562 PSITTACI. 



Veiagua during his expedition in H.M.S. ' Herald,' and was described by Gould in 

 1853 \ and subsequently figured in the second edition of his ' Monograph of the 

 EhamphastidsB ' ^. 



The bird has since been found in some numbers in the same district by our collector 

 Arce, and in many places in Costa Eica. 



We have few notes of its habits, but according to v. Frantzius it inhabits similar 

 districts as its ally A. prasinus, — i. e., the upland forests of the higher mountain- 

 ranges of the countries in which it is found. It is wholly absent from the Line of the 

 Panama Railway, and other species take its place further south. 



Order PSITTACI. 



In treating of the Mexican and Central-American species of Parrots we have 

 followed closely Count Salvadori's Catalogue of Psittaci in the collection of the British 

 Museum, published in 1891. The order is there divided into six families, which are 

 distributed over the greater part of the tropical regions of the World. New Guinea 

 and the islands adjoining, and Australia, are especially rich in species and genera, 

 whilst Africa is comparatively poor. In America we find many species, but few 

 genera ; and so distinct are the Parrots of the New World that though all belong to 

 the family Psittacidse, which is nearly world-wide, America monopolizes the whole 

 of the subfamily Conurinse and all the Pioninse with the exception of the African 

 genus Pceocephalus. 



Count Salvador! recognizes 450 species of Psittaci, belonging to seventy-nine genera ; 

 of these 180 species of twenty-four genera belong to America. Thus, while the 

 species of America amount to 40 per cent, of the total known, the genera only reach 

 a little over 30 per cent. The absence of variety in the American Parrots is still 

 further shown by all of them belonging to a single one of the six families, viz. the 

 Psittacidse, and these to only two of the six subfamilies into which Count Salvador! 

 subdivides the Psittacidse. 



In Mexico and Central America we find thirty-four species belonging to ten genera. 

 The species are therefore only about 19 per cent, of the number found in America, 

 while the genera reach nearly 42 per cent. 



Apart from- Conurus caroUnensis, an outlying species found in the southern States of 

 North America, no Parrot passes beyond the northern frontier of Mexico, though 

 several approach near to it. This fact is of importance, as the northern limit of the 

 range of the Psittaci in Mexico is a valuable element in tracing the boundary between 

 the Neotropical and Nearctic regions. 



