234



Correspondence



1916. E. Hopkinson, M.A., M.B., D.S.O.


1917. J. Delacour.


1918. An Old Australian Bird-lover.



PATAGONIAN CONURES AND RED-BILLED

WEAVERS


Dear Dr. Renshaw, — I wonder whether any of our members

could tell me the name of some parrots I purchased recently in London.

I bought them as Patagonian Conures. Two of them are certainly

C. patagonicus, but the other two are much larger and vary considerably

in colour. I am wondering whether they can be C. bgroni. Mr. Seth-

Smith, in his book on Parrots, tells us that the larger Patagonian

Conure differs from the lesser only in size, one measuring 20 inches

and the other only 17J inches. My birds vary very considerably,

or at least one of them does (the other is nearly bare of feathers).

Upper parts of C. patagonicus , dark olive green ; in the larger bird

these are bright grass-green ; C. patagonicus has its throat and breast

greyish-brown, lower back and abdomen yellow, with a red patch on

lower abdomen and thighs ; all these parts in the larger bird are green ;

primary coverts and quills of the smaller bird are blue, and in the

larger bird green. According to Smith there is a band of white across

the upper part of the breast, which is more pronounced in the larger

bird. I cannot see this in either variety. The bill of the Lesser

Patagonian is nearly black, the upper mandible of the other is white.

Tins bird very closely resembles the Blue-crowned Conure (C.

hcemorrhous), but is, of course, very much larger, the latter only

measuring 13 inches.


Can any of our members tell me if they have ever come across

any cases of- melanism in the Red-billed Weaver ( Quelea quelea) ?

I have kept this species for many years, and had never seen an abnormal

specimen until last week, when in one of the big stores I spotted four.

One of these is black, with a small patch of yellow on the abdomen,

beak bright yellow ; another is black, with more or less chocolate and

buff on the breast and lower parts, beak coral red ; the third is dark-



