206 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



through the dense and lofty forests, but nowhere is it 

 very common." 



On the same page we read : " Six eggs vary from 

 1.12 to 1.18 inch in length, and from 0.94 to 1.0 inch 

 in breadth." 



A male obtained at South-west Yunnan by Capt. 

 A. W. S. Wing-ate (T7,e Ibis, 1900, p. 599) is said to 

 have had the iris yellowish-brown ; as this species 

 varies in length from 14 to 16 inches, it is quite 

 likely that the colouring of the soft parts may have a 

 local and therefore racial significance. 



This is a freely imported and fairly popular bird, yet 

 I have not been able to trace it in Ru?s's " Handbook," 

 and can only suppose that he confounded it with some 

 other species. I am not aware that it has ever been 

 bred in captivity. It first reached the London Zoo- 

 logical Gardens in 1871, and other specimens have been 

 acquired from time to time since that date. 



JAVAN PARRAKEET (Pahrornis 



Differs from the preceding in its inferior size ; the 

 be:ik wholly red in both sexe,=. Hab.. Java and South 

 Borneo. 



This is practically little more than a race of the 

 preceding species, and does not differ from it in its 

 habits ; it is not nearly so often imported ; it first 

 reached the Regent's Park Gardens in 1859. 



BLYTH'S NICOBAR PARRAKEET (Palceornis caniceps). 



Green, brighter on rump and upper tail-coverts ; 

 primaries and their coverts black, the outer webs 

 washed with green and narrowly edged with blue 

 towards base ; middle tail-feathers greyish towards the 

 tip, and sometimes with bluish at the base, tip greenish ; 

 head grey, passing gradually on the nape into the 

 green at the back ; a broad black band from the fore- 

 head to the eyes, a broad mandibular stripe, and the 

 chin, black; t:ul below dull golden ; upper mandible red, 

 lower mandible black ; feet leaden-green ; irides orange- 

 red. Female with the crown and nape bluer and the 

 beak wholly black. Hab., Nicobar Islands. 



According to Mr. Davison this species does not asso- 

 ciate in flocks, but is found singly or in pairs, occa- 

 sionally in small parties of five or six. Its note is a 

 loud screech, ^continually uttered, both when flying and 

 settled, and its food consists largely of the ripe fruit 

 of the pandanus. 



Two examples were placed or deposited in the London 

 Zoological Society's Gardens in 1902 ; but otherwise this 

 Parrakeet seems to be unknown as a cage-bird in this 

 country. 



LTICIAN PARRAKEET (Palceornis modesta}. 

 Green ; upper back pale yellowish-green, more or less- 

 washed with bluish ; lower back also somewhat bluish ; 

 inner _ -webs of flights blackish ; central tail-feathers 

 changing to blue towards terminal half, the tips slightly 

 greenish; forehead dark bluish-green shading off into 

 the ordinary green behind ; crown dull reddish with a 

 greenish tinge; back of head and nape brighter red- 

 dish.; loral and mandibular stripes black; cheeks and 

 ear-coverts bright brick-red; fore neck and upper 

 breast pale yellowish-green shading into brighter green 

 on posterior portion of under surface ; under surface of 

 flights and under wing-coverts blackish; tail below 

 dull golden olive; upper mandible red tipped with 

 whitish; lower mandible black; feet grey; irides 

 yellow. Female with the crown greenish-brown ; frontal 

 margin, lores, and mandibular stripe dark bluish-green ; 

 cheeks and ear-coverts reddish, a bluish band mar- 



gining the latter behind; beak wholly black. Hab., 

 Eng;ino, off the west coast of Sumatra. 



Very little seems to be known about this bird : 

 though, according to Mr. Seth-Smith it is a dull and 

 stupid cage-bird. Count Salvador! quotes two examples 

 as having been in the possession of the London Zoo- 

 logical Society, but in the ninth edition of the " List," 

 the species previously recorded as received in 1857 is 

 said to have come from China ; eo also is the one 

 received in 1884, whereas Count Salvadori enters them 

 in the " Catalogue " as "Indian Archipelago (1) " 

 although he says that Dr. E. Modigliani has quite 

 recently discovered the habitat, previously unknown, of 

 this bird as Engano. Why then not have, entered them 

 as " Engano "(1) 



Russ says of it : " Recently imported on several 

 occasion-s," and gives the Molucca's ( !) as the habitat. 



NICOBAR PARRAKEET (PalcEornis nicoltarica). 



Green ; interscapular region pale green washed with 

 bluish ; flights blue, edged with green and greenish 

 towards tips ; primary-coverts blue ; middle tail-feathers 

 blue, edged with green, the others somewhat blue along 

 the centres ; lores bluish-black ; cheeks and ear-coveits 

 brick-red ; mandibular stripe black ; nape pale 

 yellowish-green, slightly suffused with lilac behind back 

 of head ; fore neck and upper breast yellowish-green, 

 brighter on rest of under surface ; tail below golden 

 yellowish ; upper mandible vermilion tipped with 

 yellow, lower mandible horny-black, yellowish horn- 

 coloured, or deep dull red ; feet dull earthy or brownish- 

 green ; irides bright yellow, pale yellow, creamy white, 

 or pale brown ; orbital skin greenish -brown or brownish- 

 green. Female with an olive tinge on the crown, the 

 nape and interscapular region without lilac or bluish 

 suffusion; the cheeks of a duller red; the mandibular 

 stripe slightly greenish; beak wholly blackish. Hab., 

 Nicobar Islands. 



In Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds." Vol. 

 III., pp. 91, 92. we read : " Mr. Davison remarks : ' Oit 

 the 17th of February I found on the island of Trinkut. 

 Nioobars, a nest of the Nicobar Paroquet in a hole in a 

 branch of a screw-pine (Pandanus}, about 12 ft. from 

 the ground ; the nest contained two young birds, one 

 well covered with feathers, the other a' tiny little thing, 

 with its eyes closed, and without the trace of a feather. 

 There was no lining to the hole, only a little powder 

 from the decayed wood. Again, on the 2nd March, ! 

 found a nest, also on the island of Trinkut, situated 

 about 30 Ft. above the ground, in a hole in a branch 

 of a large forest tree ; this nest contained two very 

 young birds.' 



"It is curious that the bills of all the young of these 

 ies that T examined were quite red, both ii| ] r and 

 lower mandibles; the adult females always have the 

 bills black. Can it be that the bills turn 'from red in 

 the young females to black in the adult females? " 

 "The young of P. nicobaricus and P.*ti/t1rri that T 

 examined may have been all males ; but this I think 

 was not likely. I must have seen during my stay at the. 

 Andaman* and Nicobars at least thirty young birds of 

 these species, of all sexes, either with convicts or in 

 the Nicobarese huts, and yet I never saw a young one 

 that could not fly that had a black upper' or lower 

 mandible. The only very young one that T actually 

 dissected was a male." 



According to the same writer, quoted in " Stray 

 Feathers," Vol. II.. p. 182. "this species is exceedingly 

 abundant on all the islands of the Nicobar group" ; he 

 says that they frequent forests, gardens, and the man- 

 grove swamps, generally in small flocks, but occasion- 



