282 OX JIE. ALLAN HUME'S EEVIEW OF [1874. 



red-billed birds, is maintained. Mr. Blyth (J. A. S. B. 1846, p. 24, note) stated, "in P. pondi- 

 cerianus, the upper mandible of the female is usually black, but often more or less mingled with 

 red: that of the male being always bright coral-red." Writing in 1850 {op. cit. xix. p. 234) the 

 same author states of this bird, " In a presumed female observed in captivity, the upper mandible 

 changed from black to coral-red when the bird was about 18 months old." Later on (Ibis, 186G, 

 pp. 353, 354), the last time Mr. Blyth wrote on the species, he says, " From an early age (before 

 leaving the nest) the sexes differ in the male having the upper mandible coral-red *, while that 

 of the female is black .... and in many females it perhaps remains permanently black, while in 

 others it changes sooner or later to red." And he adds that he is " tolerably well acquainted 

 with it, having spent a month in forests" with the species. Jerdon (o^j. cit. p. 263) describes 

 the female in these words, " The female merely differs from the male by having a black bill at 

 first, which changes to red in old or fully adult females." In the face of these conflicting 

 opinions, is Dr. Finsch to be blamed for adopting an opinion of his own] and anyhow ought he 

 to have been exposed to the insolent and insulting criticism which Mr. Hume, in relation to this 

 species, heaps upon him 1 " (poor Jerdon and Blyth, always wrong ! Finsch, the clever fellow, 

 always right ! !) " and then this observation on a remark of Dr. Finsch, " He adds with that 

 deliciously bland assumption of superiority and omniscience which irradiates his pages " [t. c. 

 p. 20). I will quote Dr. Finsch's opening words, " Ohne der Auctoritiit eiues Blyth oder Jerdon 

 zu nahe treten zu wollen " [t. c. p. 68). As to Jerdon's opinion on the moot point, it may be 

 stated that up to the last he had not arrived at any decided conclusion. So uncertain was he, 

 that by his advice, and in order to settle the question, a friend in Burma was written to and 

 asked to collect and carefully mark the sex of as many specimens as he could obtain. And it 

 may here be added that Jerdon felt and often expressed the highest admiration for Dr. Finsch's 

 work on the Psittacidce and respect for its author. 



" Columboides, Jerdon f , disguised under Dr. Finsch's new name perisferodes, is the next 

 species " {t. c. p. 21). That the specific title columboides was not bestowed by Jerdon is probably 

 known to every ornithologist in India, except Mr. Hume; for both in his " Illustrations," where 

 this Parrakeet was figured, and in his general work, Jerdon, with his accustomed accuracy, 

 attributed the title to the first describer of the species. The species was first named by the late 

 Mr. Vigors, a cabinet naturalist, so far as Malabar birds were concerned. And to it Mr. Hume 

 holds a similar position, for he has never seen it " in the flesh." Hence the personal knowledge 

 he has acquired during the five years that have elapsed since Dr. Finsch's work was published 

 cannot be fiaunted before the enchanted gaze of credulous disciples nor hurled at the unoffending 

 head of Dr. Finsch. Still faults, however microscopic, must be found. " Really the wonders 

 disclosed by this work pass human comprehension ! Dr. Finsch records an adult male, from 

 the Himalayas, in the Leyden Museum, and an SiAaM female, precisely similar, to the male, also 

 from the Himalayas ! ! in Heine's Museum. What Himalayan female columboides may be like, 

 no mere Indian ornithologist could presume to say. We leave that to Dr. Finsch " (/. c), and 



* This is in direct opposition to what Mr. Hume lays down in the passage beginning " I too, who have seen thousands, 

 and shot hundreds " {t. c. p. 20). 



t Sk. This is not an accidental slip of the pen. At page 2, ilr. Hume writes " and Jerdon's columboides." 



