PSITTACUS ERITHACUS. 165 



known. I borrow freely from Dr. Finsch's exhaustive work for such things 

 as have been ascertained. It is strange, however, that so little can be said 

 respecting a bird extremely familiar to us in captivity. Anecdotes of its 

 talking-powers, temper, &c. are abundant, and it would be useless to 

 introduce fresh ones here. An attempt is sometimes made to assign to 

 the bird a reflecting knowledge of the meaning of the sounds uttered ; but 

 in all such cases it is to be supposed that the partiality of the owner has 

 run away with his or her judgment — the wish being father to the thought. 



Varieties do not appear to be common, in which P. erithacits is unlike 

 Nestor, of New Zealand. Dr. Finsch gives three : — 



Variety 1 . Red ; head, neck, and quills grey. 

 „ 2. Grey ; quills, tail, and rump red. 

 „ 3. Grey, spotted and sprinkled with red. 



Diagnosis. — Dark ashy-grey ; head, neck, throat, and crop with narrow 

 light-grey edgings to the feathers ; rump, lower wing-coverts, thighs, vent, 

 and lower tail-feathers whitish grey ; quills black ; tail and tail-coverts 

 scarlet; bill black, naked eye- space white; iris from pale yellow to white, 

 in the young brown, perhaps the only character which distinguishes them 

 from the adult. Both the sexes are alike. In confinement some variation 

 appears at times (vide Levaillant, pi. 101}. 



The white powder which comes upon the fingers on touching certain 

 Parrots is strongly developed in this species ; but the cause of it is not yet 

 determined. 



BufFon says that a pair in confinement bred and hatched their young for 

 a series of five or six years. Later observation has not confirmed this 

 remarkable circumstance, though it is not unusual for eggs to be laid. 

 These are white, and slightly shining. I do not know in any collection an 

 authenticated specimen of an egg taken in a state of nature. 



Habitat. — The geographical distribution of P. erithacus is very extended. 

 I cannot do better than remind my readers of the admirable coloured map 

 in Dr. Finsch's work (' Die Papageien,' vol. i. p. 114), which gives a clear 



