188 PARROT. 



109— BLUE-BANDED PARRAKEET. 



Psittacus venustus, Lin. Trans, xiii. p. 121. 



LENGTH nine inches and a half. Bill short and bent, the 

 upper mandible black, the under horn-colour ; on the forehead to 

 the eye a deep blue band, one-eighth of an inch broad, with a very 

 narrow border of green above and below, as well as to the nostrils ; 

 cheeks dull bluish green above and below ; upper wing coverts from 

 the top of the wing, bend of the same, and for one inch and a quarter 

 in breadth, and two in length, rich mazarine blue; quills black ; head, 

 neck, back, scapulars, and upper tail coverts dull yellowish olive 

 green ; throat, breast, and belly dullish pea green, growing yellow 

 towards the thighs ; tail cuneiform, the two middle feathers dull 

 greenish grey, tipped with yellow ; the two next dull blue on the 

 outer, and blackish on the inner webs, the tips yellow ; the two 

 adjoining dull blue on the outer, and blackish on the inner webs, 

 the tips yellow ; the following blackish for half the length, the rest 

 yellow ; the outer one yellow for nearly the whole of the length ; 

 under tail coverts, vent, and sides below the thighs yellow. 



Inhabits New South Wales. In the collection of Gen. Davies. 



The blue-banded Parrot, said also to come from Van Diemen's 

 Land ; the male answering to my description; the female more dusky 

 than the other, the front only pale blue ; wings as the male : no 

 chestnut on the axillae ; beneath from the breast yellow ; tail as the 

 male. One of these in the Linnaean Museum, brought from King 

 George's Sound, on the South East Coast. 



A. — Length seven inches. Bill black; crown of the head yel- 

 lowish brown ; across the forehead, from eye to eye, a narrow band of 

 deep blue, paler behind ; the rest of the upper parts olive green, 



