109 



THE ROSE-RINGED PAROQUET. 

 Tola, Hin. 



Length, 16'5 ; wing, 6'5 to 7 ; tail, 9'5 ; bill from gape, 1. 



Bill cherry-red ; irides pale yellow ; feet cinereous. 



Adult male : head and face emerald-green ; a dark line from the 

 nostrils to the front of the eye, indistinct round the base of the 

 narrow cere ; hind-neck and nape glaucous or light-ashy, succeed- 

 ed on the sides of the neck by a black demi-collar meeting under 

 the chin and followed by another of a peach-rose color ; back, 

 scapulars, and tertiaries dull-green ; upper tail-coverts emerald- 

 green ; entire under-surface pale green, yellowish towards the 

 vent ; primaries, their coverts and secondaries, dark-green, their 

 inner webs and under-surface dusky ; tail-feathers dark-green, 

 their inner webs and under-surface yellowish, the two centre fea- 

 thers dark-green at their base, bluish for the remaining two-thirds 

 and tipped yellowish, all black shafted ; under wing-coverts 

 greenish-yellow. 



The female wants the rose collar, but has a bright emeraldine 

 narrow green collar in its place. 



The Rose-ringed Paroquet occurs in vast flocks, throughout the 

 district ; it is a permanent resident, breeding during February 

 and March, in holes in trees or stone walls, occasionally under 

 roof tiles ; when the nest hole is in a tree, it is often two or three 

 feet in extent. 



There is no nest ; the eggs, four in number, are deposited on any 

 chips that may have accidentally fallen whilst the hole was being 

 enlarged ; they are oval in shape, pure glossless white in color, 

 and measure 1*2 in length by 0*95 in breadth. 



The absurd attitude and affected manner of the female during 

 the courting season in the endeavour to attract the notice of her 

 mate is highly entertaining ; the male, on the other hand, seems 

 to take little notice of it, beyond rewarding her with an occasional 

 kiss. 



Palaeornis purpureus, P. Z. S. Mull. 



149. Palceornis rosa, Bodd. Jerdon's Birds of India, Yol. I, p. 

 259 ; Butler, Guzerat ; Stray Feathers, Vol. Ill, p, 457 ; Deccan, 

 Stray Feathers, Yol. IX, p. 384 ; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central 

 India; Ibis, 1885, p. 62. 



THE ROSE-HEADED PAROQUET. 

 Tuia-tota, Hin. 



Length, 14 to 15 ; wing, 5'25 ; tail, 8'5 ; bill from gape, 0'62 

 to 07. 



Bill : upper mandible yellow,, under dusky ; irides, outer circle 

 yellowish- white, inner blue ; legs grey. 



Adult male : the whole head and face pale roseate, tinged with 

 plum-bloom posteriorly and inferiorly ; a black spot from the base 

 of the lower mandible, uniting into a narrow complete collar, and 

 meeting its opposite one at the chin, which is thus broadly black ; 



