THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
In 1905 Hartert recorded Collett’s species, noting : “ These two valuable 
specimens agree with Professor Collett’s description, except that the crown of 
the male is dark brown, not at all chestnut, and that the verditer blue does 
not meet in a ring across the nape. The description of the female agrees 
perfectly. It is not Psephotus chrysopterygius Gould, because it lacks the yellow 
band across the forehead.” 
In the Victorian Naturalist , Vol. XXV., p. 175, 1909, North wrote a 
“ Note on some living examples of Psephotus dissimilis. Although differing 
in several respects from Professor Collett’s description of Psephotus dissimilis , 
I had little hesitation in referring them to that species, particularly as they 
were obtained in the same locality — Pine Creek, 200 miles south-east of 
Port Darwin. . . . What I regard as the chief point of difference is that not 
only are the lores, forehead and crown of the head of the adult male black , 
but that this colour extends down the anterior portion of the cheeks to the 
sides of the base of the lower mandible. Viewed in front, the bird appears 
to wear a black mask, or cowl. Should it prove to be distinct, I propose to 
distinguish it under the name of Psephotus cucullatusN 
Still further confusion attended the species as, when the living birds 
reached Europe, ignorant of North’s action, Van Oort distinguished the form 
as Psephotus chrysopterygius blaauwi , giving the same differential characters 
as North had done. I indicated this synonymy and the living bird became 
comparatively well known under North’s name. Later, however, Collett 
presented me with the types of his P. dissimilis and I was able to show that 
these were identical, Collett’s description being incorrect. I gave an account 
in the Avicult. Mag. for 1913 and put this synonymy in my “ Reference List ” 
when I ranked Collett’s form as a subspecies only of Gould’s species. In 
my “List of the Birds of Australia” I, however, ranked them as specifically 
distinct, but I have now concluded that rank cannot hold. The chief differences 
are the yellow band across the forehead of the first discovered form (Elsey’s), 
and in this family a red frontal band is proven to be only varietal or even 
individual — the black commonly eliminating it in the genus Barnardius. 
Unfortunately the Gouldian form appears to be extinct, or Elsey’s 
specimens were individual aberrations. I recently differentiated a subspecies 
P. c. dorothece from the McArthur River, which, however, agrees with P. c. 
dissimilis in the dark forehead. It should be emphasized that the bird 
Robert Brown shot, and which was painted by Ferdinand Bauer, has the 
black forehead and is the dissimilis bird, not the true chrysopterygius. 
Since the preceding was written a complication has been noted, as 
I find in the Avicultural Magazine, Vol. IV., p. 152, 1898, a paper entitled 
“ The Golden-shouldered Parrakeet ( Psephotus chrysopterygius ),” by Reginald 
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