PALJEORNIS. 87 



Palaeornis purpureus (P. L. S. Miill.). The Western Hose- 

 headed Paroquet. 



Pakeornis rosa (Bodd.), Jerd. B. 2nd. i, p. 259. 



Palaeornia purpureus (Miill.), Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 149. 



The Western Eose-headed Paroquet breeds throughout the 

 plains of Continental India, high up on Mount Aboo, throughout 

 the Salt Range and the lower ranges of the Himalayas up to 

 heights of 4000 or 5000 feet, from Murree to the Ganges. April 

 is the month in which, according to my experience, they commonly 

 lay, but I have found eggs both in March and May. 



As a rule, they excavate holes for themselves, with small neat 

 circular apertures, in large trees or huge branches of trees, but I 

 have also seen eggs in natural cavities of decaying trees. Four I 

 take to be the normal number, but I have known five and even six 

 eggs to occur. Mr. R. Thompson writes that this speciea " breeds 

 from April to June, and selects usually a tree of moderate height 

 and one somewhat decayed. They scoop out a fresh hole every 

 year ; at least, those nests I have found have ahvay proved to be 

 new ones. The aperture is perfectly circular and large enough to 

 admit of one bird entering in at a time. The decayed excrescence 

 of a branch is invariably chosen, the birds scooping out the decayed 

 wood, and in the form of the nest following the course of the 

 branch in its growth from the centre of the trunk. The egg- 

 cavity is scooped out larger than the entrance and passage, and 

 usually contains four pure white eggs, much rounded, of about 1 

 inch in length and y 8 ^ inch in the broadest part. The eggs are 

 laid without any further preparation of a nest or lining of soft 

 material beyond what the decayed wood furnishes as a foundation. 

 The female usually loses her long uropygial feathers, thereby 

 acquiring greater facilities for movements of her body in the nest. 

 She is a close sitter, and will allow herself to be taken rather than 

 desert the nest for a while. The young are easily tamed and soon 

 learn to repeat a short air whistled to them. Many breed together 

 in the same tree, and they evince, in many of their habits, a social 

 and gregarious disposition." 



Colonel Gr. L. Marshall remarks : "P. purpureus is common in 

 the Saharunpore District, and breeds in March in hollow decayed 

 trees, not cutting out a hole for itself, but selecting a natural 

 hollow, generally in a toon or bakain (Melia sempervirens) tree; it 

 lays four round white eggs on the decayed matter at the bottom of 

 the hole, which is without artificial lining ; some of the eggs are 

 faintly spotted all over with yellowish brown, but these marks 

 almost entirely disappear with washing, and are probably only 

 dirt." 



Mr. Benjamin Aitken remarks : " My observations have con- 

 vinced me that the great majority of the Rose-beaded Paroquets 

 retire to the hills to breed. At Mahableshwar and Khandalla 

 their numbers are innumerable in the hot season, and just then 



