NANODES. 197 



which the bill is less bulging, the tail very broad, 

 and not so cuneiform as in the other species, and such 

 would appear to be the New Guinea Broad-Tail 

 (Plat. Novce Guinea, Wagler), in which the ophthal- 

 mic region is naked, a character that may perhaps 

 imply the propriety of further generic division. 



From the typical genus Platycercus, we now pass on 

 to a group composed of birds of smaller dimensions, 

 but eminent for their delicate form and pleasing 

 plumage, and which have not inaptly been termed 

 miniature analogues of the splendid Maccaws. In 

 this lovely genus, the tail, in some species, as Nano- 

 des venustus, and Nan. pulchellus, Vigors and Hors- 

 field, retains to a considerable extent the breadth and 

 depression of the Broadtails. In the Nanodes dis- 

 color. Vigors and Horsfield, as previously remarked, 

 it in a great measure loses that character, and as- 

 sumes the form, exhibited by the Ring-Parakeets or 

 genus Palceornis, Vigors, the legs and feet as in 

 Platycercus, are also slender and lengthened, and 

 the claws but ^lightly hooked. This group forms 

 the genus Nanodes of Vigors and Horsfield, or that 

 of Euphemia, Wagler, distinguished by the follow- 

 ing characters : Bill short, higher than long, the 

 upper mandible with the culmen rounded, arid the 

 tomia in the typical species without a distinct tooth 

 or emargination, under mandible very short, inclining 

 inwards, emarginate, with the apex broad, quadrate, 

 and slightly sinaatad. Palatial catting membranes 



