247 



/. Crown and nape green ; sides of head 



including ear-coverts brick-red. 

 y'. Upper mandible red. 



g". Breast yellowish green P. erythrogenys <$ , p. 268. 



h". Breast green with a bluish tinge .... P. tytleri tf , p. 259. 

 h'. Upper mandible black. 



". Mandibular band chiefly black P. erytkrogenys $ ,p. 258. 



k". Mandibular band dark green P. tytleri $ , p. 259. 



1134. Palaeornis eupatria. The Large Ceylonese P&roquet. 



Psittacus eupatria, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 140 (1766). 



Palseornis alexandri, apud Layard, A. M. N. H. (2) xiii, p. 262; nee 



Psittacus alexandri, Linn. 

 Palaeornis eupatria, Hume, S. F. \, p. 433 ; ii, p. 9 ; id. Cat. no. 147 - r 



Legge, Birds Ceyl. p. 168 ; Parker, Ibis, 1886, p. 183 ; Oates in 



Hume's N. fy E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 82 (partim) ; Salvadori, Cat. B. M. 



xx, p. 435. 

 Labu girawa, Cing. 



Coloration. Male. Above grass-green, much brighter on the 

 forehead and lores, and rather darker on the wings ; a dark line 

 from nostril to eye ; a rose-pink collar round the back and sides of 

 neck, nape just in front of collar more or less tinged bluish grey f 

 chin (thinly feathered) and a stripe from the lower mandible to- 

 the rose collar black ; a large deep red patch on the secondary 

 wing-coverts ; rump rather brighter green than the back ; median 

 tail-feathers passing from green at the base into verditer-blue, and 

 then into yellowish at the tips ; throat and breast dull pale green ; 

 abdomen brighter ; lower surface of quills and larger under wing- 

 coverts greyish brown, lesser under wing-coverts bright green; tail- 

 feathers below dull yellow. 



Female and young without either rose collar or black mandibular 

 stripe. 



Bill deep red ; iris pale yellow, with a bluish-grey inner circle ; 

 feet plumbeous. 



Length about 19 ; tail 11*5 ; wing 8 ; tarsus *8 ; bill from cere at 

 gape to point 1 ; depth of upper mandible (culmen to gape) *75. 

 Females a little less. 



Distribution. Throughout the greater part of Ceylon. Whether 

 the Paroquets observed in the Carnatic by Jerdon, and in Mysore 

 by Taylor, and the individual taken from a Shahin falcon by 

 Jerdon in Malabar, belonged to this or the next species is 

 uncertain. There is no specimen from Southern India in the 

 British Museum (including the Hume) collection. The measure- 

 ments given by Jerdon agree with P. nepalensis, the cinereous feet 

 with P. eupatria. 



This and the following three species are merely races or sub- 

 species of one well-marked form. P. eupatria is smaller than the 

 others and has a smaller bill. 



Habits, $c. The habits of all four races are precisely similar. 

 They keep to well-wooded tracts, and are social birds living in 

 colonies and generally flying in flocks, often uttering a shrill call 



