18/8.] AND OTHER ARGENTINE PARROTS. 77 



cylindrical) to that instrument, but by no means to that of a stalk 

 of a flower or fruit, to which the tongue has no resemblance. 



I have at this very moment under my inspection the tongue of a 

 large Macrocercus macao (Sittace chloroptera, Gray), which recently 

 died in the house of one of my friends. This tongue has on each 

 side, behind the two fringed lobes, with which the tongue of all 

 parrots terminate, several large spines. 



In the tongue of Bolborhynchus murinus I find no spines in the 

 same place. 



In volume i. of the same work, Dr. Finsch thinks it surprising 

 (auffallend) that I have not mentioned that Conurus nanday also 

 inhabits the Argentine Republic, although the specimen in Mr. 

 Sclater's collection came from Buenos Aires. This latter fact may 

 be true ; but I am still more surprised to find that Dr. Finsch thinks 

 that all specimens coming from Buenos Aires must necessarily have 

 lived in this country. The species alluded to is by no means an 

 inhabitant of the Argentine Republic, but comes only from Paraguay, 

 and is often brought to Buenos Aires alive, as the bird is here con- 

 sidered a great rarity. That it lives also at Bolivia I have never 

 heard here in Buenos Aires, though I have had a living specimen in 

 my room for a long while, which was very tame, and would stand on 

 my shoulder and remain in this position while I took long walks. 

 At last I gave it to a friend of mine who was going to Europe, with 

 the instruction that after its death it was to be put in the collection 

 at Halle. 



The description of this bird given by Dr. Finsch is not entirely 

 correct. The head has no blackish brown on the front and vertex, 

 but is entirely black, the brown colour being the consequence of the 

 skin being old and dry. 



In vol. ii. part 1, p. 116, of Dr. Finsch's work, the Bolborhynchus 

 monachus is named " calita." The orthography of this term is 

 erroneous, the bird, which is very common in all parts of the Argen- 

 tine Republic, being called always catita. Again, Dr. Finsch says 

 the two sexes do not differ ; but I find the breast of the male of a 

 much clearer grey than that of the female, and that it has very dis- 

 tinct, darker and clearer transverse stripes, while the latter are 

 wanting in the female, which has an obscure grey-coloured breast, 

 with a trace of brown-grey, which is not seen at all in the male. 



In the young state both sexes are alike. 



In vol. ii. p. 126, Dr. Finsch describes my Bolborhynchus 

 rubrirostris from the young specimen sent by myself to the Bremen 

 Museum, and blames me for not mentioning the blue-grey-greenish 

 colour on the throat and breast. But this colour is not persistent, 

 but is only found in the young bird (of the first year). The adult 

 bird is entirely clear green on the breast, the same as on the neck 

 and the whole body. From the young state of the specimen ex- 

 amined by Dr. Finsch results also the discrepancy in the length of 

 the wing, which measures 5 inches in the old bird, and not 3" 10" 

 as he says. 



