KING PARROT. 
Eggs. Clutch three to six. White. 28 to 33 mm. by 25 to 27. 
' ^ 
Breeding season. October to December. 
r . 
In the Voyage to Botany Bay by Phillip, published in 1789 (the dedication 
dated Nov. 25), a plate, which is given opp. p. 153, is dated July 17th, entitled 
“ Tabuan Parrot. A Variety.” 
“ The bird here represented has been seen by Mr. Latham, and was by 
him referred to this species : of which, however, it seems a very remarkable 
variety ; the prevalent colour of the head, neck and breast, being, instead ot 
a deep crimson or purplish red, as in his description and plate, as well as in a 
fine specimen now in his own collection, a very bright scarlet : the blue mark 
across the lower part of the neck appears the same ; but the blue feathers in 
the wings are entirely wanting ; and the bill is not black. See Latham’s 
Synopsis, Vol. I., p. 214. 
“ The specimen here delineated may be thus described. Length twenty- 
four inches ; bill brown, the upper mandible tinged with red ; the head, neck 
and all the underparts of the body a bright scarlet ; the back and wings a fine 
green. On the lower part of the neck, between that and the back, a crescent 
of blue ; the tail long and cuneiform, most of its feathers deep blue ; the 
legs ash coloured ; on the upper part of the wings a narrow line of lighter 
green.” 
When Latham drew up his Index Ornith. he took note of this, but did not 
name it, simply indicating it as var. B (Vol. I., p. 88, 1790) of Psittacus tabuensis. 
However, when Kerr wrote the Animal Kingdom , based on Gmelin’s but 
with additions published in 1792, he named the species Ps(ittacus) tabuensis 
coccineus, citing Phillip, Bot. Bay f. 153 and Lath. Ind. Orn ., I., 88 n. 19 B. 
This is the earliest name given, but it is preoccupied by Psittacus coccineus 
Latham 1790 {Index Ornith ., p. 89). Later Shaw, in the Mus. Lever, Vol. II., 
pi. 8, 1796, figured the species under the name Psittacus tabuanus, prror 
for tabuensis. 
In 1790, White had also figured male and female in the Journ. Voy. New 
South Wales, pis. opp. 168 and 169, as the Tabuan Parrot. 
In my List of the Birds of Australia, the name used for this species 
was Alisterus cyanopygius, based on Psittacus cyanopygius Vieillot Nouv. Diet . 
d'Hist. Nat., Vol. XXV., p. 339, 1817. The date of publication was there errone- 
ously given, as the earliest date of receipt, as I had already recorded in the 
Novitates Zoologicae, Vol. XVIII, was Dec. 26, 1818. This now becomes an 
important item Irom the following causes : — On Jan. 5, 1915, my friend, Hr. C. 
W. Richmond, wrote me: — “In one of the scarce little Berlin Mus. auction 
catalogues I note : 
293 
