DIE PAPAGEIEN. 17 



want a " full, true, and particular account " from one who has 

 taken scores of purpureas from their nest-holes and reared them 

 by dozens ? Let Capt. Hutton speak ; his synonymy is faulty, 

 he is no cabinet naturalist, but he knows the birds as well as he 

 does his own children. He says : 



"The nestling- bird has a pale yellow beak, but neither wing- 

 spot nor coloured head ; it is uniformly of a pale yellowish green, 

 with a still lighter coloured ring round the neck, and the upper 

 surface of the tail exhibits a little blue. 



" In the second year the head becomes of a fine bluish cast, with 

 a yellow collar round the neck, when it becomes the P. cyanoce- 

 phalus, and in the third year, the head of the male becomes a 

 most beautiful rich peach blossom, shading off to the black ring 

 into a soft azure blue. In the third year the full plumage of 

 the adult is acquired, and each subsequent year, for some time, 

 only adds to its richness of colouring." 



I should extend this paper beyond all reasonable limits if I 

 were to specify all the mistakes into which, it appears to me, 

 Dr. Finsch has fallen, but I may mention that the yellow 

 or rather orange yellow wing-spot, which seems to puzzle him 

 so sorely in Edward's and LeVailli ant's figures, is I believe a 

 normal stage of the young male's plumage in pnrpnreus (and 

 possibly also in bengalensis) , just prior to the assumption of the 

 red wing-spot. Poor LeVailliant has sins enough to answer 

 for, and need not here, I think, be accused (as Dr. Finsch good- 

 naturedly suggests) of manufacturing his plate out of Edwards ; 

 orange yellow wing-spot birds are common enough, and if he 

 will pay the postage and return* the specimen, I will send him 

 one to look at. 



Next we have my (8) P. schisticeps, Hodgson, which Dr. 

 Finsch is pleased to name afresh, the combination of a word 

 " derived from the Greek crx^, with the Latin ceps," being 

 too much for his sensitive classical nerves ! 



Of this species he remarks, p. 32 : 



" According to Blyth " (and he might have added Hodgson 

 who described the bird, Jerdon, and a dozen others) " the 

 females are only distinguished by the absence of the red-brown 

 wing-spot." Blyth of course being no authority any more than 

 other Indian ornithologists, Dr. Finsch continues, " I am much 

 more inclined to conclude that the red brown spot would appear 

 also in the full plumaged female," in other words he through his 

 supreme wisdom without having examined a single bird in the 



* This is not a matter of course, because a naturalist who begins by appropriat- 

 ing his neighbour's species, may end by annexing their specimens. As Dr. Finsch 

 would doubtless say " Facile descensus, fyc ! " 



