Genus — N EOPHEMA. 
Neophema Salvador!, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., Vol. XX., 
p. 569, 1891 . . . . . . . . . . . . Type N. pulchella. 
Smallest Platycercine birds with very small bills, long wings, long wedge- 
shaped tails and small feet. 
This genus generally agrees with the foregoing, but the bill is more 
depressed with a broader spatulate tip, the wing has the first three primaries 
subequal, the second usually the longest, while the tail-feathers are broader, 
the six middle feathers being almost equal. The brilliant coloration is more 
striking. 
The exact relationship of this and the preceding group is obscure. 
Salvadori classed them as congeneric, but that does not seem to define their 
alliance. The present genus is extinct, or nearly so, so that osteological 
criticism is scarcely possible, however desirable it may be. The present forms 
have the bill more like Platycercus than the preceding, and their broader 
feathers of the tail also suggest that genus, but that these genera are certainly 
as old as Platycercus can scarcely be disputed. 
The evolution of Neophema is difficult to suggest, as the two species 
seem to have had a more northern range than Neonanodes while being also 
recorded from West Australia. The brilliant coloration is also remarkable, 
as, though four species comprise the genus Neonanodes, of which two are 
Tasmanian and the other two range into West Australia, all the four have 
maintained a uniformity of coloration quite unequalled in the whole Order 
in Australia. 
The two species of Neophema agree in their colour-pattern and we cannot 
trace their direct evolution from Neonanodes , but the fact rather indicates 
parallel evolution from the parent stock. 
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