INSESSORES. 



235 



Lear's Parrots, Plate XVI; Gould, Syii. B. of Aust. Pt. IV; Shaw, 

 Mus. Lev. Plate, p. 140 ; Lath. Syn. I, Plate VIL 



Specimens of this beautiful Parrot in the collection of the Expedi- 

 tion, correspond exactly with the plates above cited, but especially 

 with the excellent figure in Lear's Parrots, Plate XVI. 



There is, however, some confusion in the plates and descriptions 

 usually cited by authors as relating to the bird now before us, and for 

 the present we are disposed to consider this bird to be distinct from 

 that immediately succeeding {Aprosmictus Anna, St. Hilaire), and 

 that they have been mutually regarded as the same by naturalists not 

 acquainted with both, a circumstance not unlikely to happen with 

 species so little known. Some difficulty, too, exists in the descrip- 

 tions, originating in the fact that Latham (Synopsis I, p. 215), gives 

 this bird as a variety only of the species which is Aprosmictus sccrpii- 

 Jatus (Bechtstein). The present species seems, however, to be that 

 described by Gmelin. 



Of this fine Parrot, Mr. Peale observes : 



" In our numerous excursions along the shores of the Feejee Islands, 

 we met with this species only on the low inundated lands, and almost 

 always during the heat of the day, in the thick foliage of the man- 

 groves which skirt most of the bays. They sit silently, sheltered from 

 the scorching rays of the sun, and sally forth in the evening or early 

 in the morning, vociferating loudly while flying vang-Tia, vang-lta, a 

 name by which they are known to the natives. Their flight is irregu- 

 lar, their broad and curved tail being spread widely, and undulated 

 between each flap of the wings, giving the body a pitching motion dis- 

 tantly resembling the flight of a butterfly. The fruit of the mangrove 

 constitutes the principal part of their food." 



In the bird now before us, the blue nuchal collar is wide and well 



blue above, black beneath; fourth quill longest; shafts black; secondaries lighter blue, 

 which gradually runs into the brilliant green of the scapulars; lesser coverts brilliant 

 green, those of the under part of the wing tipped with crimson. Tail, consisting of 

 twelve brilliant blue feathers, the six centre ones having green reflections; all are black 

 beneath, with shafts of the same color; bill bluish horn-color, very strong, the culmeu 

 full and rounded ; gonyx angular, and elevated at the sides ; upper mandible with a 

 sharp notch; nostrils almost round, and partly hid in the rigid short feathers at the 

 base of the bill; legs and claws black; irides bright orange. Male." 



" Total length of an adult male, nineteen and seven-eighths inches; extent of wings, 

 twenty-nine inches; tail, nine and a half inches." 



