April i j 1 89 1 J 



THE HUMMING BIRD. 



27 



Description of a Supposed New Species 

 of Parrot in Boucard's Museum. 



By A. Boucard. 



In looking over my collection of parrots I found 

 two specimens of a species of Pionus, marked 

 P. maximiliani, but which I believe to be quite dis- 

 tinct. One of them has been for a long time in the 

 collection of the late T. C. Eyton. It was collected 

 in Bolivia by Mr. Thomas Bridges, the other was col- 

 lected at Corrientes (Argentine Republic) by Mr. 

 Flamant. I believe that it is justly due to the late 

 T. Bridges, the first discoverer of this species, that 

 it should bear his name. So I have called it 

 Pionus bridgesi, as a feeble homage to the memory 

 of this excellent collector. 



Pionus bridgesi, n. sp. 



Male. — Head, neck, cheeks, and lores, grass green 

 edged with purple-blue ; back, breast, abdomen, 

 wing, and tail coverts, yellowish-green ; tail, deep 

 grass green ; chin, rose-purple ; throat, purple with 

 rosy reflections ; under tail coverts, crimson ; tail, 

 showy green, red at base ; feet, black ; bill, upper 

 mandible, black with yellow tip ; under mandible, 

 yellow. 



Length, 12 inches; wing, 8; tail, 4^. 



Habitat, Bolivia and Argentine Republic. 



The principal difference between this species and 

 P. maximiliani is that this last species is of a deeper 

 grass colour all over, and that the colour of the throat 

 is bluish-purple. 



Notes on the Crowned Superb Warbler, 

 Malurus coronatus, Gould. 



Native Name : Gerial. 



This exceedingly rare and most lovely little bird I 

 first had the pleasure of procuring on the banks of 

 the Fitzroy River, North Western Australia, in 1886, 

 near Maclarty's crossing, where I found it tolerably 

 plentiful. In its habits it did not materially differ 

 from the other members of the genus except that it 

 was always seen in the bamboo-like grass growing 

 from three to eight feet high in patches here and 

 there bordering the river, never more than a few yards 

 from the edge of the water. The adult males, as in 

 the other species of the genus, were the most difficult 

 of approach, keeping to the bottom of the reeds and 

 those the most dense. The females and young males 

 being bolder showed themselves more frequently at 

 the edges of the clumps cf grass, but I rarely, if ever, 

 saw them creep to the tops. Their call is similar to 

 the Maluri in general, but more harsh, much louder 

 and sustained for a longer period. One young male 

 which I was watching and which was assuming the 

 lilac features of the crown, whistled beautifully and 

 with a ventriloquial effect, beginning low at first, 

 which seemed to come from another bird at a dis- 

 tance, and then bursting out into full song, similar to 

 our Wren Troglodytus parvula, and, like it, very loud 

 for such a tiny bird. 



The species cannot be confounded with any other 

 member of the genus, its far greater size and marked 

 character in the colouring of its plumage^at all ages 

 preclude the possibility of a mistake. The beautiful 

 lilac crown of the adult male, with its oblong patch of 

 black feathers in the centre, lores, cheeks, ear coverts, 

 and nape of the neck forming an uninterrupted 

 stripe from one side of the bill to the other of intense 

 black ; the light brown colouring of the back, the 

 white throat and breast and buffy flanks, renders it a 

 very easy species to determine. The young male has 

 the crown dull greyish-brown and no trace of the 

 black spot in the centre, the black ear coverts and 

 nape not so pure, the other parts as in the adult. The 

 female has the crown dull grey, the centre having a 

 few obscure brown feathers in place of the black spot, 

 the ear coverts reddish-brown. The legs and feet in 

 all ages and sexes are brownish-flesh colour, bill 

 black, hides dark brown ; the colour of their tails, 

 too, are the same, being of a light greenish-blue, all 

 the feathers (except the two central ones) tipped, and 

 the outer one on each side edged with white. The 

 tail of the female has a rather more greenish hue than 

 in the male, but scarcely perceptible. 



When I have been following them along the steep 

 banks of the river where it is difficult to get far 

 enough away from them to avoid damaging their 

 plumage with the charge of dust shot from such a 

 small gun as a "410 gauge on account of the thick- 

 ness of the undergrowth and the uprooted trees torn 

 from their hold in the banks by the heavy floods of 

 the rainy season, their roots and branches interlocked 

 in those of the trees still standing, intertwined with 

 powerful creepers gnarled and twisted in some places 

 like ships' cables, forming a barrier that has to be 

 climbed or crept under with the ground at an angle 

 of 60 degs., soft and pliable, affording no hold to the 

 feet except where some grass has grown or in some 

 unevenness of the ground, where a slip will send the 

 birds in hiding, I have seen them sometimes fly out 

 over the water into a tree which has had the earth 

 washed away from its roots and fallen over into 

 the river, where they will hop about amongst the 

 branches with tail erect and then creep back into the 

 dense grass, where it was no easy matter to find them; 

 but by waiting at a thin part of the patch of grass 

 where they were likely to pass on their way up or 

 down the river, was the way in which I got most of 

 the specimens. The beautiful crown of the male is 

 not to be discerned until after a little practice, but 

 when once accustomed to is never forgotten ; it is a 

 splendid colour and shows to advantage in its sur- 

 roundings when erected. They were mostly seen in 

 parties of from five to seven in number, sometimes 

 only a pair, very seldom singly, the old male generally 

 leading the little flock. The only other species of the 

 genus observed at this camp was the M. cruentatus, 

 which Professor Ramsay, of the Australian Museum, 

 believed to be distinct, and has bestowed the name of 

 Malurus cruentatus boweri. This and the coro?iaius 

 seemed to be at variance, and I have repeatedly, by 

 imitating the call of cruentatus, brought forth the 

 male coronutus to do battle with the supposed in- 

 truder on his domain. 



