4 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 



is called in scientific language Platycercus eximius, eximius 

 being a Latin word meaning "excellent," on account 

 of the striking beauty of this showy bird. 



In commencing this subject, I mentioned that indivi- 

 duals of a species usually produced young like themselves. 

 But they do not always do so ; the Ring-necked Parra- 

 keet, for instance, not unfrequently produces a yellow 

 young bird, quite different from its ordinary green off- 

 spring. Such an individual is said to belong to a variety 

 of the species ; it came from green parents, and for all 

 we know, may, if it has the chance, produce green young 

 in its turn may " throw back," as breeders say. 



If, however, common green Parrakeets never produced 

 yellow young, and if in a certain district, all the Parra- 

 keets of a certain Palwornis type were yellow, we should 

 call this a species ; it would probably be known as 

 Palwornis luteus, luteus being the Latin for " yellow/' 

 We should presume that these birds were the offspring of 

 yellow parents, and would in their turn produce yellow 

 young would " breed true," as is commonly said. 



Every variety, therefore, has a chance of becoming 

 a species, and every species must have once been a 

 variety, if the theory of the evolution of species from 

 pre-existing species be admitted, as it is generally 

 now-a-days. 



It will thus be seen that the distinction between species 

 and variety is a piece of zoological snobbery, so to speak ; 

 if a bird's antecedents are all right and a likeness has 

 been handed down from father to son indefinitely, as far 

 as we can see, he belongs to a " good species : " but if 



