APPENDIX I. 1211 



Page 174. — Palccornis cyanocephalus. Ill the " Observation " on this species (p. 175) I erred in considering that 

 Gould had, by a lapsus calami, inverted the specific names at the heads of the articles on Pal. rosa and Pal. cyanocephalus 

 in his ' Birds of Asia.' I overlooked his remark " that probably the names of the species would some clay require 

 transposition." 



Mr. Hume (Str. Peath. 1879, p. 187) takes exception to Mr. Blanford's remark, in his criticism of the "List of the 

 Birds of India," that I had rightly shown the Indian bird to be P. cyanocephalus, and refers to the late Marquis of 

 Tweeddale's enunciation that this title belongs to the Burmese race, and says that I must show clearly wherein the 

 Marquis was in error. To which I answer that it is possible the Marquis of Tweeddale was right, but that I do not 

 think the matter is quite satisfactorily proved. This author merely states that Linrueus's title P. cyanocephalus, founded 

 on Brisson's Psittacus cyanocephalus, applies to this race (the Burmese). Now it is quite impossible to say what species 

 the rough woodcut in Brisson's work is intended to portray. It looks like a young bird ; but, whatever it is intended for, 

 it is not sufficient basis on which to determine two species so nearly alike as the Indian and Burmese Bose-headed 

 Parrakeets. If we turn to Brisson's lengthy description in Prench, we find no mention whatever of the female having the 

 red spot on the shoulder, and we find the under wing-coverts described as " d'un verd d'aigue-marine "*, which is a 

 sufficiently good description of those of our bird, and applies better to it than to the Burmese race, in which this part of 

 the wing is blue. On the other hand, Boddaert's plate resembles this latter species more than it does the Indian ; and 

 Latham's description of the " Bose-headed Bing- Parrakeet " (' Synopsis '), to which Boddaert refers in giving his name 

 Palceomis rosa, applies to both species about equally well. I do not, therefore, consider that there is sufficient evidence 

 to warrant our accepting the mere enunciation that the title cyanocephalus should apply to the Burmese bird. 



Page 177. — Palceomis calthropce. In my " Observation " on this species I make mention of its near South-Indian 

 ally P. columboides, Vigors. Layard, in his " Notes on the Ornithology of Ceylon " (Ibis, 1880, p. 284), refers to a note 

 of Blyth's in the Appendix, No. 2, p. 314, Cat. B. Mus. S. Lidia, on a young male of this latter species sent to this 

 author from Ceylon by him, and remarks that he had overlooked the matter in his catalogue. Now I fear we cannot 

 accept this identification of Blyth's as correct. Certain species of Palodornis are quite local, and among these are 

 P. columboides (confined to the mountains of Southern India) and P. calthropce (restricted to the hills of Ceylon and their 

 immediate entourage). The latter bird has never been seen in South India, and it is extremely improbable that the 

 former has ever wandered into Ceylon, as every one knows that the Psittaci do not straggle in the same manner as Accipitres 

 and Passeres. Were it a question of a Hawk or a "Warbler one would not be sceptical. But as no one has ever heard 

 of the Parrakeet in question being seen or met with in Ceylon since the time Layard is supposed to have procured the 

 voung male in question, the natural inference is that the specimen was the young of P. calthropce. 



I will, however, give a description of the South-Indian species, so that if it ever does occur in Ceylon my readers 

 may identify it. 



Pal.eoknis columboides (Psittacus columboides, Vigors, Zool. Journ. 1830, p. 274). 



Male (Coorg ; B. Museum). Length (from skin) to front of cere 14-0 inches ; culmen 0'9 ; wing 5 - 8 ; tail 8-5 ; tarsus 

 - 5 ; longer outer toe 0-7. 



Iris yellow, bill red ; under mandible dark ; legs greenish plumbeous. 



Head, hind neck, sides of neck, and cheeks delicate bluish slate ; lores and round the eye grass-green ; from the base 

 of the mandible round the neck a black collar, bordered beneath by an edging of bright green, tinged with bluish : 

 back bluish green, passing into darker green on the wing-coverts ; tail greenish blue, the inner webs of the feathers 

 yellow, and the outer edges near the base green ; point of the wing blackish slate, passing into dusky green on 

 the rest of the wing-coverts ; margin of the median and greater wing-coverts pale tipped; primaries blue, 1st 

 quill black, inner webs (except at the tips) blackish ; chest slaty grey, passmg into green on the lower breast and 

 abdomen ; under wing pale blue, bases of the feathers dark. 



Juv. male (Madras). Dusky blue on the head and hind neck ; back greenish ; wing-coverts and tertials green ; point 

 of the wing blackish ; rump blue ; an incomplete dark ring round the neck ; a trace of the green border beneath 

 it ; under surface dull green ; cheeks greenish. 



This fine Parrakeet inhabits the jungles on the mountains of Travancore, the "Wynaad and Coorg districts, and the 

 Nilghiris. In Travancore Mr. Bourdillon says it does not ascend to the tops of the hills, nor is it found quite at their 

 base. 



" Aquamarine includes clear bervls of a. sea-green, or pale bluish or bluish-green tint." — Dana's 'Mineralogy,' p. 198, 



7q 



