CYCLOPSITTA COXEN I, Gould . 
Coxen’s Parrakeet. 
Cyclopsitta Coxeni, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 182. 
My thanks are due to Mr. Waller, of Brisbane, for his kindness in sending me a fine specimen of this 
little Parrakeet, which, at his request, I have named after C. Coxen, Esq., a Member of the Legislative 
Assembly of Queensland, who has for many years taken a lively interest in ornithology. At present it is 
the only member of the genus Cyclopsitta that has been found in Australia ; but other species of the same 
form are somewhat numerous in the islands to the northward of that country. Mr. Wallace enumerates 
the following in his paper “ On the Parrots of the Malayan Region,” published in the Proceedings of the 
Zoological Society for 1864, viz. : — Cyclopsitta cliophthalma of the Aru Islands ; C. Desmaresti of New Guinea ; 
C. Blythii of Mysol ; and C. loxia , C. lunulata, and C. leucophthalma of the Philippines. 
The history of the bird, so far as I can learn, is, that during the month of June, 1866, several specimens 
were procured about thirty miles from Brisbane, by a sawyer, who had seen a flock in the neighbourhood for 
some weeks, and had shot several for a pudding. Being somewhat interested in ornithology, and observing 
a difference between these and the ordinary green Parrakeet, he skinned three or four, two of which he 
brought to Mr. Waller, who subsequently visited the locality and succeeded in obtaining additional 
examples, and who, in a letter recently received from him, informs me that “ the large scrubs of the 
mountainous district about forty or fifty miles north-west of Brisbane, which has been but little visited by 
Europeans, appears to be the natural home of the bird. There it sits on the large and lofty fig-trees, silent 
as death ; and its presence can only be detected by attentively listening to the falling of the refuse of the 
wild figs, upon which it seems solely to subsist, and the hard tops of which are easily cut off with its strong 
bill. All the specimens I examined had their crops filled with the soft interior portion ; but it appears to 
reject the fully ripe fruit. Its colouring so closely resembles that of the large leaves with which it is sur- 
rounded that it almost defies detection ; and the only chance of obtaining examples is by watching the falling 
of the refuse of its food, and never moving your eyes until your have marked your bird ; or it is ten to one 
you will be unsuccessful. When it has finished with one bunch of figs, it silently removes to another. It 
emits no call while on the trees, but when it leaves them utters a very low sound resembling cheep , cheep. 
The sexes are alike in plumage ; but the female is rather larger than the male.” 
In size and in some other respects the Cyclopsitta Coxeni is nearly allied to the C. diophthalma, but differs 
in the absence of scarlet on the crown and in the smaller extent of that colour on the cheeks. 
General plumage green ; across the forehead a narrow band of red, which unites through the lores with 
a large patch of the same hue on the ear-coverts, beneath which is a patch of blue ; primaries margined 
with blue; a streak of red on the tertiaries near the body; tail short and wholly green ; bill very stout, the 
upper mandible of a bluish horn-colour, blending with a whitish line at the base ; under mandible whitish, 
tips of both black ; feet pale greenish white ; nails light horn-colour, darker at the point ; irides hazel. 
Total length 71 inches, bill I, wing 3^, tail 2, tarsi 
The figures are of the size of life. 
