16 MATHEW—Note on Platycercus. 



Ay. Rec. Vol. I. pp. 129-180, 1913). On P. 149 he wrote, 

 "Platycercus haematog aster, Gould Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.), 

 1837, P. 89, 1838. 



"22907 (254). New South Wales— Type. 



"Gould's original description applies as well to the red- 

 vented form as to the yellow, and by figuring the former he 

 fixed the name definitely upon it, notwithstanding his later 

 remarks in the handbook. All the specimens are the red- 

 vented bird." 



The figure Stone alluded to is the one in "The Birds of Aus- 

 tralia," Vol. V., pi. 33, 1845, where a bird is given with red on 

 the wing and red under tail coverts. Accepting this figure as 

 depicting Platycercus haematogaster Gould, Bonaparte 

 (Comptes Rendus Sci (Paris), Vol. XXX., P. 133, 1850) 

 separated the bird with the under tail coverts yellow, under 

 the name xanthorrhoa . This erroneous identification has 

 been accepted up to the present time, but it must now be 

 corrected. I have therefore given to the red-vented bird the 

 name 



NORTHIELLA HAEMATOGASTER ZANDA 



in the Austral Av. Rec, Vol. II., P. 75, 1913, and 



NORTHIELLA HAEMATOGASTER HAEMATOGASTER 



must be used for the yellow- vented form, of which P. 

 xanthorrhoa Bonaparte becomes an absolute synonym. 



Stone recorded that no yellow-vented bird was included 

 by Gould in the Philadelphia collection. It may be that the 

 bird Gould considered a female was the one from which the 

 partial description of the red? vented bird was made up. The 

 specimens Gould records as being presented to the Linnean 

 Society of London and the British Museum are the basis of 

 the original plate, and I have searched for these. The 

 former has apparently fallen into decay, as when the Linnean 

 Society's birds passed into the British Museum many not re- 

 garded as types were rejected. The other bird, however, is 

 still preserved in the British Museum, and was catalogued 

 by Salvadori as a specimen of P. xanthorrhoa. This must 

 now be regarded as type of Platycercus haematogaster Gould, 

 and it agrees very well with Gould's figure. 



It should be noted that the Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.) 1837, P. 

 89, was not published until February 13th, 1838, while the 

 second part of "The Birds of Australia and the Adjacent 



