1850.] Conspectus of Indian Ornithology. 237 



(from the S. of China 1) N. B. Neither the Eclecti nor the Loriculce 

 have the tongue filamented as in the Loriince, with which they have 

 been generally but quite erroneously classed. These two genera form 

 a particular and peculiarly Asiatic division of the Psittacince, imme- 

 diately preceding the Loriince. Such at least is the result of our long 

 continued study of living specimens. 



Here it should be remarked that the Eos ornata (Psittacus ornatus, 

 Gmelin,) is stated by Raffles to inhabit the Malayan peninsula, but 

 doubtless by mistake. With other Lories, &c, it is commonly brought 

 by the Malays from the more eastern islands of the Archipelago, and 

 may be frequently purchased in Calcutta and other ports. 



Summary view of the distribution of the Psittacid^e in India and 

 the neighbouring countries. From the foregoing catalogue it follows 

 that only two generic forms of Psittacidce inhabit India, viz. Palce- 

 ornis and Loriculus, nor are we aware that another occurs in all con- 

 tinental Asia, with the exception of Tanygnathus as exemplified by T. 

 malaccensis in the Malayan peninsula, this species being however barely 

 separable from Palceornis, and the peninsula itself belonging physically 

 to the region of the archipelago, or Indonesia y as this region has been 

 recently designated by Mr. Logan. Tanygnathus should accordingly 

 be regarded as strictly an Indonesian form. In the Asiatic countries 

 westward of Sindh, it does not appear that any species of Parrot has 

 been observed ;* and we know but little of those of Indo-China eastward 

 of the British possessions on that side of the Bay of Bengal, or those 

 of the southernmost provinces of China. In the great Indonesian or 

 Austral-asian archipelago, the number of genera and of super-generic 

 forms gradually increases to the eastward, where the Lories and species 

 of white Cockatoo, also the two species of Eclectus among the Psitta- 

 cincBy and the large Tanygnathi, are met with in Borneo, Celebes, the 

 Moluccas, and some of them even in the Philippines ; forms of black 

 Cockatoo appearing likewise in the Papuan group ; while in Australia 

 the Psittacidce attain their maximum of developement as regards the 

 number of genera and of species, though the two generic forms of India 

 and certain others of Indonesia are foreign to the Australian fauna. 



* Lieut. Irwin remarks, — "The Parrot and Maina are scarcely natives of Turkestan, 

 or at least of the country beyond the Oxus." /. A. S. VIII., 1007. Surely neither 

 of them is found there at all, i. e. any Parrot, Acriclotheres (verus) or Gracula ! 



2 i 



