YELLOW-NAPED AMAZON. 109 



others yellow on the head and face, and some are either almost or 

 entirely without the yellow collar on the back of the neck, but these 

 are thought to be immature birds ; and it would be interesting to note 

 the changes wrought in the colour of the plumage of a given individual 

 by the lapse of time; observations which we have not, as yet, had an 

 opportunity of making. 



It is a large bird, measuring about fifteen inches in length, of which 

 the tail occupies four and a half inches; the wings measure from eight 

 inches to eight inches and a half, and cover, when folded, about two 

 thirds of the tail. 



When treating of the Tellow-naped Amazon, Dr. Karl Russ mentions 

 that Fraulein Hagenbeck received in 1878, among other birds, three 

 supposed members of the species which had the face and the whole 

 of the front of the head yellow, while the beak was bright yellowish 

 horn-grey (hellgelblichhorngrau) ; and when he asked what they were, 

 Karl Hagenbeck replied, " I do not exactly know, though I believe 

 them to be hybrids between the Yellow-naped and the large Yellow- 

 headed Amazon. It is certainly very curious, but by no means 

 impossible, that such a cross should have occurred in a state of 

 nature." 



Nevertheless we do not greatly believe in mules as the result 

 of cross alliances among birds or animals living a natural life of 

 freedom, though we are aware that such monsters are not of 

 unfrequent occurrence when the same creatures are reduced to 

 captivity by the hand of man; their natural instincts blunted, and 

 their idiosyncrasies lost or perverted by his action. We are more 

 inclined to think that the Fraulein' s Parrots were pied " sports", which 

 are not so unusual among the denizens of our woods and fields; and 

 presumably are now and then to be met with in Tropical America, as 

 well as in our own less genial climate. The question certainly might 

 have been set at rest by putting up these birds to breed inter se, 

 when had there been no result but barren eggs, it might have been 

 confidently declared that the creatures really were hybrids; while had 

 any young birds made their appearance, it would have been very 

 curious and interesting to watch their development, and whether they 

 assumed the usual family livery, or perpetuated the deviation of their 

 parents from the ancestral type. 



In the latter case the presumption would have been that the three 

 birds were the offspring, not of individuals belonging to two distinct 

 species, but rather to two races owning a common origin; in which 

 case the progeny would have been mongrels. It is hopeless, however, 

 for private individuals to attempt such necessarily costly experiments, 



