260 psittacidjE. 



1149. Psittinus incertus. The Little Malayan Parrot. 



Psittacus incertus, Shaw, Nat. Misc. xviii, pi. 769 (c. 1807). 

 Psittacus malaccensis, ajmd Lath. Inil. Orn. i, p. 130 (l790) ; nee 



Qmel. (1788). 

 Psittinus malaccensis, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xi, p. 789 (1842) ; Korsf. 



^ M. Cat. ii, p. 008; Blyth, Ibis, 1863, p. 6; id. <§• Wald. Birds 



Burnt, p. 58. 

 Tanygnathus malaccensis, Blyth, Cat. p. 3. 

 Psittinus incertus, Hume Sf Da v. S. F. vi, pp. 121, 500 ; Hume, 



Cat. no. 153 ter ; Oates, B. B. ii, p. 147 ; Salvadori, Cat. B. M. 



XX, p. 501. 



Coloration. Male. Head and Deck bluish grey, becoming brigbt 

 cobalt-blue on the forehead and vertex ; upper back and scapulars 

 blackish brown with an oliA^e tinge ; wings outside green, a large 

 deep red patch on the smaller secondary-coverts, inost of the other 

 coverts and the quills conspicuously edged with greenish yellow : 

 outer greater primary-coverts blue, edge of wing yellow, winglet- 

 feathers with bluish edges ; first primary and inner webs of the 

 others blackish brown ; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts 

 cobalt-blue; median tail-feathers dark green, the other feathers 

 yellowish green above, yellow beneath ; chin whitish ; breast olive- 

 grey, passing into blue on the middle of the abdomen and green 

 round the vent ; wing-lining and axillaries crimson. 



Female. Head and neck ruddy brown, yellowish at the sides 

 and below ; remainder of upper plumage green, washed with blue 

 on the rump ; lower parts yellowish green ; wings, including wing- 

 lining and axillaries, and tail as in males, but the red j)atch on the 

 wing-coverts is smaller, 



Toung birds are deep green above and below, with the exception 

 of the crimson wing-lining and a blue patch on the lower back. 



In adult males the upper mandible is orange-vermilion, lower 

 dusky or dull reddish brown, in females both are usually whitish ; 

 irides creamy white, eyelids and cere greenish brown or dusky 

 green ; legs and feet pale dirty green {Davison). 



Length about 7*5 ; tail 1-9 ; wing 5 ; tarsus "55 ; bill from 

 cere •?. 



Distribution. Throughout the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and 

 Borneo, ranging into Southern Tenasserim as far north as Tavoy 

 and Nwalabo. 



Habits, Sfc. To parts of Tenasserim this Paroquet is a seasonal 

 visitant, arriving about April. It probably, however, only moves 

 from one part of the country to another at no great distance. It 

 goes about in small flocks, and has a sharp whistling note. The 

 nidification has not been observed. 



Genus LORICULUS, Blyth, 1849. 



Bill much smaller and longer comparatively than in Palceomis, 

 and much more compressed, the culmen less curved ; the depth of 

 the two mandibles together less than the length from cere to 

 point ; tail short, slightly rounded. 



