Review of Dr. Finsch's ' Die Papageien.' 295 



throyenys — a fact, if it be a fact, only acquired by Mr. Hume 

 in 1873. Indeed Dr. 1^'insch went wrong in consequence of 

 his adopting the published opinions of Jerdon and Blyth ; yet 

 for this confidence in their superior authority he receives no 

 credit from Mr. Hume. Both Dr. Jerdon (B. of Ind. i. 

 p. 264) and Mr. Blyth on several occasions (Mouat^s Anda- 

 man, Append, p. 355 ; Ibis, 1863, p. 5) regarded the Nico- 

 bar and Andaman Parrakeets as belonging to one species. As 

 elsewhere, so here, it is Mr. Hume, and not Dr. Finsch, who 

 differs from Jerdon and Blyth ; and he will therefore doubtless 

 apply to himself the epithets he has so freely bestowed on our 

 German friend, whenever guilty of a similar heresy. But, we 

 fear, ' that in the Captain ^s but a choleric word, which in the 

 soldier is flat blasphemy.' Nor does Dr. Finsch receive com- 

 plete absolution ; for, relying on the descriptions of the speci- 

 mens marked J and $ , obtained in the Nicobars by the ' No- 

 vara ' scientific expedition, that of a female communicated to 

 him by Herr v. Pelzeln, Dr. Finsch suggested that Blyth's de- 

 termination of a specimen with a black bill as a female (J. A. 

 S. B. 1846, p. 23) was erroneous, and that he had described a 

 young bird. " Unfortunately, for Dr. Finsch, it does nothing of 

 the kind. Apud Finsch, Blyth is always wrong and Finsch is 

 always right,"" etc. etc. "And in every single instance in which 

 in regard to species of this genus. Dr. Finsch has questioned, 

 disputed, or denied the correctness of Jerdon, Blyth, and other 

 Indian ornithologists' statements, it is he and not they who 

 have erred" (Str. Feath. t, c. p. 25) . Well, is this a fact ? and, 

 with regard to this species, does Dr. Finsch contradict Jerdon, 

 Blyth, and other Indian ornithologists? It has already been 

 shown that by not contradicting Jerdon and Blyth on several 

 important points Dr. Finsch is, according to Mr. Hume, wrong. 

 Blyth, it must be remembered, only described his P. ery thro- 

 yenys from skins with sexes undetermined brought to him at 

 Calcutta by Captain Lewis and the Rev. J. Barbe. Neither 

 he nor Jerdon had "for a long series of years," not even 

 for a single minute, "observed the free living birds, shot 

 and dissected them," which, according to Mr. Hume, alone 

 confers the right of stating an independent opinion. But 



