138 Appendices 
shadow of a fact in support of his assertion. Buffon and Brisson 
are the only authors he cites, and, therefore, most likely the only 
authors whose books on this point he had consulted. He says 
it is rare, and that he had only seen three examples—one in 
Mauduyt’s possession, another in that of Aubry, and the third in 
the Paris Museum, which still exists [pp. xvii, 91]. This is, of 
course, totally insufficient to contravene the direct statements of 
De Querhoent and Mauduyt that the species was found in Bour¬ 
bon, to which statements the account of Dubois lends greater 
strength. Yet nearly all succeeding writers have followed the 
assertion of Levaillant. The derivation of the name £ Mascarin ’ 
furnished by Buffon (which, seeing that Mascarene or Mascarina 
was the older-name of the island, is quite untenable) has doubt¬ 
less been the chief cause of the error which has misled Bechstein, 
Kuhl, Vieillot, Lesson, Wagler, Hahn, and finally Dr. Finsch, or 
rather, perhaps, has hindered them from the right path. It may 
be remarked that not one of these authors has been able to add 
a single jot of information on the question of locality. Only two 
specimens of the species seem to have been preserved to the 
present time—that in the Paris Museum, already mentioned, and 
that in the Museum of Vienna, noticed in the Ibis (1873, p. 32). 
Hahn’s figure ( Orn . Atlas , Papageien , pi. 39), published in 1834, 
was taken, he says, from a living bird then in the menagerie of 
the King of Bavaria; but what became of its remains at its 
decease (and it seems to have died since) is not known. 
APPENDIX D. 
On the Systematic Position and Scientific Name of ‘ Le Perroquet 
mascarin'* of Brisson. By W. A. Forbes. 
From the Pis, 1879, PP- 303-307. 
During a visit to Paris last autumn in company with Mr. 
Sclater and Dr. Hartlaub, I had an opportunity of seeing for the 
first time in the gallery of the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes, 
one 1 of the two sole extant specimens of 1 Le Perroquet mascarin ’ 
of Brisson, the Coracopsis mascarina of most authors. This 
specimen is not improbably that described by Brisson, and is 
1 The other is in the Vienna Museum [cf. Pelzeln, Ibis, 1873, p. 32). 
