on the Black-cheeked Lovebird.



209



seems rather indefinable. Iris dark yellow-brown ; cere broad,

with the nostrils fully exposed. Head broad “ between the

eyes.”


Female (a younger bird, as evidenced by the narrower cere,

one nostril being hidden, the other partly exposed):—Generally

like the male but smaller, less bulky, more timid and gentle, and

with narrower head ; iris pale yellow-brown (much lighter than

in adult male) ; quills, below, strongly washed with blue along

inner edges, except (I think) the first primary which is brown ;

under wing-coverts green, with the larger ones dirty smudgy

whitish ; edge of wing partly yellow. The tail as in the male

but with much less appearance of blue, and this below inclined

to pale slate-gray ; on the outside feather, the red encroaches on

to the outer web but the black does not; a “ dark green stripe

on outer web,” i.e., running up the centre of the web parallel

with the shaft, and not including the whole breadth of the web;

tips of tail feathers as in the male but more inclined to yellow-

green, and, I think, not extending to the outer web of the outer

pair.


Immature male :—Generally like the adult male, but

smaller. Upper aspect of whole tail with more of the dark

green shade, and tail tips light yellow green fading into whitish ;

middle pair in other respects dark green ; the next four pairs

with the broad patch of red running up the centre and succeeded

by the usual subterminal black band of Agapornis —no mere

dusky spot as in the original specimen; on the outer pair, the

red and black are confined to the inner web, the outer being dark

green tipped with lighter. The blue, which was conspicuous in

the adult male and well represented in the female, was not

noticed in this example. Ouills, inner webs dusky, outer green—

the blue wash below was not noticed; an ill-defined streak of

■bluish or blackish, about parallel with the wing-edge, on the

green under wing-coverts. Cere narrow, with nostrils entirely

■concealed. By an unfortunate oversight, the iris was not

inspected.


The foregoing descriptions are inadequate in some respects,

.and some points need further examination ; but it is difficult and

a very serious matter to make a detailed examination of a living



