40



MR. 0. E. CRESSWELL’S ARTICLE ON HIS

PARRAKEETS, IN THE “ FEATHERED WORLD.”


A CRITICISM.


By V. CasteuAn.


No doubt the readers of the Avicultural Magazine, who

are at the same time readers of the Feathered World, have read

with much interest Mr. O. E. Cresswell’s recent article on

his Parrakeets. I, for one, have done so with great pleasure, and

I think it is a great pity that more of our aviculturists do not

come forward and give us their experience of birds they have

kept. I am, therefore, all the more sorry to have to find fault

with so instructive an article; but Mr. Cresswell has made one

rather grave error in classification which I should like to point

out. In the third and last portion of his article is the paragraph

wherein the error occurs, and which I will quote, with his kind

permission. When speaking of his Lovebirds, he says :


“ Last, and least in size, but not in interest to me, at least,

of all my Parrot flock are the Lovebirds. The genus Agapornis

is a very large one, and is distributed over South Eastern Asia

and the adjacent Islands, East and West Africa, and Madagascar,

and one species, at least, is a native of South America. These

varieties are fairly common in English aviaries : the Red-faced

or West African, the Grey-headed or Madagascar, and the Blue¬

winged or Passerine Parrot of Brazil. I fancy these three are

barely a tithe of the species which have been found. I know

not of any collective list of the genus, which would be of great

interest.”


Mr. Cresswell’s mistake is this : he says that the Blue¬

winged or Passerine Parrot belongs to the genus Agapornis ; this

is wrong, for scientifically speaking this species is not one of

the Lovebirds at all, although it bears a close resemblance to

them. Whereas the genus Agapornis, or Lovebirds proper,

belong to the sub-family Palceoi'nithince of the family Psittacidcz,

on the other hand the Passerine Parrots belong to the sub-family

Conurince and to the genus Psittacula. Again, he is wrong in

his description of their distribution ; for the genus Agapornis

is entirely restricted to Africa South of the Sahara, and

Madagascar, although they have been introduced into the

Mascarene Islands: and therefore its members are not in¬

habitants of South America or South-Eastern Asia and the

adjacent Islands. The genus Psittacula is confined to South

America, and the Blue-winged Parrotlets range from Mexico to

Bolivia and Brazil.



