LEPTOLOPHUS auricomis, 

 Golden-eared Parrakeet. 



Sub- family Psittacinse. Genus Platycercus. Sub-genus Leptoloplui- 



(The Rasorial type.) 



Sub-Generic Character. 



Bill distinctly toothed, culmen slightly carinated; nostrils thick, 

 tumid, naked ; head crested ; wings very long, outer web of the 

 quills not sinuated; tail very broad, cuneated, the two middle 

 tail feathers conspicuously longest and pointed. 



Specific Character. 



Cinereous, wings with a longitudinal white stripe ; ears orangt 

 lateral tail feathers banded with yellow and black. 

 Palseomis Novee-Hollandiae. New Holland Parrakeet. Lears 

 Parrots, *No 8. 



The discovery of this remarkable and highly interesting 

 Australian species is due to Allen Cunningham, Esq. 

 who, on an inland expedition ordered by our government, 

 in 1827, discovered it in small flocks on the arid sandy 

 plains between Lat. 29 and 28, 50. Long. 150| E. We 

 must again express our public thanks to this intelligent 

 and liberal naturalist for the ornithological specimens then 

 collected. Among these were two skins of the bird in 

 question ; but as the mere addition of a new species to our 

 already overwhelming list would be of little importance to 

 the philosophy of the science, we have hitherto refrained 

 from publishing it. In truth, the natural affinities of this 

 extraordinary Cockatoo-Parrakeet called for a much deeper 

 investigation of the whole family than it had yet received, 

 nor are we ashamed to confess that nearly five years 

 elapsed before we could partially accomplish this, with 

 any thing like satisfactory results. But we regret not the 

 delay, since it is obvious that the illustration of such an 

 apparently anomalous form as this, is infinitely more use- 

 ful to science than the specification, in a few lines, of a 

 hundred new species, or even of as many new genera, 

 unaccompanied by analytical or comparative results. The 

 time, in fact, is now gone by, when such crude additions 

 to ornithological nomenclature, possess any claim to per- 

 manent interest, or carry with them any authority : they 

 encumber rather than advance science, by keeping up the 

 already overwhelming stock of undigested materials. Mr. 

 Lear has recently given beautiful figures of this species, 

 hut under the peculiarly inappropriate name of PalseornU 

 Ndvse-hollandise. The genus is Platycercus, all the 

 species of which are from New Holland, excepting those 

 of the Fissirostral type. The exactness of our figure 

 renders a detailed account of its plumage unessential. 



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