Notes on the Parroquets of India. 335 



Tliis seems somewhat like a fancy portrait. 



Jerdon's description of what he terms P. Alexandri is a propos 

 to nothing-, and does not in any respect apply to it ; neither does 

 the description furnished to me by Lieut. Col. K.. Tytler of speci- 

 mens from Oudh and Rajmahal. 



Blyth in his Catalogue of the birds in the Museum of the 

 Asiatic Society in Calcutta, has given at No. 16, a confusion of 

 names which every one since his time has reverently followed 

 and applied to the Ceylon bird, and yet it is altogether worth- 

 less, since as before stated, P. Alexandri not being found on the 

 Continent of India, it is clear that Hodgson's P, Ni2}alensis is 

 distinct. 



This has long been my firm conviction, and now, in 1872, my 

 friend Mr. A. O. Hume informs me that he has received two 

 specimens of the true P. Alexandri from Ceylon-, and that he is 

 disposed to believe that it is distinct from the Indian bird pass- 

 ing under that name ; we may therefore in future erase it from 

 our Indian fauna. 



No. 2.— PalaBornis sivalensis. Eutton. 



This name is only provisionally applied, as it is as yet doubtful 

 whether it may not be identical with Hodgson's P. nipalensis, 

 the description of which I have not seen. It is also probably 

 identical with the bird which the bird-catchers annually bring 

 round as nestlings from the Terai forests below Kumaon, 

 and which they call the rai totali, or royal parrakeet, fi'om 

 Kaladoongee. 



The bird to which I assign the above name is found in great 

 numbers in the Eastern Dhoon, below the Siwaliks, near Hurdwar, 

 but according to the information yet procured, does not occur on 

 the western side of Dehra. Towards the end of January and 

 beginning of February, it begins to cut a circular hole in some 

 tree wherein to lay its eggs, which are usually two in number, 

 and pure white. The tree generally in request for this pur-' 

 pose is the semul or cotton tree (Bombax lieptapkyllum, 

 and malaharicimi) , although, sometimes, even the hard wooded 

 sal (Shorea roiusta) is chosen; the entrance hole is a neat- 

 ly cut circle, either in the trunk or in some thick upright 

 branch. The trees selected by these birds are not situated in 

 the depths of the forests, but are detached on the outskirts, and 

 what is curious in such a quarrelsome bird there are often three 

 or four nests in the same tree. The eggs are hatched in about 

 twenty-one days, and in the middle of March the young birds 

 are about half fledged, and are then removed for sale. They are, 

 exceedingly easy to rear and soon become tolerably tame, althougk^ 



