THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 181 



question, that in this species the entire bills in the young of both 

 sexes are black, and that they continue so in the females at all 

 ages ; while in the male, as the bird ages, the upper mandible 

 gradually changes from black to bright vermilion in the fresh 

 specimen, a color which fades after death to a kind of crimson. 



Davison remarks of this species : — " I have never observed this 

 paroquet on any of the islands of the Nicobars, and even on 

 the Andamans, where it does occur, it is less numerous than the 

 other two species. I have only shot it in the immediate vicinity 

 of Port Blair, and although I thought it would be likely to 

 occur on the other islands of the Andaman group and the 

 Cocos, I failed to obtain it from, or even make sure of its occur- 

 rence in, any of these. 



u In habits, it closely resembles P. erytlirogenys and P. affunis, 

 but does not associate in such large numbers, being usually 

 found in small parties of five or six, which are probably all 

 members of the same family. I have found it most numerous 

 about Mount Harriet in South Andaman." 



I suppose very few really perfect plumaged adults of this 

 species have ever been measured in the flesh, and our series of 

 carefully recorded measurements from perfect adults will be 

 useful. 



I should note that in this species it is rare to get really per- 

 fect long-tailed females, and my experience is that wherever 

 and whenever you come across flocks of this bird the great 

 majority have very poor tails, but the really perfect female is 

 scarcely at all smaller than the males. 



Length, 14 to 16 ; expanse, 19*75 to 21 ; wing, 6*75 to 7 ; 

 tail, from vent, 7*5 to 9 ; the weight is about 6 ozs. 



The legs and feet are dull grass green ; the soles bluish white ; 

 the claws blackish ; the hides are yellowish white ; the bills I 

 have already described. 



I forgot to mention that specimens from the various conti- 

 nental Indian localities above mentioned are absolutely identi- 

 cal with those from the Andamans. 



I doubt whether this is a permanent resident. Captain Wimber- 

 ley, who, after Davison left, collected largely from June to Sep- 

 tember, does not appear to have met with a single specimen 

 during this period, and later he informed me that they did not 

 come in again until the very end of October. 



152 fo's.-Palaeornis erythrogenys, Blyth. (42.) 



Of the red-cheeked paroquet we brought home, or had 

 sent us later, altogether 114 carefully sexed specimens from all 



