Volume Ii Part 9 (2/2)

La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 442 (Tuc.u.man); _id. Wiegm. Arch._ 1879, pt. i. p. 100; _id. P. Z. S._ 1878, p. 75.

_Description._--Bright green; front and sides of head red: beneath rather paler; under wing-coverts green; lower surface of tail yellowish; in some specimens with irregular patches of red on the neck and breast; bill pale; feet brown: whole length 140 inches, wing 80, tail 70.

_Hab._ Peru, Bolivia, and Northern Argentina.

Dr. Burmeister met with this Parrot near Tuc.u.man, where he found it ”very common, especially in winter.” At first he made a new species of it, but afterwards recognized its ident.i.ty with _Conurus mitratus_ of Tschudi.

Dr. Burmeister has kindly sent two specimens of this bird to Sclater, for his collection. Sclater has also examples of the same species procured by Schulz near Cordova, and in Bolivia by Bridges.

279. CONURUS MOLINae, Ma.s.s. et Souanc.

(MOLINA'S PARROT.)

[Plate XIV.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CONURUS MOLINae.]

+Conurus molinae+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 112; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 621 (Salta).

_Description._--Above green; crown brown; nape bluish; cheeks green; wings edged with blue; tail coppery red: beneath green, breast and sides of neck whity brown, with dark cross bars; middle of belly dull red: whole length 95 inches, wing 50, tail 53. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Bolivia, S. Brazil, and N. Argentina.

White met with this Parrot in the dense forests of Campo Colorado near Oran, where it is found in flocks of about twenty, ”their flight being limited, for the most part, to the clear aisles beneath the branches.”

White's specimen in Sclater's collection, from which our figure (Plate XIV.) is taken, agrees with others of the species obtained by Natterer in Mato Grosso.

280. BOLBORHYNCHUS MONACHUS (Bodd.).

(GREEN PARRAKEET.)

+Conurus murinus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 441; _Darwin, Zool.

Beagle_, iii. p. 112 (Parana). +Bolborhynchus monachus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 113; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 186 (Buenos Ayres); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1880, p. 3 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z.

S._ 1882, p. 621 (Catamarca, Santiago del Estero); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 28 (Entrerios); _Burm. P. Z. S._ 1878, p. 77.

_Description._--Green; front grey, with paler margins to the feathers; wings blackish, with slight bluish edgings: beneath grey, with lighter margins to the breast-feathers; under wing-coverts, flanks, and crissum pale green; bill whitish: whole length 110 inches, wing 55, tail 53. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.

The Common Green Parrakeet, called _Cotorra_ or _Cat.i.ta_ in the vernacular, is a well-known resident species in the Argentine Republic.

It is a lively restless bird, shrill-voiced, and exceedingly vociferous, living and breeding in large communities, and though it cannot learn to speak so distinctly as some of the larger Parrots, it is impossible to observe its habits without being convinced that it shares in the intelligence of the highly-favoured order to which it belongs.

In Buenos Ayres it was formerly very much more numerous than it is now; but it is exceedingly tenacious of its breeding-places, and there are some few favoured localities where it still exists in large colonies, in spite of the cruel persecution all birds easily killed are subjected to in a country where laws relating to such matters are little regarded, and where the agricultural population is chiefly Italian. At Mr.

<script>