12 DIE PAPAGEIEN. 



have sent me numerous carefully sexed specimens of the Thayet- 

 myo birds, and Messrs. Legge and Gr. Nevill, of Ceylon birds ; 

 Capt. Hutton is quite a paroquet fancier, and always has a lot of 

 all ages alive about his house, and we are all, I fancy, ready to 

 aver, that the female in this group of species, or sub-species, never 

 has the rose colored neck-ring, and never has the broad black 

 mandibular bands which are continued in the males, as black 

 lines on the sides of the neck. 



" What the young birds are like is unfortunately never said/' 

 Well, let Dr. Finsch hear what Capt. Hutton says : 



" The nestling bird at two months old has the bill large, 

 powerful, and massive, especially in the male, and of a coral red, 

 inclining to dusky at the base above ; there is an incipient dusky, 

 somewhat bristly narrow line from the eye to the nostril, but by 

 no means approaching to black, while in some, there is no trace 

 of it at all. A large elongated purplish red patch near the bend 

 of the wing in both sexes even from the nest ; in some, but not 

 in all, there is a dusky indication of what at a later period will 

 become the black demi-collar on the side of the neck ; these are 

 males. The sexes can be distinguished by a practised eye by the 

 size and shape of the head ; in the male, the forehead from the 

 base of the bill backward to just behind the eyes, is well arched, 

 but thence passes back to the nape, flattened and straight, giving 

 the head an elongated appearance; whereas in the female the 

 head is both smaller, and well arched, from the base of the bill to 

 the nape. There is likewise a marked difference in the form and 

 massiveness of the beak ; in the male it is wider along the cul- 

 men, and well rounded out on the sides ; in the female it is flat- 

 ter on the sides, that is to say, more compressed, and the culmen 

 is consequently sharper ; the lower mandible is punt shaped in 

 both sexes. At first the pupil of the eye is entirely black with- 

 out any iris, but when about two months old, a pale ashy white 

 iris begins to appear. Gradually from this time the white iris 

 becomes more and more apparent, and is encircled by a faint 

 narrow bluish outer border, and the edge of the eyelids becomes 

 granular and reddish. The feet are of a dull greyish leaden hue." 



I can confirm the greater portion of this from personal obser- 

 vation. As for what Dr. Finsch can prove, about torquatus and 

 cyanocephalus, we shall see hereafter, in the meantime in regard to 

 the present group of species, I would remark, that if Leith Adams 

 really says he found any one of them common in the " Forest 

 districts of Ladakh," I will not contradict him, but I can only 

 say I have been all over Ladakh, twice, without being so fortunate 

 as to meet with any Forest district, and that I never myself met 



