. p. 261); Blyth, "The adult sexes 

 differ in the male having a small maronne spot on the wing, 

 which is wanting or barely indicated in the female " (J. A. S. B. 

 1850, p. 232). So that even according to both Jerdon and 

 Blyth the small maroon wing-spot of the male, though barely 

 indicated, does " appear " in the female. But Dr. Finsch must 

 be judged by what he, through a diligent and conscientious 

 study of their published writings, had gathered that his authors 

 personally knew, and not by what Mr. Hume, in more than 

 exaggerated terms, says they did know. And although the 

 fact may surprise my readers, in the face of Mr. Hume^s auda- 

 cious assertions just quoted, it is a fact that neither Jerdon, 

 when he wrote the first volume of the ' Birds of India,' nor 

 Blyth were well acquainted with this species. Nor is there 

 up to 1868 a tittle of published proof that any "skilled prac- 

 tical naturalist" had dissected a single specimen of this 

 species, much less "scores." Jerdon writes [t.c. p. 261) "rare 

 in the south-east, for I never saw it myself, and got but one 

 young specimen while at Darjeeling; " and what Jerdon relates 

 about the species is derived from Tytler and Adams, both 

 of whom have no remarks on the diversity of the sexes or 

 about the plumage. Jerdon only became well acquainted 

 with the bird when, subsequently to the publication of the 

 first volume of his book, he visited the north-western Hi- 

 malayas, where it is abundant. Blyth's acquaintance was not 

 more extensive. It is almost certain that he had never seen 

 the wild bird; for he had not been in the regions it inhabits. 

 He probably may have seen caged specimens occasionally at 

 Calcutta; but he says that captured specimens are seldom 

 brought to that town (Ibis, 1863, p. 4). Who the " dozen 

 others " are previous to 1868, I confess my total inability to 

 even offer a conjecture ; and possessing a fair acquaintance 

 with Indian ornithological literature myself, I cannot blame 

 Dr. Finsch for not knowing either. 



A slight mistake in degree Dr. Finsch has committed, con- 



X 2 



