1892 



handsomer, however, is the Indian blossom-headed parraquet (P. cyanocephahis}, 

 in which the head of the male is red, tinged with plum color on the sides and 

 back, and defined by a narrow black collar, while the middle feathers of the tail 

 are blue. The following account of the habits of the Indian ring-necked species 

 is given by Jerdon, who w r rites that it frequents "cultivated grounds and 

 gardens, even in the barest and least wooded parts of the country, and it is 



ROSY-FACED I.OVE BIRDS. 



(Three-fifths natural size.) 



habitually found about towns and villages, constantly perching on the house 

 tops. It is very destructive to most kinds of grain, as well as to fruit gardens. 

 When the grains are cut and housed, it feeds on the ground, on the stubble corn- 

 fields, also on meadows, picking up what grains it can; and now and then takes 

 long flights, hunting for any tree that may be in fruit; and when it has made a 

 discovery of one in fruit, circling round, and swirling with outspread and down- 



