Psittacidce : — Genus Platycercus. 527 



species, and varied in plumage, but generally speaking are en- 

 dowed with characters that separate them into groups decidedly 

 distinct from those of the Old World and America. A few of 

 these forms are found partially to extend over the Islands of the 

 South Seas : and these in conjunction with other similarly cir- 

 cumstanced groups may be noticed as connecting the Zoology of 

 the newly explored continent of New Holland with that of the 

 antient continent. The arrival in this country of a hitherto rare 

 species, which is the representative in the South Seas of a form 

 very generally diffused throughout New Holland, and of which 

 several specimens have lately come under my observation, affords 

 me an opportunity of characterizing one of the most extensive of 

 these groups, and at the same time of adding representations of 

 a few of the rarest species belonging to it. 



Genus Platycercus. 



Rostrum breviusculum, mandibula. superiore rotuudata, dilata, 

 inferiore brevi, profunde emarginata, apice quadrato, myxa con- 

 vexa, glabra, integra: naribus rotundis, in ceromate angusto 

 medio emarginato, positis. 



Alee rotundatae ; remigum,* prima excepta, pogonio externo 

 abrupte prope medium emarginato; prima 1<& breviore, 5ts prs- 

 cipue asquali ; secunda et (ertia longissimis. 



Cauda lata, depressa, subrotundata, gradata ; rectricibus apice 

 subrotundis. 



Pedes, tarsis elevatis ; acrotarsiis reticulatis j digitis gracilibus, 

 elongatis ; unguibus longis, parum falcatis. 



Typus genericus, Ps. Pennantii, Lath. 



The interesting group that forms the present division of the 

 Psittacidce, is at first sight immediately recognized as distinct 

 from all those which are included under the general name of lon<f- 



* The term renter in its original signification was masculine, and as such I 

 applied that gender to the term throughout the descriptions of the groups of 

 Falconidce in the last Number of this Journal. I find however that it is usually 

 employed as a feminine noun when applied to Ornithology, and for the sake of 

 uniformity I shall adhere to this form in future. 

 2 n 2 



