295 
Review of Dr. Finsch 1 s ‘ Die Papageien 1 
throgenys —a fact, if it be a fact, only acquired by Mr. Hume 
in 1873. Indeed Dr. Finsch went wrong in consequence of 
his adopting the published opinions of Jerdon and Blyth; yet 
for this confidence in their superior authority he receives no 
credit from Mr. Hume. Both Dr. Jerdon (B. of Ind. i. 
p. 264) and Mr. Blyth on several occasions (Mouat's Anda¬ 
man^ Append, p. 355; Ibis, 1863, p. 5) regarded the Nico¬ 
bar and Andaman Parrakeets as belonging to one species, As 
elsewhere, so here, it is Mr. Hume, and not Dr. Pinsch, who 
differs from Jerdon and Blyth; and he will therefore doubtless 
apply to himself the epithets he has so freely bestowed on our 
German friend, whenever guilty of a similar heresy. But, we 
fear, f that in the Captain 's but a choleric word, which in the 
soldier is flat blasphemy/ Nor does Dr. Pinsch receive com¬ 
plete absolution; for, relying on the descriptions of the speci¬ 
mens marked c? and $, obtained in the Nicobars by the f No¬ 
vara 3 scientific expedition, that of a female communicated to 
him by Herr v. Pelzeln, Dr. Finsch suggested that Blythes de¬ 
termination of a specimen with a black bill as a female (J. A. 
S. B. 1846, p. 23) was erroneous, and that he had described a 
young bird. “Unfortunately, for Dr. Finsch, it does nothing of 
the kind. Apud Finsch, Blyth is always wrong and Finsch is 
always right," etc. etc. “And in every single instance in which 
in regard to species of this genus, Dr. Finsch has questioned, 
disputed, or denied the correctness of Jerdon, Blyth, and other 
Indian ornithologists' statements, it is he and not they who 
have erred" (Str. Feath. t.c. p. 25). Well, is this a fact ? and, 
with regard to this species, does Dr. Finsch contradict Jerdon, 
Blyth, and other Indian ornithologists ? It has already been 
shown that by not contradicting Jerdon and Blyth on several 
important points Dr. Finsch is, according to Mr. Hume, wrong. 
Blyth, it must be remembered, only described his P. erythro¬ 
genys from skins with sexes undetermined brought to him at 
Calcutta by Captain Lewis and the Bev. J. Bar be. Neither 
he nor Jerdon had “for a long series of years," not even 
for a single minute, “observed the free living birds, shot 
and dissected them," which, according to Mr. Hume, alone 
confers the right of stating an independent opinion. But 
