324 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



merely races or sub-species of one well-marked form." Oddly enough, 

 he will not allow any of them to be " the true Palmornis alexandriy^ 

 which, he says, is a Javanese species. . As the paroquets were intro- 

 duced into Europe by Alexander the Great's expedition from India, it 

 is a pity that this name should go to where he did not go, only 

 because of a mistake made in the seventeenth century. The con- 

 queror's birds were probably the classifier's P. nepalensis and 

 P. torquatusj both of which occur on his route. PalcBornis torguatus is 

 the common rose-ringed paroquet of all the Indian plains, and the 

 Greeks could not have helped seeing it in the Punjab and Sind. 

 P. nepalensis is a forest bird, and therefore they may not have seen it 

 wild ; but it was probably a common cage-bird then as now. It and 

 its three races are all characterized by a deep red wing spot, not 

 found on P. torquatus. Alexander's men were the first Europeans 

 who saw any parrot. Oddly enough, the Egyptians, who imported a 

 good many birds and beasts from interior Africa, do not seem to have 

 got parrots among them. At least these appear to be unknown on their 

 older monuments. Herodotus is silent as to their occurrence, and 

 Solomon, though he got " apes and peacocks, " had no parrots on his 

 bills of lading. Perhaps the parrots had not yet learnt to talk,* or 

 surely sailors would have brought them home, as almost every sailor 

 will now whenever he gets the chance. We have in Bombay both 

 the birds above mentioned, but P. nepalensis does not seem to cross 

 the Tapti to the south'ard. It may be represented in North Kanara 

 by P. eupatria, a Ceylonese form. There is a third race in the 

 Andamans and a fourth in Burma. 



We have also a " blossom-headed paroquet," whose head is coloured 

 like a ripe red plum, with the "bloom " on it. It has a red or orange 

 wing-spot ; but the thing to note is the conspicuous white tip of the 

 chief tail feathers, which distinguishes it, on the wing, from our com- 

 mon paroquet, P. torquata. It is also more "jungly " and shyer, 

 ■ especially when breeding. The blue- winged paroquet occurs on the 

 ghat forests up to the Malsej GhM at least. One must stretch a point 

 ' * compliment any of the tribe upon their talking, which is very poor 

 compared to that of some African birds ; and their natural screeching is 

 merely a nuisance. 



* The East African negroes are said, at this day, to have little taste or talent for taming 

 and teaching animals. 



