Order PSITTACI.] 
[Pam. PLATYCEIiCIDiE. 
PLATYCEECES BOWLEYI. 
(ROWLEY’S PARRAKEET.) 
Platycercus rowleyi, Buller, Trans. N.-Z. Instit. vol. vii. p. 220 (1874). 
Ad. P. nova -zealandice similis, sed conspicue minor. 
Adult male. Similar in plumage to P. nova zealandice, but considerably smaller. Total length 10 inches ; wing, 
from flexure, 4'75 ; tail 5 ; bill, along the ridge ‘55 ; tarsus '65 ; longer fore toe and claw 1 ; longer hind 
toe and claw ‘9. 
Female. Slightly smaller than the male, but differing in no other respect. 
Young. A specimen from Dusky Sound has the frontal spot of crimson mixed with green, and a line of undeve- 
loped feathers in silvery shields along the base of the upper mandible ; the aural bar of crimson very small 
and indistinct; the abdomen pale yellowish green; the bill greyish white, tinged with blue on the sides 
of the upper and base of the under mandible. The eulmen measured along the curve only -45 of an inch. 
Obs. There is an appreciable difference in size between this bird and the type of Bonaparte’s P. aucklandicus. 
When I was in England superintending the publication of the first edition of this work, the late 
Mr. Dawson Bowley of Brighton sent me for examination the skin of a red-fronted Parrakeet received 
from the South Island, and remarkable on account of its small size. On comparing the specimen 
with the type of Bonaparte’s Platycercus aucklandicus in the British Museum, I came to the conclusion 
that although Mr. Bowley’s specimen was somewhat less in size, both were referable to P. novas 
zealandice , being only exceptionally small examples of that species. On my return, however, to the 
colony, my attention was directed to a very large series of Parrakeet skins collected by the late 
Mr. F. B. Fuller in the provincial district of Canterbury; and, after making due allowance for the 
great individual variation which some members of this group exhibit, I found it impossible to resist 
the conclusion that there does exist another species, having similar plumage to P. novce zealandice, 
but so much smaller in size as to be even less than ordinary examples of the Yellow-fronted Parrakeet 
( P . auriceps) . Mr. Fuller, who had skinned some hundreds of Parrakeets for the Canterbury 
Museum, assured me that the bones of this smaller red-fronted bird could be readily distinguished 
from those of P. novce zealandice, being weaker and more slender, and more like the bones of P. 
alpinus. He likewise informed me that all his specimens of this small form had come from Canter- 
bury North ; and it seemed to me a significant fact that although P. novce zealandice is a very common 
species in the North Island, none of the very small examples have been recorded there. 
We have thus a regular gradation in the following sequence : Platycercus novae zealandice (red- 
fronted), P. auriceps (yellow-fronted), P. rowleyi (red-fronted), and P. alpinus (orange-fronted). 
In selecting a specific name to distinguish this diminutive form, I thought I might appro- 
priately dedicate it to Mr. Dawson Eowley, who first called my attention to its existence, and 
whose interest in New-Zealancl ornithology found expression in a charming little museum of rarities, 
numbering among its treasures the unique specimen of the Moa’s egg from the Kaikoura sepulchre *. 
Beischek met with this small form on the Hen, but on none of the other islands in the Hauraki 
Gulf, although P. novae zealandice was abundant everywhere. 
* There is an excellent figuro of this species in Rowley’s ‘ Ornithological Hiscellanj^’ vol. ii. facing p. 115. 
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