YELLOW-HEADED AMAZON. 



497 



small spot of yellow on the forehead: in short, in 

 this state the young have the colours of the adult 

 female, with this difference, viz. that the green of 

 the plumage is of a yellower cast, and powdered 

 above with a kind of meal, which has often caused 

 this species in a young state to be confounded with 

 the young of the Mealy Parrot. 



VAR. 1. 



YELLOW-HEADED AMAZON. 



L'Araazone a tete jaune. Buff. ois. Levaill. pL 66, 

 Yellow-Headed Adiazons Parrot. Lath, syn. 



In this the w^hole forepart of the head, to some 

 distance beyond the eyes, is yellow, without any 

 band of blue over the bill : in other particulars it 

 resembles the first-described bird, except that the 

 bill is pale, and the legs grey. This, which Buffon, 

 after the example of Brisson, makes the chief or 

 leading representative of the Amazon Parrot, is 

 no other than a mere variety. It differs indeed in 

 having a pale or yellowish bill, and legs of the 

 same colour, and in having no other colour but 

 yellow on the head ; but Monsr. Levaillant assures 

 us that this is no other than the gradual and acci- 

 dental variation of colour: the individual which 

 he kept for three years was in the first year tinged 

 with blue round the front ; but in each succeeding 

 moult the blue decreased, and at length vanished 

 altogether: the bill and legs also, which were at 

 first brown, became yellowish-white j so that the 



