ITS PAL.EOENIS CALTIIROP.E. 



The colours of this Parrakeet appear to be much affected by the sun's rays ; the head and back lose their brightness, 

 and become pervaded with a greyish hue, alteriug much the delicate character of the plumage. Specimens likewise 

 fade after preservation. 



Female. Bill, upper mandible black, lower blackish, tinged with reddish. The green on the lores and orbital region 

 less in extent, and the centre of the back (as far as I have observed) more brilliant than in the male. As the 

 coloration of the female's bill has been the subject of some controversy, I may remark that Mr. Holdsworth first 

 pointed out that it was black. Adults of both sexes have sometimes, when in rich plumage, a slight cobalt-hue 

 wash on the forehead and cheeks. 



Young. Iris whitish; bill (male) pale orange, (female) upper mandible dusky black, lower reddish; feet and legs 

 plumbeous. 



Birds of the year are dull green above and yellowish green beneath : the head darker than the back and sometimes with 

 a bluish tinge: there is an indication of the green collar on the hind neck : the back and rump cobalt-blue (brighter 

 than the adult); tail green, washed with blue, tipped and edged internally with yellow towards the extremities, 

 lower feathers of the upper tail-coverts green; some individuals have the tail bluer than others. 



Obs. This species comes nearer the South-Indian Parrakeet (Pal. columboides) than any other, but has not even much 

 in common with that. There is, however, a slight general resemblance in the two birds, which is in accordance 

 with the relationship displayed between the avifaunas of the regions in question. Pal. columboides has the wing 

 5"7 to i'i-o, and i< therefore a larger bird, with a correspondingly longer tail. The black ring in this species 

 completely encircles the neck, the under surface is slaty instead of green, the rump is green instead of blue, and 

 the primaries anil their coverts obscure blue. 



Distribution. — The Ceylon Parrakeet was discovered by Layard, who writes thus concerning it in the 

 ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History' for 1851 : — "My first acquaintance with this lovely bird was at 

 Kandy, where 1 killed a male and female at one shot from a flock flying over my head; I took them for the 

 common P. torquatus until I picked them up, and then great was my delight to find such an elegant new 

 - |x<-ics. It proves to be the common Parrakeet of the hilly zone, and I have traced it to all parts of it." As 

 Layard remarks, this species is distributed throughout the hills of the Kandyau Province; but it is singularly 

 local as regards sonic parts, small districts here and there appearing to be surrendered almost entirely to the 

 last species. Of such I may mention portions of the Pusselawa, Hewahcttc, and Kalebokka valleys, as well as 

 parts of Dumbara, where, in the month of November, I have met with numbers of P. cyanocephalus, to the 

 almost entire exclusion of the present Parrakeet. It is numerous about Kandy and Peradcniya, and also 

 Deltota, in Upper Hewahette, Poondoloya, most parts of Uva, Madulsima, and Ilaputale, while it is still 

 more abundant in Maskeliya, Dickoya, and throughout the Peak forests at intermediate altitudes. In the 

 south it is numerous in the Morowak Korale, and very abundant indeed in the higher parts of the Kukkul 

 Korale, notably in the Singha-llajah forest, concerning which region I wrote, in my paper "On the Distri- 

 bution of Birds in the Southern Ilill-rcgiou of Ceylon" ('Ibis/ 1871), that I considered it more abundant 

 there than in any other part of the island, a conclusion to which I still adhere. 



It was thought for many years to be an inhabitant only of the hills, an idea which obtained on account 

 of the very imperfect exploration of the forests round the base of the central zone, and the repeated working 

 of naturalists over certain beaten tracks. In 1870 I first met with it in the low country, down in the valleys 

 adjacent to the llinedun Kanda or Haycock Hill, and was somewhat surprised at finding it there, while I had 

 not seen nor heard it in the Oodogammaor Opate forests, a district lying higher than the one in question. My 

 next meeting with it was in the park-like woods lying between " Westminster Abbey" and Kollunpitiya, on 

 the new Batticaloa road, and which are studded with those remarkable rocky hills so characteristic of the Eastern 

 Province. I subsequently found it about Nalauda, and all round the base of the Matale Hills, from Dambulla 

 to Kuruncgala ; beneath the Ambokka range it is abundant. The greatest extent of low country, however, 

 over which it is spread lies in the Western Province, between Ruanwella and Pclmadulla. I found it close 

 to Ukawatta, about 26 miles from Colombo, where it was frequenting the tall timber-forests ; it was also very 

 common in the Kuruwitc forests, and thence up to Gillymally, as well as in other parts of the valley of 



