ON THE GENUS LATHAMUS. 63 



and Platycercus, and as connecting these Australian forms with the South- 

 American Psittacarce ( = Conurus auct.). Nanodes having been already 

 used by Schonherr for a genus of Rhynchophorous Coleoptera*, Lessont 

 substituted for this name that of Lathamus, including under that head 

 four other species (one a Euphema, one a Cyanorhamphus, and two Tri- 

 choglossi, as now understood), remarking that Swainson " a parfaitement 

 etabli ses caracteres " in his ' Zoological Illustrations ' J, where, however, 

 E. pulchella is considered the type of the genus . As will be seen from 

 the species associated with it, all these authors were evidently puzzled P. Z. S. 1879, 

 by the characters of this peculiar little Parrakeet; and the same seems P* ' 

 to have been the case with all subsequent naturalists who have treated of 

 it. The majority, however, seem to have considered that it had Tricho- 

 glossine affinities. 



Thus Bonaparte || included Lathamus as " dernier des Trichoglossiens;" 

 and Grould, likewise acknowledging the validity of the genus, places it 

 amongst the Trichoglossidae. He says : " Having had ample oppor- 

 tunities of observing the bird in a state of nature, I concur in the pro- 

 priety of separating it into a distinct genus ; in its whole economy it is 

 most closely allied to the Trichoglossi, and in no degree related to the 

 EuphemcB " (Handb. B. Austr. ii. p. 89). Dr. Finsch, in his great work 

 on Parrots^, after a careful examination of its peculiarities, came to the 

 conclusion that these were not sufficient to justify its separation as a 

 distinct genus, and included it as a Trichoylossus. More lately, the 

 same position (*. e. that of a member of the family Trichoglossidse) has 

 been assigned to it by Gray**, Sclatertt, Wallace^, and others. On the 

 other hand, Sundevall in his ' Tentamen ' placed it in his fourth family 

 " Platycercini" remarking, " Haec species, plerumque cum sp. Tricho- 

 glossinis (Ps. concinno &c.) consociata, vera tamen est species Platycercina, 

 maxilla inferiori tumida, &c., Euphemce maxime affinis." In his paper on 

 the anatomy of the Parrots, Prof. Garrod|| || shows that Lathamus differs 

 from Lorius and its allies in having a superficial left carotid, a feature 

 common to it and Platycercus, Psephotus, &c., from which, however, 



* Schonh. Curcul. Disp. Metb. p. 322 (1826). 



t Traite d'Orn. p. 205 (1831). J 2nd series, vol. i. part 5, no. 21 (1829). 



Swainson, however, in his ' Classification of Birds ' (vol. ii. p. 304, 1837), makes 

 Lathamus a member of bis " subfamily Platycercinae," in wbicb he also includes 

 Coracopsis, Pezoporus, Platycercus, and Calopsitta, with the remark that it is a " sub- 

 typical" form. 



|| Comptes Eend. xliv. p. 536 (1857). f Pap. ii. p. 863 (1868). 



** Trichoglossus, c. Nanodes, gen. no. 2047, Hand-1. B. ii. p. 156 (1870). 

 tt List Vert. 6th ed. p. 269 (1877). 

 J$ Geogr. Distrib. Animals, ii. p. 327. 



Methodi Naturalis Avium disponendarum Tentamen, p. 71 (1872). 

 HI! P. Z. S. 1874, p. 586. 



