on the Brown-necked Parrot.



25



the Gambia. The only two Pceoccpliali given as occurring here

are P. senegalus and rubricapillus. The second is, I believe, P.

fuscicollis in its red-headed stage.


At that time I see that I had little but bad to say of this

Parrot as a pet, but this year a pair, which in every way belie what

I formerly thought and wrote, having come into my hands, justice

bids me make some attempt to remove the stigma I may have cast

on these “ Bambaras,” as we call them in the Gambia, while at

the same time I can take this opportunity to add to and modify,

from further acquaintance, my first description of their plumage.


This I will attempt first, and the best way to do this will be,

I think, to repeat my notes on the plumage of the three birds I had

then (1906) alive, and follow these with a description of my present

pair.


The whole plumage cycle of these Parrots is a * most

interesting one, and appears, as far as my experience goes, to show

three distinct phases. The first is characterised by brick-red

head-markings, which are lost at the first or second moult and

followed by the donning for a time of a wholly green and grey

plumage without any red of any shade either on the head, legs, or

wings. This is succeeded by a third stage, in which the grey and

green is set off by scarlet shoulders and “ ankles ' — a real scarlet,

quite different from* the first brick-colour. In one sex this brick-red

m seems to persist on the forehead only for a period at any rate of this

third stage, but whether the red forehead remains as a permanent

sexual distinction I cannot as yet say, but hope that my present

pair will settle this point.


My 1906 birds I described (Avie. Mag., third series, vol. i,

p. 107) as follows :


“No. 1. A very old bird. . . . Whole head (including


forehead), neck, and upper chest brown-grey, each feather with a

darker centre; a reddish tinge on chin. Back dusky green;

scapulars, flights, and tail dull black with a greenish tinge; rump,

upper tail-coverts, breast, abdomen, thighs, and under tail-coverts

grass-green, brightest on the rump; under wing-coverts dark green

merging into grey. Edge of wing (at angle) and ring round lower

end of thigh orange-vermilion. Sexes apparently alike. The beak,



