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BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
species discovered by us on the Upper Shire (A. liliance). This bird has not 
been met with anywhere else in the territory. Pozocephali parrots are found all 
over the country. The large Pccocephalus robustus , which is green with a little 
yellow and blue, is nearly as large as a grey parrot and resembles very much in 
appearance the green Amazon parrots. It is a sulky and untamable bird 
although of handsome plumage, and has an extremely harsh cry. The smaller 
grey-headed Pccocephalus likewise is not easily tamed though it lives longer in 
confinement than P. robustus. 
The Grey Parrot is said to be found on the Luapula near Lake Mweru. 
Possibly it reaches the west coast of Tanganyika. In the former case, however, 
if the fact be true that the bird is found wild it is probably accounted for by its 
introduction from the west at the hands of native traders. The grey parrot is 
much prized as a pet by the Arabs and Wa-Swahili, and there is a steady flow 
of birds as articles of commerce from the Congo territories eastward across 
Tanganyika and southwards across Lake Mweru. They are not infrequently 
brought overland from Tanganyika to Nyasa to be sold to the Europeans. 
The grey parrot from the southern part of the Congo Free State is the normal 
variety. I have not seen any specimens like those on the Lower Congo and in 
Angola, where the plumage tends to become pink. So far as my own observa¬ 
tion goes there are the following species of grey parrot— Psittacus erithacus and 
P. timneh. Psittacus timneh of YVestern Africa is a brownish-grey with a tail 
which is black or brown. This bird again offers great resemblance to some of 
the larger parrots of the genus Pccocephalus which tend to assume a brownish- 
grey plumage in YV'est Africa. Then there is the ordinary grey parrot which 
makes its appearance on the West Coast in the form in which it is generally 
known about the Gold Coast and extends across the Lower Niger into the 
Congo Basin and Angola. The race of grey parrot, however, found on the 
Gold Coast and in Dahome is rather a dark neutral grey, but has a distinctly 
scarlet tail. In the Niger Delta the grey of the parrot becomes lighter. On 
Princes Island in the Gulf of Guinea there is an extraordinary variety of grey 
parrot, in which the plumage of the body has become a deep purple grey, 
while the scarlet tail is a purplish crimson. Seen hurriedly at a distance these 
birds appear almost black (I have been on Princes Island and so can speak 
with some decision). On the Lower Congo and in Angola the grey of the 
parrot’s plumage has a beautiful silvery tint, and in this district there is a 
tendency in certain individuals for pink feathers to crop out amongst the grey 
plumage until in the variety known as the King parrot the entire plumage is 
almost pink and white with a large scarlet tail. It is the more normal form of 
ordinary grey parrot however, of the average ash-grey plumage and scarlet tail, 
which spreads eastward from the Niger Delta and the Cameroons right across 
the basin of the Upper Congo to the Albert and Victoria Nyanzas, to the West 
Coast of Tanganyika, and to the. southern limits of the Congo Free State. 
It is not true as is stated by some authorities that the grey parrot in 
the wild state reaches the east coast of Lake Nyasa, or any part of Nyasaland. 
This mistake has probably arisen by Arab or Swahili traders bringing the bird 
to Nyasaland from Tanganyika. The nearest allies of the grey parrot outside 
Africa are the Vasa Paroquets of Madagascar. The parrots are a very isolated 
order of birds but their nearest living relations are the Turacos. 
So far only one swift has been recorded by us— Cypselus toulsoni —a bird 
hitherto supposed to be limited to West Africa but apparently extending 
across to Nyasaland. 
