PSITTACULUS.  vernalis. 
Vernal Parrakeet. 
EEE 
Family Psittacide.—Vigors. 
Genus Psittaculus.— (Lesson. Man. 2. p. 148.) 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
Green, with the head more splendid ; bill red; rump and upper 
tail covers scarlet ; spot on the throat orange. 
Psittacus vernalis. Sparman Mus. Carl. Pl. 29. 
Psittacula vernalis. Gen. Zool. 14. p. 144. 
— 
Tue Vernal Parrakeet has hitherto remained unfigured, 
except in the scarce and little known work of Sparman : 
nor was its native country ascertained, until recent travel- 
lers discovered it in the islands of Java and Teinor. 
This is one of the smallest of parrots, scarcely exceeding 
five inches in length ; the feathers of the head have a silky 
texture, and their colour, in some lights, is particularly 
vivid : the tail and the wings are green above, but of a rich 
deep blue beneath; a character said to be equally con- 
spicuous in P. galgulus L. The spot on the throat, in 
our specimen, is orange. 
In respect to the situation of this bird among its conge- 
ners, we retain it, provisionally, in the genus Psittacula of 
Brisson & Kuhl, adopting the termination used by M. Spix, 
to avoid the alteration of specific names. We have not yet 
had leisure to study the new divisions made in this family, 
with that attention they deserve; but it strikes us, as a 
defect in the genus Psittaculus, that it unites birds of the 
Old and the New World in one group. Except in their 
size, no two parrots can be more dissimilar in construction 
than the Indian P. vernalis, and the American P. passeri- 
nus. In the first, the under mandible is smallest, narrow, 
and rather pointed; the first quill longest; and the tail 
feathers rounded. In P. passerinus, the under mandible is 
largest, high, very thick, and quite obtuse; the second 
quill longest, and the tail feathers acutely pointed. These 
may be usefully employed as sectional characters, until the 
contents of the two groups are better understood. 
