20 DIE PAPAGEIEN.> 



which I have dissected numbers, but as Dr. Finsch tells us (p. 61) 

 that he has himself ascertained this by dissection, T unhesitatingly 

 accept the fact. 



Next we have Dr. Finsch's (9) Lathami, and (10) melanorr- 

 hynchus = my (12) fasciatm. Here the male is elevated into a 

 distinct species, as Lathami, while his (10) is the female. When 

 dealing- with Alexandri (p. 62) he digresses to tell us that he has 

 examined at least ten specimens of his Lathami (I have shot and 

 sexed twice as many in one day) and has always found the upper 

 mandible red, but the lower, on the contrary, black. And that 

 this, and the examination of more than a dozen black-billed birds 

 " showed him clearly that these could in no wise be the females, 

 as .Jerdon and Blyth set forth " (poor Jerdon and Blyth, always 

 wrong ! Finsch, the clever fellow, always right !!) " but on the 

 contrary, constituted a separate species." He adds with that 

 deliciously bland assumption of superiority and omniscience 

 which irradiates his pages, " it appears to me also that the 

 change of colour in the bill of which these ornithologists speak, 

 is an erroneous conception ." 



Yet the erroneous conception is wholly on Dr. Finsch's part ; 

 here I speak positively, having myself sexed a great number of 

 specimens of this species in "Upper India, and Davison having 

 recently done the same in the Andamans ; having obtained the 

 young males with black bills, and seen 1he colour of the bill 

 gradually change, and possessing numerous specimens exhibiting 

 just that change, in every stage of transition, of the colour of the 

 bill which is so authoritatively pronounced to be " an erroneous 

 conception/'' 



Let Di\ Finsch rest assured, that " unfortunate" as it is (p. 

 69) that he has never yet been able to meet with any but old, red 

 billed birds, of his Lathami, fate is against him, and he never will! 



I too, who have seen thousands, and shot hundreds, of these 

 black, and red billed paroquets, have equally never yet been able 

 to meet with any but old red billed birds, and what is more I 

 have never been fortunate enough to meet with a female amongst 

 these red billed fellows, nor a full plumaged male amongst the 

 black-billed ones ! Young males enough have I seen, with black 

 upper mandibles, and had them tame (they are very gentle birds), 

 but confound them ! as they grew up, they too, got some erroneous 

 conception into their pretty heads and actually (regardless of the 

 whole family of Fringillidse) went and changed into the other 

 species ! What they meant by it, Dr. Finsch obviously cannot 

 tell, and of coarse no one else can, so we may be content to leave 

 this amongst those insoluble mysteries of nature, which " no 

 i'ellar can understand ! " 



