1874.] DR. FINSCH'S 'DIE PAPAGEIEN.' 275 



when keeping the species united, while Mr. Hume differs from them. Captain Hutton last year, 

 and also for the first time (Str. Feath. i. pp. 335, 338), had already subdivided one of Mr. Hume's 

 three species into four distinct species ; so that between these two Indian field naturalists the 

 species, P. eupatrius, whicli Jerdon and Blyth had considered one and the same, is broken up into 

 six species. " Dr. Finsch did not discriminate these three species and perhaps may not admit 

 them now" (t. c. p. 11). Quite true. Unfortunately Dr. Finsch had followed Jerdon and Blyth, 

 and had not foreseen in 1868 what Mr. Hume's great superiority of perception was going to 

 discover in 1874. Mr. Hume then proceeds to quote the greater part of the passage in which 

 Dr. Finsch states his reasons, in opposition to Jerdon and Blyth 's recorded opinions, though 

 stated with complete courtesy, for not feeling convinced that the sexes in F. eupatrius are 

 distinguished by sexual peculiarities of plumage (Papag. ii. p. 14). After which Mr. Hume 

 exclaims, " Please note the modesty and courtesy of this passage ! Dr. Jerdon and Blyth (who 

 have examined the fresh birds) state so and so, but Dr. Finsch thinks it is very probable that it 

 is quite the contrary. Like the Psalmist of old. Dr. Finsch seems to have ' said in his heart that 

 all men are liars'" {I. c). There is not a word of discourtesy nor of dogmatism in the whole 

 passage, though made to wear a semblance of egotism by Mr. Hume omitting, I Avill not say 

 intentionally, to quote the concluding sentence. Here is the omitted final sentence with which 

 the passage, as transcribed by Mr. Hume {t. c. p. 11), should be read. "Inasmuch as I must 

 therefore in the meanwhile leave the question undecided, I commend it to the attention of all 

 ornithologists (lege ich sie alien Ornithologen an's Herz) " (Papag. I. c). 



Jerdon and Blyth state that the large rose-ringed Parrakeets of Ceylon, the Andamans, and 

 of the continent belong to one species. Mr. Hume states that they constitute three species. Mr. 

 Hume may differ. Dr. Finsch may not. We then are favoured with the information that Mr. Ibis, 1874, 

 Hume has " dissected at the very least fifty specimens of P. sivalensis " and that " Davison and I 

 have recently sexed eighteen of magnirostris"*'. And all that Mr. Gates and Captain Feilden 

 and IMessrs. Legge and G. Nevill have done and told Mr. Hume, that is, within the last year or 

 two and with results unpublished until 1874, therefore has no bearing whatever on the conclusions 

 arrived at by Dr. Finsch from the evidence existing j^revious to 1868. 



And here let us pause to consider how is Dr. Finsch to deal with P. eupatrius when he is 

 producing a second and most materially revised edition " {t. c. p. 1), especially if Mr. Hume's 

 hope of living to see it is likely to be realized. Captain Hutton, " our oldest Indian naturalist, 

 who knew all about these Paroquets long before Dr. Finsch was born " {t. c. p. 14) and who " is 

 quite a Paroquet fancier" {t. c. p. 12), says there are, and has named, four species on the Indian 

 continent. Mr. Hume, " editor of the sole Indian ornithological journal," states that there is 

 only one. Both are Indian field naturalists, who besides " contradicting "f Jerdon and Blyth, 

 "contradict" one another. True, Dr. Finsch in his perplexity may point out that one species, 

 P. sacer, Hutton (Str. Feath. i. p. 337), has never been seen by its discoverer, and that " the 

 natives cannot distinguish " it from the common species ; that another, P. piunjahi [!], Hutton 

 {t. c. p. 338), also "regarded by the natives as identical" (/. c), chiefly differs by "sometimes 



* Titles recent])' proposed for two of the fragments of P. eupatrius. 

 ■> t The noble passage commencing " I contradict Dr. Finsch, and would contradict any one else," etc. {t. c. p. 8), and 

 others, displaying almost equal beauties, a lack of space compels reluctant omission. 



