NASITERNA GEELYINKIANA AUD- 

 ITS ALLIES. 



By Dr. OTTO FINSCH, Hon. Memb. B.O.U., Curator of the 



Bremen Museum. 



Among the numerous members of the extensive family (or, as some ornitho- 

 logists prefer, order) Psittacidse which have been elected types of genera, none 

 has more right to stand separated than the small genus Nasiterna, established 

 by Wagler on the Psittacus pygmceus of Quoy and Gaimard. The characters 

 which distinguish this dwarf form are the following : — 



Bill very strong in proportion to the general size, much higher than 

 broad; maxilla at the basal portion enlarged and fornicated, at the apical 

 portion compressed, with the culmen carinated ; the culmen curved strongly 

 downwards, a deep acute angulated excision just before the tip, which is 

 very faint and prominent ; mandible much higher than the maxilla, laterally 

 aplanated, gonys broad ; margins of mandible deeply emarginated. Nostrils 

 large, free, placed in a cere, with swollen prominent margins surrounding 

 the circular aperture. A narrow, but distinct, naked ring round the eye. 

 Wings long, acute, reaching nearly to the end of the tail ; second remex the 

 longest ; ten primaries and nine secondaries. Tail short, rounded, and most 

 singularly distinguished in having the feathers with rigid and, at the apex, 

 somewhat projecting spinous shafts ; the three outer are but slightly rigid, 

 and only the third from the outside has the spinous apex of the rhachis 

 slightly projecting ; the six middle feathers are more rigid, and have the 

 rhachis sharply pointed and projecting 0*5 inch beyond the barb. Feet 

 with extraordinarily long digits, of which the anterior and posterior external 

 ones are equal in length and just as long as the tarsus ; nails feeble. Tongue 



