DIE PAPAGEIEN. 21 



In the youngest birds that I have seen, taken, when just able to 

 fly, from the nest hole, while two birds, one a specimen of Lathami 

 (which I erroneously conceived to be the father), with a red upper 

 mandible, and the other a specimen of melanorrhynchus (which I 

 erroneously conceived to be the mother), shrieked round us, 

 which two specimens curiously enough, on dissection, did prove 

 (unless I erroneously conceived the fact) to be respectively male 

 and female ; I say these young birds (hybrids doubtless !) had 

 both mandibles blackish. 



I should state that the narrow line of vinaceous red bounding 

 the posterior margin of the grey cap, and the green hue suffusing 

 the forehead and cheeks on which Dr. Finsch lays stress in his 

 diagnosis of his melanorrhynchus are characters of the young male 

 at one stage only of its plumage. 



It may be well also to mention that in this paroquet, the changes 

 of plumage, and in the color of the upper mandible in the 

 male, do not always take place in the same order. I have 

 one young male for instance, in which the upper mandible is 

 quite red, while the red on the breast is only just beginning 

 to appear, and the tail is not half developed ; on the other 

 hand, 1 have another young male with a nearly perfect tail and 

 rich blossom red breast, in which the upper mandible is quite 

 black except a narrow red streak on the culmen, and another on 

 either side. 



Before passing on to the next species, I am compelled to notice 

 a not very ingenuous attempt to saddle Dr. Jerdon with blame 

 for not discriminating the Javan and Bornean bird from the 

 Indian ; from the way our author writes, it would seem as if Dr. 

 Jerdon had, on his own authority, pronounced that the species 

 were identical. As a fact, all Jerdon knew, or pretended to 

 know, was the Indian species, of which he wrote — he pro- 

 bably never saw (as I have never yet seen) a decent specimen of 

 alexandri j but he found that other ornithologists had asserted 

 the identity of the two, and naturally accepted the fact (which 

 he was in no position to verify), and with it the synonymy. It 

 would be well if Dr. Finsch had no more serious errors to answer 

 for ; not least amongst his transgressions I hold his putting for- 

 ward this mistake, as a ground for doubting what Dr. Jerdon 

 asserted on his own knowledge in regard to the Indian species 

 which he had himself observed. 



Columboides, Jerdon, disguised under Dr. Finsch's new name 

 peristerodes, is the next species dealt with by that author. 



Really the wonders disclosed by this work pass human com- 

 prehension ! Dr. Finsch records an adult male, from the Hima- 

 layas, in the Leyden Museum, and an adult female, precisely 



