40 Mr. Vigors's Sketches in Ornithology. 



with a slight variation as to colour. " Sola India mittit Psittacum 

 avem, colore viridi, torque punkeo."* Apuleius again alludes to 

 the same characters, but more immediately and forcibly distin- 

 guishes the varying tints of the collar round the neck. *' Color 

 Psittaco virzdi's, et intimis plumulis et extimis palmulis, nisi quod 

 sola cervice distinguitur. Enimvero cervicula ejus circulo mineo 

 velutawrea ^orgwz pari fulgoris circumactu cingitur et coionatur." + 

 Oppian gives the bird an epithet ^ which precisely represents the 

 colour of the modern group to which I allude ; 



"itrrxyas avre^ Kvy.os te, svv aWrikoist vc[a.ovtoi^ 

 Aisi yxf iro^msi KvKot nOESIXPOON op<v. 



De Venat. Lib. 11. v. 488. 



While Ovid, in like manner, particularizes both the emerald 

 plumage and the deep red bill. 



Tu poteras fragiles plumis hebetare smaragdos, 

 Tincta gercns rubra Punica rostra croco. 



Amor. Lib. II. El. Vl. 



It generally, indeed as I apprehend, invariably happens, that 

 when groups are separated from all others of the same family by 

 characters of colouring thus decisively marking, and are at the same 

 time confined within certain geographical limits to the exclusion 

 of all the other conterminous groups of tlie same family, such 

 groups are set apart also by generick characters equally distin- 

 guishing. This at least is the case in the assemblance of birds now 

 before us, which I shall proceed to characterize under the gene- 

 rick name of 



PALiEOUNIS. 



nostrum subcrassum ; mandibula superiore dilatata culmine 

 rotundo, inferiore lata, brevi, emarginata. 



Alee mediocres ; remigibus tribus extimis fere aequalibus, lon- 



* Polyhist. c. 23. + Florid. Lib. IL 



:|: The epithet av&oipfEi applied to the wing of this bird, in the passage lately 

 quoted from the " Anthologia," (p. 42. Note), seems to refer to the same co- 

 lour, or may perhaps allude to the rose-like spot upon the wing. 



