PALvEORNIS ROSA. 



Blossom-headed Parrakeet. 



Psittacus purpureus, Mull. S. N. Suppl., p. 74. 



rosa, Bodd. Tabl. PI. Enl., p. 53 ? 



erythrocephalus, Gm. S. N., i. p. 325. 



bengalensis, Gm. S. N., i. p. 325. 



ginginianus, Lath. Ind. Orn., i. p. 99. 



indicus, Lath. Ind. Orn., i. p. 86. 



rhodocephalus, Shaw, Mus. Lever., p. 183.— Id. Nat. Misc., xxi. pi. 877. 



Jlavitorquis, Shaw, Gen. Zool., viii. p. 439. 



annulatus, Bechst. Kurze Uebers. Vog., p. 77. 



Palceornis erythrocephalus, Vigors, Zool. Journ., ii. p. 53. 



bengalensis, Vigors, Zool. Journ., ii. p. 54. 



Jlavitorquis, Vigors, Zool. Journ., ii. p. 51. 



flavicollaris, Frankl. P. Z. S., 1831, p. 120. 



cyanocephalus, Wagner, Monogr. Psitt, p. 517. — Finsch, Papag., ii. p. 40. 



rhodocephalus, Hodgs. in Gray's Zool. Misc., p. 85. 



rosa, Jerd. B. Ind., i. p. 259.— Schl. Mus. P. B., Psittaci, p. 8L— Holdsw. P. Z. S., 1872, p. 425. 



purpureus, Hume, St. F., ii. p. 16. 



Conurus erythrocephalus, Less. Traite, p. 215. 



For a long time I have been convinced that two distinct species had been confounded by ornithologists under 

 the title of Palceornis rosa. The late Mr. Blyth took up the subject for me, and gave me the names for the 

 respective birds, which I then drew for the present work. The plates were long ago printed off with the 

 names assigned to them by Mr. Blyth j and it was not until quite recently, when I was working out the 

 synonymy, that I came to the conclusion that my friend was not quite right in the titles of the species. In 

 deference to his well-known judgment I have retained them ; but it seems to me that the Indian bird should 

 bear the name of P. cyanocephala, of Linnaeus, founded on ' La Perruche a teste bleue,' of Brisson (Orn., 

 iv. p. 359, pi. xix. f. 2) ; while the Burmese bird should rightly be called P. rosa, of Boddaert, founded on 

 plate 888 of the 'Planches Enluminees' and Edwards's 'Rose-headed Hing-Parrakeet ' (Glean., v. p. 47, pi. 

 233). With the exception that probably the names of the species will some day require transposition, I 

 believe that the above synonymy will be found accurate and complete. 



Whatever names, however, the two birds may ultimately bear, there can be no doubt that they constitute 

 two distinct species ; and I am glad to see that this view has been adopted by Mr. Hume. I subjoin the 

 notes recently published by this gentleman, as they exactly define the differences between P. rosa (P. 

 purpureus of Hume) and P. cyanocephala (P. bengalensis of Hume). He writes: — "Here, according to 

 my views, Dr. Finsch has combined two distinct species. In the one, which I will call P. purpureus (Mull.), 

 which is from Ceylon, Southern, Central, the whole of Northern and Western India, and the Himalayas, as 

 far east, at any rate, as the Dhoon, the adult males have a brighter and more crimson wing-spot than in 

 the other ; the under wing-coverts and axillaries are glaucous or wrditer blue ; the head peach-bloom, or, 

 more correctly, a beautiful red shaded with blue on the occiput, nape, and more faintly so on the cheeks ; 

 and black mandibular stripes continued as a collar round the back of the neck. The adult females want the 

 black mandibular stripe and collar, and the red wing-spot, and have the whole top, back, and sides of the 

 head a sort of lilac, browner generally on the sides, and with a more or less distinct yellow ring round the 

 neck, at the termination of the lilac cap. In both sexes the upper mandible is yellow, varying from a wax- 

 to a somewhat orange-yellow, and lower mandible black or dusky." 



"The quite young birds have the whole top and back of the head dull green, rather darker than the back, 

 contrasting with the latter and indicating where the coloured cap will ultimately be ; both mandibles are in 

 these pure wax-yellow ; and even the males want the red wing-spot. At an older stage the young males are 

 like the adult females ; at a little later stage the lilac of the head becomes slightly darker, a ruddy tinge begins 

 to show out at the base of some of the feathers, a few of the feathers of the forehead change to the same 

 colour as in the adult male, and the place of the red wing-spot is marked by conspicuous orange tippings to 

 the feathers." 



In this same article in ' Stray Feathers' Mr. Hume gives Captain Hutton's notes on the young bird as 

 follows : — " The nestling bird has a pale yellow beak, but neither wing-spot nor coloured head ; it is 



