142 Appendices 
Northern Penguin [the Great Auk] ( Alca impennis ), of which the 
Museum possesses one stuffed example, a complete skeleton, and 
some eggs. 
The first mention which has been made of the Mascarin 
Parrot in a scientific work is found in the Ornithology of Brisson. 1 11 
This naturalist has given a most complete and very exact descrip¬ 
tion of the species, from a living individual which he happened to 
see at Paris, but from whence it originated he knew not, and he 
has described it under the name of Psittacus mascaruius , which 
was adopted by Gmelin, 2 Latham, 3 Shaw, 4 Vieillot, 5 Kuhl, 6 Hahn, 7 
Brehm, 8 Schlegel and Pollen, 9 and by a crowd of modern authors. 
Meantime Linnaeus, in the Appendix of his Mantissa Piantarum , 10 
considered this name of Psittacus mascarinus as equivalent to 
that of Psittacus obscurus , which he had previously employed, in 
the Swedish edition of Hasselquisfs Voyage , n to describe a bird, 
possibly obtained by this naturalist in one of the localities of the 
Levant which he had visited. . . . 
The Psittacus obscurus of Linnaeus, of Gmelin, 2 Latham, 3 
Shaw, 4 Vieillot, 5 cannot be considered identical with the Psittacus 
mascarinus; and, consequently, the name of this supposed 
species cannot be applied in virtue of the laws of priority to the 
Mascarene Parrot, as has been done, after Linnaeus, by Ch. L. 
Bonaparte, 12 and G. R. Gray. 13 
The Mascarene Parrot was described or figured under its true 
1 Ornithologies 1760, t. iv. p. 315. 
2 Systerna Natures, 1783, t. i. p. 333, No. 49. 
3 Index ornithologicus, 1790, t. i. p. ill, No. 87. 
4 Gener. Zool., 1811, t. viii. part 2, p. 528. 
5 Nouveau Dictiomiaire d'histoire naturelle, 1817, t. xxv. p. 313, et En- 
cyclopedie Methodique, 1823; Ornithologie, t. iii. p. 1367. 
6 Conspectus Psittacarum, 1820, p. 29. 
7 Ornith. Atlas, Papageien, 1835, p. 54 et pi. 39. 
8 Monogr. der Papageien, 1854, pi. 60. 
9 Recherches sur la Faune de Madagascar, 1868, p. 157. 
10 Mantissa, 1771, p. 5 2 4 - 
11 Voyages and Travels in the Levant, in the Years 1749? 5 °> 5 B 
52. By the late Frederick Hasselquist, M.D. Published by Charles 
Linnaeus. London, 1766, p. 196:—‘ 18. Psittaccus obscurus, a Parrot from 
Africa. This is the size of a Cuckow,’ c magnitudine Graculi, de la grosseur 
d’un Coucou.’ 
12 Mascarinus obscurus, L. {madagascariensis, Br.), Conspectus Psittacorum. 
Revue et Magazin de Zoologie, 1854, p. 154, No. 207. 
13 Hand List of the Genera and Species of Birds, 1870, t. ii., p. 159, 
No. 8262. 
