PLATYCERCUS TABUENSIS, (nobis). 

 Tabuan Parrakeet. 



PLATE LXXIV. 



P. capite, collo, pectore, abdomine crissoque purpureo-rubris ; dorso, scapularibus, 

 europigioque nitide viridibus hoc purpureo-rubro fasciata ; remigibus nigris 

 rachi exteriori supra coeruleo ; cauda lata rectricibus mediis viridibus, exteriori- 

 bus coeruleo marginatis. 



Tabuan Parrakeet, Lath. Gen. Hist. vol. ii. p. 115. pi. xxii. 



Psittacus Tabuensis, Lath. Ind. Orn. vol. i. ? — Kuhl, Consp. Psitt. Nov. Act. Acad. Caes. 



Leop. Carol, torn. i. pars i. p. 57- 

 Pompadour Parrakeet ; Psittaccus atro-purpureus, Shaw's Gen. Zool. vol. viii. p. 409. 



In a group so extensive as the Parrots, and found, one excepted, in every 

 quarter of the world, it is natural to expect some, if not a great variety of 

 form and habit, and we accordingly find them divided either into several 

 sections, or into distinct genera. By Kuhl our species is placed in his sec- 

 tion (amounting almost to a genus) Conurus, and Mr Vigors has formed the 

 generic appellation of Platycercus, now adopted, and which has also been 

 used by himself and Dr. Horsfield in their descriptions of the Linnean 

 Society's collection. 



This genus appears to be confined to New Holland and the Southern 

 Ocean, forming there a group for itself, but analogous to the long-tailed 

 parrots and parrakeets of the old world and America. It is known by the 

 round form of the tail and wings ; the former, though strictly cuneated, 

 having the webs of the feathers very broad ; and by the more ambulatory 

 formation of the tarsi and feet. Many of the species feed a great deal up- 

 on the ground, upon seeds and grain, &c. fand, since the cultivation of the 

 country, do considerable damage to the newly sown crops of wheat and 

 Indian corn, and also at the seasons when these crops are ready for reap- 

 ing. Nor can this be wondered at, if we consider the immense and surely 

 splendid flocks in which they are said to congregate. 



