292 
Lord Walden on Mr. Allan Hume’s 
could obtain. And it may here be added that Jerdon felt 
and often expressed the highest admiration for Dr. FinsclPs 
work on the Psittacidae and respect for its author. 
te Columboides, Jerdon*, disguised under Dr. FinsclFs new 
name peristerodes, is the next species ” {t. c. p. 21). That the 
specific title columboides was not bestowed by Jerdon is pro¬ 
bably known to every ornithologist in India, except Mr. 
Hume; for both in his “ Illustrations/'’ where this Parrakeet 
was figured, and in his general work, Jerdon, with his ac¬ 
customed accuracy, attributed the title to the first describer 
of the species. The species was first named by the late 
Mr. Vigors, a cabinet naturalist, so far as Malabar birds 
were concerned. And to it Mr. Hume holds a similar 
position, for he has never seen it “ in the flesh.” Hence the 
personal knowledge he has acquired during the five years that 
have elapsed since Dr. FinsclPs work was published cannot be 
flaunted before the enchanted gaze of credulous disciples nor 
hurled at the unoffending head of Dr. Finsch. Still faults, 
however microscopic, must be' found. “ Really the wonders 
disclosed by this work pass human comprehension ! Dr. 
Finsch records an adult male, from the Himalayas, in the 
Leyden Museum, and an adult female, precisely similar, to 
the male, also from the Himalayas !! in Heine^s Museum. 
What Himalayan female columboides may be like, no mere 
Indian ornithologist could presume to say. We leave that 
to Dr. Finsch” (/. c .), and so on more suo. From this dis¬ 
ingenuous passage the trusting reader would gather that 
Dr. Finsch had stated that P. columboides occurred in the 
Himalayas. He has done nothing of the kind. He has 
merely, as is his habit all through the work, and as most ac¬ 
curate writers do, identified the specimen from which he made 
his diagnosis; in this fashion-— 1 “Himalaya(LeidenerMuseum). 
d ad. Kopf, Riicken und, etc.; $ ad. (Himalaya) im Museum 
Heine, ganz wie das d gefarbt” ( t. c. pp. 74, 75). When we 
turn to the passage giving the full geographical distribution we 
find the complete range stated with a sufficient accuracy in 
* Sic. This is not an accidental slip of the pen. At page 2, Mr. Hume 
writes “and Jerdon’s columboides .” 
