60 Mr. Vigors's Sketches in Ornithology. 



Arriving now at Palceornis, we may perceive that this group m 

 general still retains the abbreviated under mandible ; but in some 

 of the extreme species, more particularly Pal. P on dicer ianus, we 

 may detect an increasing length in that member which indicates 

 au approach to the longer billed tribes. In the species just men- 

 tioned also we may perceive a gradual decrease in the length of 

 the tail, the two middle feathers, which in the typical species 

 generally exceed the others by three inches or more, in this 

 species scarcely exceeding them by an inch and a half. In the 

 Pal. Papuensis again, and other species which holds an aberrant 

 station in the genus, we equally recognize a recession from the 

 typical birds, in its partially changing the emerald green colour 

 that characterizes the present group for the deep red which now 

 begins to predominate in the groups which succeed. We have 

 already observed the striking deviation in the form of the bill 

 pf that species. The next division of Parrakeets,' which, by 

 their lengthening bill and decreasing tail, as well as by other 

 less striking characters, appear to follow Paleeornis, is one of 

 peculiar interest. The representative of it is the Psii. hcema- 

 iodus of Linnaeus, a bird which was first discovered in the Mo- 

 lucca Islands, but which has since been found * in considerable 

 abundance in New Holland, where it is known by the name 

 of the Blue Mountain Lory. In the latter country also two or 

 three additional species of the same group are to be met with 

 which have hitherto escaped observation, or have been considered 

 mere varieties of Psit. hwmatodiis. Of this latter bird I had fre- 

 quently heard from several visitors of New Holland, that its mode 

 of feeding was partially different from that of the generality of 

 Parrots, and that it occasionally lived by suction, or at least 

 by using the tongue as the vehicle of its food- As I was aware 

 that the birds of that extraordinary division of the globe evince 



* It has been supposed by some authours, that the Molucca and tlie New 

 Holland birds are distinct species ; and they are always retained as different 

 varieties of the P. hcematodus even by those who consider them the same. 

 It is most probable that they form two species. But I have been enabled to 

 examine too few specimens of the Molucca birds to have it in my power to 

 form any decided opinion. 



