Notes on the Parroquets of India. . 341 



the same time his description does not apply at all correctly to 

 the North-Western bird, and it would seem as if he had desci-ibed 

 the southern species and taken it for grantad that the northern 

 bird was the same. 



One of these parrots kept by a buniah or grain-seller in the 

 Bazaar at Neemuch, in Western India, came to a curious end, 

 and one that nearly frightened its owner out of his wits. At 

 night when the man lay down to sleep, the parrot^s iron cage 

 with a cloth thrown over it was as usual placed beside his bed, 

 but in the morning dire was the fright of the buniah when on 

 removing the cloth, no parrot appeared to greet him, but in its 

 stead, lay coiled up a hideous cobra. The snake being hungry 

 had squeezed itself in between the bars, but having swallowed 

 the bird, he had become too corpulent to squeeze out again. 



Jerdon says nothing of the black border to the upper mandi- 

 ble, nor of the black under mandible. 



Palseornis SCMsticeps. Hodgson. 



(Himalayan Parrakeet.) 

 Syn. 



P. schisticeps ... Hodgs. As. Res. XIX., 178. 



Conurus himalayanus ... ? Lesson Belang. Voy. apud Blyth 



Cat. 



Madhana Syga, Nepal . . . PaJiaree Tooia, Mussooree. 



These birds, like the males of P. hengalensis, vary greatly 

 in the colouring of the head from the nestling state to maturity. 

 "When fully adult, the name of P. melanocepliala would be even 

 more applicable than the present one, for there is then no slate 

 colour on the forehead. Although a true mountaineer, it des- 

 cends in the winter season to the gardens and groves around 

 Dehra and is often mixed up with the flocks of P. hengalensis 

 a,nd P. tofqiMtiis ; but in the early spring they return to the 

 hills which they never at any season entirely quit, and breed in 

 April and May, The tree most usually selected is a large 

 species of gum-yielding Pau/dnia, each tree harbouring but one 

 pair of birds. The nestlings, and even many of the old birds 

 while sitting, are destroyed in great numbers by some animal 

 of the Marten or weasel kind, most probably Maries fiavigula. 

 If the destroyer be this animal, it must withdraw the birds from 

 their nests by its fore-paws as it could not introduce the 

 head. 



When first taken from the nest and about half fledged, the 

 young birds are dull green, with a very faint tinge of slaty on 

 the head, but not always so. At about a year old or even less, 

 the male has the entire head of a pale slaty colour ; the base 



