108



Mr. H. D. Astley.



sex-limitecl colour, and this may well account for many of the sex

differences in wild birds.


Errata. At the bottom of p. 85, the last two lines should'

read “ normal course of development. The nasal caruncle was still

smaller than in the tame bird.” (I may mention that the wild drake,

not long after he arrived here, lost his very small nasal caruncle and

also the red on the eyebrows.) “ This ” year means 1912.



HOODED AND GOLDEN-SHOULDERED

PARRAKEETS.


Psephotus cucullatus and P. chrysopterygius.


By Hubert D. Astley, M.A., etc.


In The Field of the 28th of December, 1912, Mr. Seth-Smith

supplied some notes upon these two species of the family of Psephotus ,

of which the Red-rump Parrakeet and the Many-Coloured are two

well-known members.


Mr. Seth-Smith perhaps thinks that I confused the Hooded

and the Golden-shouldered, but when I wrote to The Field to an¬

nounce the fact that I had successfully bred the former species, I

carefully wrote the Hooded Golden-shouldered Parrakeet, and gave

its title of Psephotus cucullatus ; but the Natural History Editor

omitted the latter and also the title of “ Hooded.” This beautiful

little Parrakeet is quite as Golden-shouldered as its near relative,

P. chrysopterygius, and consequently I called it the Hooded Golden-

shouldered Parrakeet ; rather a lengthy name perhaps, but des¬

criptive.


However, be that as it may, tire principal point of Mr. Seth-

Smith’s Field note, is that the Hooded Parrakeet is probably

synonymous with the Parrakeet described by Professor Collett in

the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1908, which he named

P. dissimilis. He described it as nearest to P. chrysopterygius (the

Golden-Shouldered) but as lacking the yellow hand across the fore¬

head ; the crown chestnut, etc. : and further on he described the

crown as dark chestnut. In the Victorian Naturalist, Feb. 1909,



