
282 Messrs. A. Wie Te Newton on the Psittaci 
main island almost surrounded by reefs and beset by several 
small islets. 
Of the Parrots of the Seychelles nothing new is now to be 
added to what has been said of them in the paper above men- 
tioned. A few more specimens of each of their peculiar 
species, Coracopsis barklyt and Paleornis wardi, have come 
into our hands; and we gladly avail ourselves of the Editor’s 
offer here to illustrate both sexes of the latter (Plate VI.), 
one of the finest members of the genus. It is certain that, 
owing to the clearing-away of the natural forests and replant- 
ing of the ground with cocoa-nuts—which do not contribute 
to the subsistence of the Parrots—both species are decreasing 
in numbers. Add to which the fact that they are everywhere 
ruthlessly killed by the people as opportunity offers, on 
account of the damage they do to the crops of Indian corn, 
and there cannot be much doubt that they are doomed to 
extinction. ) 
The Mauritian fauna once included two Parrots. The large 
species described by Prof. Owen (Ibis, 1866, p. 168) from a 
fragmentary mandible found with Dodos’ bones in the Mare 
aux Songes, has had more light thrown upon it by recent in- 
vestigations ; and M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards in 1866 (Ann. 
Sc. Nat. ser. 5, vi. pp. 91-111) proved that it could not be 
referred to any of the established genera or subgenera of 
Psittact. A few other bones of it—a second mandible and 
a tibia bemg the chief—have since been discovered (op. cit. 
xix. art. 3, p. 25), and two very characteristic figures of it 
have been recognized by Prof. Schlegel in the MS. journal of 
an ancient Dutch voyager (Ibis, 1868, pp. 503, 504). Tra- 
cings of these show that the bird had a frontal crest of a shape 
quite unlike, so far as we are aware, that found in any other 
form of Parrot, and suggest that it had wings so short as 
possibly to be inadequate for flight. It has hence been pro- 
posed to be regarded as forming a distinct genus (P. Z. S. 
1875, p. 350), and it will probably stand as Lophopsittacus 
mauritianus (Owen), under which name it has lately been 
figured (Encycl. Brit. ed. 9, iii. p. 732). There is no doubt 
that this bird has long been extinct. 












