258 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



tliouoli narrower throughout, whilst the rose-coloured demi-collar 

 above is also narrower. 



Bill cherry-red ; irides pale yellow ; feet cinereous. 



Length 16^ inches; wing 6^ to 7; tail 9^; bill at gape 1 ; 

 height |. The female wants the rose collar ; but has a bright 

 emeraldine narrow green collar in its place. 



The Rose-ringed Parrakeet is found over all India, from the foot 

 of the Himalayas to the extreme south and Ceylon, but it is rare 

 to the east of the Bay of Bengal. It is found in other parts of 

 western Asia, and throughout tropical Africa.* 



It is one of the most common and familiar birds in India, 

 frequenting cultivated ground and gardens, even in the barest 

 and least wooded parts of the country, and it is habitually found 

 about towns and villages, constantly perching on the house 

 top. It is very destructive to most kinds of grain, as well 

 as to fruit gardens. Burgess says that they carry off the 

 ears of corn to trees to devour at leisure, and I have ob- 

 served the same sometimes. When the grains are cvit and 

 ho\ised, it feeds, on the ground, on the stubble corn fields, also 

 on meadows, picking up wdiat seeds it can ; and now and then 

 takes long flights, hunting for any tree that may be in fruit, skim- 

 ming close to and examining every tree ; and Avhen it has made a 

 discovery of one in fruit, circling round, and sailing with out- 

 spread and down-pointing wings, till it alights on the tree. It 

 associates in flocks of various size, sometimes in vast numbers, 

 and generally many hundreds roost together in some garden 

 or grove. Mr. Layard has given an interesting account of the 

 roosting of this species in Ceylon. At Saugor all the Parrakeets, 

 Mvnas, Crows, Bee-eaters, &c., of the neighbourhood, for some 

 miles around, roost in company in a large grove of bamboos ; and 

 the deafening noise heard there from before sunset till dark, and 

 from the first dawn of day till long after sunrise, give to the 

 listener the idea of numberless noisy steam-machines at work. 

 J^Iany of tiie Hocks of Parrots f;re very late in returning, and 

 fly along quite low, skimming the ground, and just rising over a 

 tree, house, or any obstacle in the way, and, for several nights in 



* ijwainson, Gray, ami others, howfvcr, give the African one as distiuct. 



