REVIEW. 323 



And he is like the true cuckoos, and unlike the true Phcenicopliaince^ 

 an arboreal bird, using low cover little aiid the ground less. 



From the company of crows and cuckoos we emerge into a 

 clearer ornithomoral atmosphere ; and it is only for convenience' sake 

 that we take the next genus (Cent7'opus) a little out of its order. It has- 

 four species in India, of which we have one in Bombay, C. sinensis. 

 Mr. Blanford has rid us of some unnecessary species, but observes that 

 *' those who require a distinct term for the Indian Peninsular bird 

 should call it C. castanopterus (Stephens, 1826), and not, as hitherto, 

 C. Tufipennis.'''' This is the " crow-pheasant" of most writers — a bad 

 name, as it is neither a crow nor a pheasant. The commonest old 

 English name in Bombay, " Malabar Pheasant," is not quite so bad, 

 implying, with a gentle irony, that it was as like a pheasant as any- 

 thing else in Malabar. Perhaps the best name would be the " Griffin's 

 pheasant." For few of us have put one out of a roadside ditch for 

 the first time without taking it for something "good to kill." Beaters 

 and shikaris, mostly thinking it good to eat, are apt to encourage the 

 idea with " ulterior motives." The best native name is the Maratha 

 one, " Kumbhar-kukada " (Potter-cuckoo), which puts it in the right 

 family and notices its queer mixture of bkck and red colours like 

 those of an overburnt clay-pot. 



Next the " Griffin's pheasant " (before and after him in our book) 

 comes a lot of other PhoemcopJiaince^ for whom we may borrow half a 

 name from the Telugu and call them " parrot-cuckoos. " Most of 

 them have the frame and plumage of a short-winged cuckoo, but an 

 arched beak, more or less brightly coloured. They are birds of low 

 cover and of the ground, and of academical interest chiefly. 



The parrots constitute Mr. Blanford's ninth order, of which we have 

 only one family and two genera. The second, Loriculus, is rather 

 Malayan than Indian, and we have but one species, L. vernalis^ the 

 loriquet, or dwarf paroquet of the ghats — a bird not common and apt 

 to escape notice, as it is small, shy, and protectively coloured ; but 

 it has been recorded up " to the latitude of Bombay." 



We have taken it first to clear the ground, as the other Indian paro- 

 quets need some remarks. " Paroquet," it may be observed, is the 

 best English name to use for them, leaving " parrot " to the short- 

 tailed birds. The first to notice are the Alexandrine paroquets, of 

 which Mr. Blanford enumerates four, careful to observe that they "■ are 



