14 DIE PAPAGEIEN". 



condition of things in other species, in which likewise a distinc- 

 tion between male and female has been asserted to exist, which 

 has however, in all probability, been based upon a misconception 

 of the immature plumage." 



Here then are Dr. Fin sen's strong proofs ; proofs which in his 

 opinion justify his speaking of what Jerdon, Layard, Blyth, 

 Hutton, and a dozen other Indian naturalists have stated as facts, 

 the result of their personal observations, as "pretences." 



Let us examine these proofs. First, there is an African speci- 

 men, with a rose coloured ring, sexed by Dr. Brehm as a female. 

 Dr. Finsch says that the African and Indian birds belDng to the 

 same species ; I do not contradict him, I know nothing of the 

 African bird, but, if Brehm correctly sexed the African bird, 

 and it was not a monstrosity, such as we often meet with, spe- 

 cially in the Anatida and Pkasianida, of old females, barren, or 

 with diseased ovaries, putting on the male livery, then I positively 

 assert, that the African species is different from our Indian bird, 

 in which (I must have sexed 100 specimens in my life) the 

 female never has the red neck ring. 



Then there is a gentleman who has seen the green birds as- 

 sume the red ring, and Dr. Finsch has himself seen 30 green 

 birds all together (African again) which could not all have been 

 females ! Considering that even in our Indian species all the 

 young are colored like the females, and that the red ring is only 

 assumed about two years after birth, I fail to see the force of 

 these proofs. 



Then but we have already exhausted, I find, Dr. Finscb/s 



" strong proofs ! " 



Is it conceivable, that on evidence like this, any man should 

 deliberately contradict, and that as it seems to me by no means 

 over-courteously, the statements of trustworthy and acute prac- 

 tical observers like Blyth and Jerdon ? He has positively not 

 adduced one single fact or even argument bearing upon the 

 Indian birds, in regard to which, alone, they asserted anything. 



The females of the African birds may have the black man- 

 dibular bands and the rosy neck ring and may be exactly like 

 the males ; I should not have expected it, but if any trustworthy 

 naturalist who has sexed only one-fourth as many African as 

 I have Indian specimens asserts the fact, I should not dream 

 of contradicting him, but in our Indian Birds it is certainly not 

 the case. 



Nothing, we are again informed, is said of the young. Well 

 let our oldest Indian naturalist, who knew all about these paro- 

 quets long before Dr. Finsch was born, enlighten him. 



" The nestling is of a uniform pale green, without any mark- 



