1875.] 



Parrots. 



57 



that from the earliest age the males only have the upper mandible coral- 

 red. In a presumed female which I possessed in captivity, the upper 

 mandible changed from black to coral-red when the bird was about eighteen 

 months old; and I have seen numerous specimens which had been killed 

 when the change was in progress. I have also shot red-billed and black- 

 billed specimens out of the same flock, and therefore cannot admit the P. 

 nigrirostris, Hodgson, as a distinct species, differing only in the colour of 

 the upper mandible. Moreover, the same sexual diversity in the colouring 

 of the bill, whether permanently or otherwise, occurs in several kindred 

 species. Barely, the lower mandible is also red in Burmese specimens, 

 almost constantly so in Javanese examples ; but I have been unable to 

 detect the slightest difference of plumage on comparison of skins from Nipal, 

 Arakan, and Java. 



[Eangoon, Tonghoo (W. P.). Assuming that the rose-breasted parra- 

 keets of the Indian Continent and Burma belong to one species, and those of 

 Java and Borneo to another, it is not difficult to allot to the first their 

 correct title. Mr. G. E. Gray (i.e. No. 8066), following Cassin (I.e.), 

 adopted for the Indian species exclusively P. L, S. Miiller's title of Psittacus 

 fasciatus, bestowed by him (i.e. p. 74, no. 6, f.) on Daubenton's plate (op. 

 cit. no. 517), and which subsequently served as the subject of Psittacus 

 vibrissa, Boddaert, not vihrisca (i.e. p. 30), and of Psittacus pondicerianus, 

 Gm. (i.e. p. 325, 'No. 73). This plate, as has been shown by Dr. Finsch, 

 was taken from the Javan species, and therefore the titles cited fall before 

 that of Psittacus alexandri, Lin. "Wagler (Monog. p. 511) first bestowed a 

 title, that of Palceornis melanorhynchus, on the Continental species, and by 

 this it must be called.] 



6. P. MELAKOEHY]S T CHUS. 



P. melanorhynchus, Wagler, nee Sykes; Ibis, 1873, p. 79; P. nigrirostris, Hodgson, 

 partim, vide Gale. Journ. N. H. vii. p. 560.* 



A most closely allied species to the last, from the Tenasserim provinces, 

 if not also the base of the Eastern Himalaya. As seen alive, together with 

 examples of the preceding, the difference is more conspicuous from its 

 purely white irides, whereas the other has dark irides. The cap has a 

 slight tinge of verditer, but no trace of ruddy colouring, and the red of the 

 breast is continued past the black moustachial streak and the ear-coverts, 



* It is worthy of notice that Mason designates the bird, not distinguishing the two 

 races, as the " black-billed Parakeet." 





