252 .PSITTACIDJE. 



quills pale-edged ; coverts edged with verdigris ; a deep red patch 

 on the middle secondary-coverts; median tail-feathers ^ blue, 

 greener towards the base, broadly tipped white, the next pair with 

 the outer webs blue, the others green on the outer, yellow on 

 the inner webs, all except the median pair tipped with yellow, 

 all yellowish below ; lower parts light yellowish green ; axillaries 

 and under wing-coverts bluish green. Occasionally the wing- 

 spot is orange, not red. 



Female. Head dull bluish grey (plum-blue), cheeks and chin 

 greyer and paler ; no black nor verdigris collar, but a yellow ring 

 roung the neck, broader on the side and covering the throat. 



Young birds are green throughout, and assume the cap 

 gradually. 



Upper mandible orange -yellow, lower black or blackish; iris 

 white or yellowish white ; feet dusky sap-green. 



Length about 14; tail 8-5; wing 5-25; tarsus '6; bill from 

 cere to tip *6. Females rather less. 



Distribution. Throughout the Peninsula of India and Ceylon in 

 suitable tracts, extending west to Mount Abu, Sambhar, and the 

 Eastern Punjab, and throughout the lower Himalayas (according 

 to Hume) to near Murree. This bird is found on the Western 

 Himalayas up to about 5000 feet. This species and the next 

 both occur in the Terai of Eastern Nepal, Sikhini, and the Bhutan 

 Duars, and perhaps in parts of Bengal. The statement (S. F. vii, 

 p. 261) that this species occurs in Dibrugarh, Assam, appears due 

 to some mistake. Mr. Cripps's specimens in the Hume collection 

 are all P. rosa. 



Habits, fyc. This is far more a forest-bird than P. torquatus, though 

 it is found in well-wooded cultivated districts as well as in forest. 

 It is somewhat migratory, retiring to the denser woods and often 

 to hill-forests to breed, and visiting more open country in the 

 rains. Its flight is even swifter than that of P. torquatus, and its 

 cry is softer and more musical ; otherwise its habits are the same. 

 The breeding-season is from February to May; and the eggs, 

 which are usually four in number, are white when fresh, broader 

 in proportion than those of P. torquatus, and much smaller, the 

 average measurements being 1 by *81. This Paroquet is less 

 frequently kept tame than P. nepalensis and P. torquatus. 



There can be no question that the Indian, not the Burmese, 

 species was the Psittacus cyanocephalus of Linnaeus. There was 

 a mistake, as Legge pointed out, in G-ould's ' Birds of Asia,' and 

 the names of the two were exchanged. This was also noticed in 

 Gould's letterpress under P. rosa. " Blossom-headed Parrakeet" 

 is Latham's name, and more than 100 years old. 



1140. Palaeornis rosa. The Eastern Blossom-headed 

 Paroquet. 



Psittacus rosa, Bodd. Tabl. PI. Enl p. 53 (1783). 

 Psittacus bengalensis, Gmel Syst. Nat. i, p. 325 (1788). 



